91. Wicked, Unjust, Illegal, Shocking, Abominable, Dangerous...
Those are just a few of the words I’ve heard been bandied about all week to describe a banal thing as an income tax form.
The last left wing government may have had its shortcomings but what the outgoing Vice-Minister of Finance did, was simply superb- and this time, I am not being ironical. What could he have done to have provoked such an avalanche of derogatory comments? He simply put on internet the tax returns of all those eligible for tax declarations in Italy. I know in some countries tax declarations are not publically accessible, but here in Italy every Town Hall has had a list of tax returns of all its citizens pasted on the notice board for the last decade or so. So in effect the Finance Minister was not putting on internet something covered by the Privacy Act, like I said, all tax returns are hanging outside the Mayor’s office for all to see.
So why the hue and cry? Why now, does every Italian want to claim compensation for violation of Privacy? Why has all of a sudden the Tax Returns of Italians been declared a state secret when all one has to do is take a walk down to the Town Hall, at this precise moment, to see what everyone is earning?
That is where it’s at! You can see what everyone is earning, or at least they say they are earning, without having to get off your chair and take a walk to the Town Hall of residence of the person you are checking out... it’s all there at your fingertips. Which means some Mafia guy in South America can check out some other Mafia Boss in Sicily- that I guess is dangerous- but these kind of guys cancel themselves out anyway, they don’t need internet to know what they want to know. But the turn of the screw is the fact that even though for ten years everyone’s tax returns was hanging outside the Mayor’s office in the Town Hall, nobody cared a dime to go and see who earned what since no tax form would ever say the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. There was no need to go and check out the tax returns of those who had “proper” jobs since it’s common knowledge what a teacher or a labourer earned and those people who were employed by someone else could not but present a tax form reflecting the effective, real earnings- which would be of no interest to anyone, now would it?
So, if people never went to check out the list outside the Mayor’s office because regular employees would present no surprises and to check out those who were self employed would be pointless as they would certainly never ever declare what they earned, why then the sudden interest now that the same lists are on internet? And it isn’t a mere interest alone, it is a howling and demand for the flagellation of the ex Minister of Finance- whom, I should like to confirm, by doing what he did, in my humble opinion, he did the best thing in the whole of his career as a politician.
Internet is a weird thing, something can go unnoticed and be ignored for ever or suddenly be a worldwide spectacle... it is an empire, an empire principally dominated by the young. So, there you are, a teacher in front of a class of teenagers who just before the bell rang for lessons have downloaded the whole of your tax return for the past year... they know every dime that has gone in and out of your pocket... at this point, even I have to admit, one can’t be blamed for feeling totally naked in spite of the fact that everyone knows what a teacher earns and in spite of the fact that the same information is hanging outside the Mayor’s office and has done so for years. It’s the immediacy of the thing that make people suddenly become paranoid. But as for violation, what privacy has been violated that was different from the law as it stood a week ago before all this mayhem came about? Why didn’t Italian tax payers feel that violation of their privacy took place when their tax returns hung and still do outside the Mayor’s office? Why didn’t they claim compensation then? Apart from using your fingers instead of your legs to find out anyone’s tax returns, what has changed? That, I should very much like to know.
We have here in Italy, a certain white haired gentleman, whom I have seen on TV more often than usual this week because he is the Guarantor of Privacy. I understand it is his business to figure out what is private or not and he has pontificated that the publication of Tax returns on internet is a violation of Privacy. That may quite well be a law now, but it wasn’t so a week ago- so how can people demand millions from the tax payers money in compensation? What on earth has this white haired gentleman stirred up? This is not a question that I have made up? This question was asked to the gentleman concerned, by the most widespread satirical news programme on Italian TV “Striscia la Notizia”, I am glad to say- which goes to prove I am not the only intelligent person around in this boot shaped peninsular.
This is not the end of the story by any means. Those who put the list on internet are not totally deprived of intellect, in spite of being left-wing... in effect they knew what they were at. Those Italians who are howling for compensation are not doing so because of what the tax form reveals, they are howling because of what the tax form does not reveal and it has made it easier for anyone to see that. This is why those tax declarations were put on internet- to corner half of the population of Italians who don’t declare what they earn- in other words- to corner the tax evader.
Admittedly, the way the tax office operates is enough to make one tear his hair out. When looking at an income tax form one wonders from which mysterious planet it has descended. You have to be a specialized tax accountant to fill it out, there is no human being to my knowledge who fills out his own tax form which I certainly did on my own in England- there is no comparison with a British, Canadian, Australian or American tax form. The complicity among those who fill out the form and the applicant to evade taxes is ordinary everyday occurrence. However, like I said before, those who have a “proper” job and are employed, can’t evade taxes as their declarations are “automatic”. Indeed, it is those who are self-employed, (which anyway is half of the Italian population), dentists, draftsmen, architects, lawyers, notaries, private tutors, the accountants themselves, and many private business and shop owners are a tax evader’s paradise. The only thing that comes to mind that has been done about checking this evasion was a law where a self-employed person has to pay taxes on €5,000.00 presumed earnings a month, which is ridiculous because, some self-employed individuals, like myself, hardly earn a tenth of that.
