New forms of fiscal control in Italy

• Author: Andrea Mondini
• Pages: 27-40

Studi Tributari Europei 1/2016

!

© Copyright Seast – Tutt i i d iri tti ri se rva ti!

27!

!

New forms of fiscal control in Italy*

Andrea Mondini1

1. “New” and “modern” between continuity and reforms of the tax

system

Is there really something “new” in Italy nowadays as far as fiscal controls

are concerned?

To an sw er t his que st io n, w inlli ng ly posed in a provocative manner, one

should first of all analyse the decrees implementing the tax reform designed

by law n. 23/2014, since the Government, through them, chose to act more

on formal and procedural law than on substantial law (with and exception

being made for international tax law).

From the implementation of the reform no significant innovations with

concern to models, techniques and the instruments of tax controls and

assessment seem to emerge, specifically as far as investigative powers and

procedural rules are concerned2.

The Italian system of tax controls is a conservative one, still linked to a

historical model dating back to the tax reform of the 1970s, which

strengthened a model of tax enforcement typical of a “mass taxation”.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*How to quote this article: A. MONDINI, Le nuove forme di controllo fiscale in Italia, in Studi

Tributari Europei, 2016, n. 1, pp. 27-40, DOI: 10.6092/issn.2036-3583/7824.

1 Andrea Mondini, Associate Professor in Tax law at the Universiity of Bologna. Revised text

of the report given to the international convention “Moderniser l’impôt”, Un ive rs ity of

Bologna, 13th november 2015. Tr ans lat ion by A ndr ea A mi dei , Ph D in Eur ope an Ta x La w at

European School of Advanced Tax Studies – Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna,

Italy.

2 The introduction of a general anti-abuse clause (article. 10 bis of the “Statuto dei diritti del

contribuente”) indirectly exercises its influence on controls, but this element is actually not

so “new”: fighting abuse of law from a procedutal point of view reiterates models already

experimented; therefore, preventive debate between taxpayer and authorities as a necessary

procedural phase, with a function that is not only “defensive”, but of investigative integration.