here are the criteria for choosing who to check

Here is how the Revenue Agency and the Guardia di Finanza identify the tax payers to be subjected to tax verification.

In Italy, we are over 60 million (to be precise: 60,337,845 to 2019). Of these, the tax payers – those who present the tax return – are 40.9 million (data updated to 2018). But not everyone pays taxes. For as many as 15.5 million Italians, the Irpef item of the tax return corresponds to an amount equal to zero. Thanks to the deductions that set aside the gross tax due. 45% of taxpayers then declare less than 15 thousand euros.

It could be objected that those just listed are only the official data, not the actual ones. And since it is a sin to think badly about others but often guesses, the State has set up a special subject to flush out any lies: the Inland Revenue, every day, through tax assessments and checks, checks whether each fulfills its own tax obligations.

Here, however, is the most interesting part: since it is unthinkable that the computers of the tax authorities, no matter how elaborate and powerful, can sift through all the tax returns and the subjects who do not present them, it is normal to wonder on the basis of what criteria occurs the selection of taxpayers to be verified. Basically, what are i Taxes criteria to choose who to check?

We will try to clarify it below.

Selective lists

The general rule is that all tax payers are subject to controls: both entrepreneurs and professionals, Ive matches and employees, the unemployed or pensioners. In fact, everyone can escape. For example, those who are out of work might receive black fees; a pensioner could receive income from apartment rentals; a professional could receive gods cash by a customer; an entrepreneur could hide, in the folds of the budget, some unreported compensation.

Anyone, therefore, can be subjected to checks. But not everything is put to chance. The investigations do not take place in “moderandom". The Inland Revenue and the Guardia di Finanza, in fact, annually establish the guidelines for tax audits to be carried out in the months to come, identifying suspicious transactions and categories of subjects to be kept more under control because they are considered to be evasion risk. The «selective lists». This is not a blacklist, nor is it for those who consider it a tax evader. Certainly, however, the Revenue and Yellow Flames offices concentrate their efforts precisely on these lists.

This does not mean that even those who are not included in the selective lists can risk a control: it is the case, for example, of Mario who receives a bank transfer without having declared it to the Tax Office; or of Francesco who brought his wife into deduction even though she is employed and receives an income above the threshold for dependent family members; or Giuseppe who presents the tax return, but then does not pay taxes; or Mirella who, despite being unemployed, buys a mid-sized car. It is the hypothesis of Mirco, who runs a company that for three years in a row declares losses without ever closing or of Luca who makes a simple oversight in the compilation of 730.

In short, it is one thing to establish towards whom we should orientate Taxes checks, another is instead to initiate investigations into all anomalous transactions that affect any tax payer.

Databases and cross-checks

For professionals and entrepreneurs there are some algorithms of the Fisco that evaluate the risk of evasion based on the comparison of the tax returns and the expenses incurred. They are the much disputed Isa. Read on the point The wrong algorithm of Taxation that makes you pay more.

THE cross-checks they allow you to compare invoices, tax returns and tax bonuses of different subjects in order to establish which of these bluffs the Tax authorities. If Mariano deducts the fees invoiced by the construction company, but the latter does not register the invoice, a tax assessment will be issued for the entrepreneur. And so for the doctor who pays the benefit to the patient who, by downloading the expenses from the taxes, communicates to the Fisco the operation.

The tools that allow the Revenue Agency to exercise control powers can be divided into three categories:

• acquisition, through databases (Tax Registry and Register of Current Accounts, Pra, Real Estate Directors, INPS databases, etc.) or through requests for information from different third parties from the one under control, of information and news that can be used for the verification against the latter;
• send to the subject submitted or to be checked by requests for information, data, documents or invitations to appear, to find and acquire useful elements for the purposes of verification against him;
• direct intervention at the places where the tax payer carries out his activity or at the bank where the current account or securities are held.

The use of the instruments indicated by the tax authorities is only possible; in fact, the Office has the power, not the duty, to verify the position of the tax payer through the preliminary investigation.

The possible use of the instructive powers does not imply the obligation of further checks to justify the issuing of the assessment notice; so that the assessment originating from a generic questionnaire is legitimate. In any case, failure to send the request does not affect the validity of the adjustment made.

Subjects not in line with the profit meter

any purchase of luxury goods – cars, real estate, travel, etc. – can generate an assessment when the expenditure exceeds the declared income by 20%. But before the assessment, the tax authorities leave the tax payer the opportunity to defend himself by demonstrating the source of the "extra" money used.

Subjects that present anomalies on the account

THE cash payments and the transfers received on the current accounts of any tax payer are constantly monitored by the Revenue computers. The Agency elaborates, with centralized automatic procedures, specific selective lists of tax payers at greater risk of evasion, using the data contained in the so-called financial reports archive. In fact, banks must periodically report to the tax register (of which the financial reports archive is a section): balances and movements of current accounts, the deposit of securities or the opening of safety deposit boxes.

Through the processing of the data received, the Revenue Agency identifies any financial anomalies such as, for example, transactions inconsistent with the economic-financial profile of the holder, the use of particular means or payment methods or, again, the frequent use of off-account transactions.

Insights

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