Thanks to the publication on internet of the tax returns, it has cropped up that more than half of those who are self-employed or have a private business do not earn anything that can be declarable and for the rest- the amount of earnings is equal to the amount of expenses... So half of the population in Italy should be begging in the streets instead of running around in red Ferraris!
And those are the people who are howling for compensation because their privacy has been violated!
Well done ex Ministry of Finance! If only other politicians had your guts!!!
TREMONTI, (new Minister) take note!!!
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Income Tax Office in Rome - By the way- "Entrate" does not mean "entrances" but "income" |
The last left wing government may have had its shortcomings but what the outgoing Vice-Minister of Finance did, was simply superb- and this time, I am not being ironical. What could he have done to have provoked such an avalanche of derogatory comments? He simply put on internet the tax returns of all those eligible for tax declarations in Italy. I know in some countries tax declarations are not publically accessible, but here in Italy every Town Hall has had a list of tax returns of all its citizens pasted on the notice board for the last decade or so. So in effect the Finance Minister was not putting on internet something covered by the Privacy Act, like I said, all tax returns are hanging outside the Mayor’s office for all to see.
So why the hue and cry? Why now, does every Italian want to claim compensation for violation of Privacy? Why has all of a sudden the Tax Returns of Italians been declared a state secret when all one has to do is take a walk down to the Town Hall, at this precise moment, to see what everyone is earning?
That is where it’s at! You can see what everyone is earning, or at least they say they are earning, without having to get off your chair and take a walk to the Town Hall of residence of the person you are checking out... it’s all there at your fingertips. Which means some Mafia guy in South America can check out some other Mafia Boss in Sicily- that I guess is dangerous- but these kind of guys cancel themselves out anyway, they don’t need internet to know what they want to know. But the turn of the screw is the fact that even though for ten years everyone’s tax returns was hanging outside the Mayor’s office in the Town Hall, nobody cared a dime to go and see who earned what since no tax form would ever say the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. There was no need to go and check out the tax returns of those who had “proper” jobs since it’s common knowledge what a teacher or a labourer earned and those people who were employed by someone else could not but present a tax form reflecting the effective, real earnings- which would be of no interest to anyone, now would it?
So, if people never went to check out the list outside the Mayor’s office because regular employees would present no surprises and to check out those who were self employed would be pointless as they would certainly never ever declare what they earned, why then the sudden interest now that the same lists are on internet? And it isn’t a mere interest alone, it is a howling and demand for the flagellation of the ex Minister of Finance- whom, I should like to confirm, by doing what he did, in my humble opinion, he did the best thing in the whole of his career as a politician.
Internet is a weird thing, something can go unnoticed and be ignored for ever or suddenly be a worldwide spectacle... it is an empire, an empire principally dominated by the young. So, there you are, a teacher in front of a class of teenagers who just before the bell rang for lessons have downloaded the whole of your tax return for the past year... they know every dime that has gone in and out of your pocket... at this point, even I have to admit, one can’t be blamed for feeling totally naked in spite of the fact that everyone knows what a teacher earns and in spite of the fact that the same information is hanging outside the Mayor’s office and has done so for years. It’s the immediacy of the thing that make people suddenly become paranoid. But as for violation, what privacy has been violated that was different from the law as it stood a week ago before all this mayhem came about? Why didn’t Italian tax payers feel that violation of their privacy took place when their tax returns hung and still do outside the Mayor’s office? Why didn’t they claim compensation then? Apart from using your fingers instead of your legs to find out anyone’s tax returns, what has changed? That, I should very much like to know.
We have here in Italy, a certain white haired gentleman, whom I have seen on TV more often than usual this week because he is the Guarantor of Privacy. I understand it is his business to figure out what is private or not and he has pontificated that the publication of Tax returns on internet is a violation of Privacy. That may quite well be a law now, but it wasn’t so a week ago- so how can people demand millions from the tax payers money in compensation? What on earth has this white haired gentleman stirred up? This is not a question that I have made up? This question was asked to the gentleman concerned, by the most widespread satirical news programme on Italian TV “Striscia la Notizia”, I am glad to say- which goes to prove I am not the only intelligent person around in this boot shaped peninsular.
This is not the end of the story by any means. Those who put the list on internet are not totally deprived of intellect, in spite of being left-wing... in effect they knew what they were at. Those Italians who are howling for compensation are not doing so because of what the tax form reveals, they are howling because of what the tax form does not reveal and it has made it easier for anyone to see that. This is why those tax declarations were put on internet- to corner half of the population of Italians who don’t declare what they earn- in other words- to corner the tax evader.
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Page two of an Italian Income Tax Form: No comparison to the simplicityof a British one |
Thanks to the publication on internet of the tax returns, it has cropped up that more than half of those who are self-employed or have a private business do not earn anything that can be declarable and for the rest- the amount of earnings is equal to the amount of expenses... So half of the population in Italy should be begging in the streets instead of running around in red Ferraris!
And those are the people who are howling for compensation because their privacy has been violated!
Well done ex Ministry of Finance! If only other politicians had your guts!!!
TREMONTI, (new Minister) take note!!!
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