“Here are the tax reform interventions”

A new remuneration system the recovery activity with an annual allocation from the State Budget and a review of cancellation mechanism. They are these the two pillars of a possible tax reform second Ernesto Maria Ruffini, director of the Revenue Agency and President AdER, who took the opportunity tohearing on the use of the Recovery Fund of September 14, 2020 in the Chamber of Deputies to formulate its proposal.

The starting point is one photograph of the Tax Collection Agency: from the institution of the Entity that replaced Equitalia allowing a reorganization of activities, but which still involves inapplicable and inefficient models, to the enormous amount of Role warehouse.

Revenue Agency – Hearing in the Chamber of Deputies, VI Finance Committee of director Ernesto Maria Ruffini

Identification of priorities in the use of the Recovery Fund, with special reference to possible reforms of the tax and collection system.

Ruffini and the tax reform proposal: a new insolvency mechanism is needed

the excessively cumbersome regulatory framework that imposes almost equal activities for all types of credit registered in the role and the lack of a debt cancellation practice Arrears and now bad debts are two of the causes of theunstoppable growth of the AdER warehouse.

From January 1, 2000 to June 30, 2020 its value has reached 987 billion euros and is largely composed of quantities “Only formally yet to be collected”.

Nell ‘audience with the Committee on Finance and Productive Activities of the Chamber of Deputies on April 22, 2020, the same Ernesto Maria Ruffini noted that 40% of debts were so “Just due”, in some cases due to bankrupt parties, deceased persons and discontinued businesses, propertyless persons. A situation that, of course, shows no signs of change.

Not even the fiscal peace interventions manage to significantly affect the size of the AdER warehouse, which, instead, is motorized for the lack of a practice of cancellation of arrears and bad debts and of Continuous extensions of the deadlines for submitting notifications of delinquency..

“With the latest extension provided by art. 68 of DL n. 18/2020, the deadlines have been further extended and the first insolvency notifications will be sent before December 31, 2023 for the roles delivered in 2018, while the Older credits, whose recovery hope is very remote, will remain in the warehouse for many more years. The credits entrusted to theyear 2000, so 20 years ago, they will be definitively reported and canceled only in 22 years“.

In short, we focus on the wrong goals to Ernesto Maria Ruffini who intends to overcome the problem with a tax reform which also starts from a review of due mechanism based on two main elements:

• the consideration that the perimeter within which the collection activity is carried out is totally public;
• the definition of a modality for the credit discharge after a certain number of years from the date of assignment, no complex administrative burdens.

“The recovery action, inspired by principles of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, could therefore be more appropriate to the operational capacity of the Collection Agent and to the control of its activity aimed at meeting the objectives and requirements established in the relationship institutional “.

Ruffini, tax reform: we need a new remuneration system for recovery activities

But with a view to a tax reform, the look of the president of AdER not only look out but also inwards, on the nature and management of the body responsible for the recovery of credits.

The birth of the Tax Collection Agency On July 1, 2017, according to Ernesto Maria Ruffini, who lived it closely, it paid off from various points of view: organizational functionality has improved, the management of the entire national territory has become more uniform, and improved digital services for create a direct line with citizens.

Mother overcoming the Equitalia model did not bring news from the point of view of the so-called Collection Agent remuneration, which remains firm in an even more remote setting.

“The current remuneration system of the Revenue Collection Agency has remained substantially unchanged, except for the abolition of the supervisory allowance recognized until 2008 to cover fixed management costs, regardless of collection volumes and executive procedures established in force – compared to the existing concession regime under Legislative Decree 203/2005, or when the national collection service is entrusted to individuals “.

President Ruffini stands out. Is a system essentially based on two pillars:

• l ‘cousin calculated on the sums collected and charged to the taxpayer and the creditor institution only if the collection is made within the 60 days following the notification of the payment slip;
• me flat rate refunds the rights to notify the payment note and the costs for the recovery procedures, charged by the taxpayers or reimbursed by the creditors in case of remission and definitive irrecovery.

The collection compensation mechanism, as it is currently configured, determines the need to resort to compensatory measures and does not guarantee an economic-financial balance to AdER, which according to Ruffini could be achieved with “The adaptation of the remuneration system of the collection to its public nature, through provision of an annual allocation from the state budget“.

In conclusion, Ruffini points out that the priority is structural reform interventions in the collection system:

“The implementation of a different remuneration system for the collection activity as well as the review of the current insolvency mechanism would determine, for the body responsible for the national collection activity, the possibility of a better plan your business, and further optimize, in relation to the available means, the results of the collection action, which, at present, are conditioned by the need to carry out recovery actions that, too often, assume a purely formal character “.