Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Milan, January 13 2022 - Identify the big tax evaders. Find out who is stealing huge assets from the tax authorities with fictitious residences abroad, despite using the services of the Municipality of Milan on a daily basis. This is the aim of the new agreement signed by Palazzo Marino with the Revenue Agency and the Financial Police. It was signed by the mayor Giuseppe Sala, the director of the Revenue Agency Ernesto Maria Ruffini and the Lombardy regional commander of the Guardia di Finanza, division general Stefano Screpanti.  
The memorandum of understanding, lasting three years, recognizes the Municipality of Milan as having a role of "concrete and decisive assistance" in combating tax evasion, and the activity of the Revenue Agency and Guardia di Finanza "with implications for the entitlement of benefits/concessions social and fiscal benefits assigned by the local authority".

Updated cadastral data, consultation of registry documents, checks on the use of municipal services such as kindergartens or canteens are the weapons available to the city administration to reconstruct the taxpayer's position. The Revenue Agency will have the task of evaluating and verifying the reports of Palazzo Marino and proceed with the assessments and recovery of the revenue, with the commitment to guarantee, we read in the agreement, "the necessary support for the development of a methodology suitable for identifying subjects fictitiously resident abroad". The Financial Police will carry out, also on the basis of the information directly requested from the Municipality, inspection activities in contexts that require more detailed investigations or characterized by broader profiles of illegality.

The collaboration between the three signatories in the fight against illegal activities also aims to achieve a concrete result for the revenues of Palazzo Marino. Thanks to law 248 of 2005, which since 2012 ensures that the Municipalities that have issued "qualified reports" to combat tax evasion have a 100% share of the largest sums ascertained and collected, the Municipality of Milan received 935 thousand euros in its budget in 2013, one million and 621 thousand euros in 2014, 2 million and 138 thousand euros in 2015, 2 million and 353 thousand euros in 2016.  
In recent years, this revenue has progressively decreased, despite an increased number of reports sent: it went from one million and 308 thousand euros in 2017 to 350 thousand euros in 2020. This is also the reason for the choice to focus especially on large tax evaders. The new agreement has the task of relaunching coordination: only the last four reports sent by Palazzo Marino at the end of 2021 they are worth over 2 million euros. 
 
“Now is not the time to slow down in the fight against tax evasion. This period of difficulty and uncertainty - states Mayor Giuseppe Sala - calls us to social solidarity and therefore to seriousness towards those who, even through fictitious residence abroad, act with the sole aim of taking resources away from the community. We are keen to continue and strengthen the collaboration with the Revenue Agency and the Financial Police, and we thank our partners for the recognition given to the role of the Municipality of Milan in this battle".  

"Tax evasion and avoidance - states the director of the Revenue Agency Ernesto Maria Ruffini - represent a subtraction of resources to the detriment of the community. Countering them is therefore also a primary interest of local administrations, as demonstrated by the particular sensitivity shown by the Municipality of Milan with the signing of this protocol. They are, in fact, the recipients of the sums identified by the Revenue Agency and the Financial Police thanks to the qualified reports sent. The sums will thus return to the disposal of the citizens of Milan and can be used to provide even better services." 
 
“Tax evasion - states the Lombardy regional commander, division general Stefano Screpanti - is an extremely complex phenomenon, to tackle which a combined and complementary action of all the institutions involved is necessary which, each with its own role and their responsibilities, cooperate to exchange information, better direct controls by making the most of available resources, avoid repetition of interventions, in the general interest of citizens; Today's Protocol consolidates and strengthens this system in Milan." 

"The Municipality - explains the budget councilor Emmanuel Conte - has invested heavily in tools to fight tax evasion: in via Cenisio we have a model hub for the quality and quantity of services offered, even through the cadastral data we are able to reconstruct important debt positions. It is not just a question of guaranteeing legality and recovering revenue: this battle, especially on large tax evaders, allows us greater fairness in providing services, recognizing benefits to those who are truly entitled to them, and the huge amounts income obtained thanks to reports to the Revenue Agency can be allocated to community services". 
 
CARD 
The law 
The art. 1 of Legislative Decree 30 September 2005 n. 203, converted into Law no. 248/2005, precisely to strengthen the action to combat tax evasion, recognized an economic incentive for Municipalities that provide information for the assessment of direct and indirect state taxes. Since 2012 the incentive quota has been raised to 100% of the largest sums ascertained and collected following reports. 
 
The history of the protocol
Over time, the agreement existing since 2010 between the Municipality of Milan, the Revenue Agency-Regional Directorate of Lombardy and the Guardia di Finanza-Regional Command of Lombardy has been revised and renewed, through which the Municipality prepares and sends to the Revenue Agency and the Guardia di Finanza reports relating to data and news that highlight situations with a high potential for evasion. The agreement was revised in December 2011 and July 2013. It was renewed on 26 July 2017, in implementation of Municipal Council Resolution no. 1237 of 21 July 2017. 

On 19 November 2012, a Memorandum of Understanding was stipulated between the Municipality of Milan and the Land Agency, aimed both at improving the quality of the cadastral database, for the integrated usability of cadastral and tax services, and at a cadastral update of the heritage municipal real estate.  
 
With the new protocol it is agreed "to renew and integrate the previous agreements, intensifying collaboration both on the tax and cadastral level and to agree on control plans - aimed at particular types of subjects, activities and operations, capable of allowing the Municipality a effective reporting of evasive phenomena" and at the same time "greater equity in the provision of its services".