2023-05-29 14:16:11
“The fight against tax evasion must be waged where it really takes place: with the big companies and with the banks. Not with the small tradespeople who are being asked for state protection money,” declared Giorgia Meloni recently at the final of the local elections in Sicily Catania. Of course, that was music to the ears of countless small entrepreneurs and self-incorporated companies, a category that, according to a survey by the Ministry of Finance, bypasses the tax authorities for up to 70 percent of their sales and tends to vote on the right in Italy.
The ensnaring of smartass and tax optimizers also has a long tradition among the Italian right-wing populists: many years ago Silvio Berlusconi – also as head of government – had described tax evasion as “self-defense” against a voracious state; Lega boss Matteo Salvini has been ensnaring voters for years with the promise of a flat tax of 15 percent. However, no one had dared to go so far as to compare tax collection with mafia-style collection of protection money.
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