On Wednesday evening on «Primo Piano» on Rai3, the Minister of Economy Giulio Tremonti warned that, if the Union wins the next elections, homeowners risk being taxed for the enrichment gained following the rise in real estate prices in recent years. Margherita's economic manager, Enrico Letta, replied that the Union program plans to lighten taxation on income from work to increase that on income (financial and cadastral). Which does not exactly equate to a denial: there is no explicit mention of "patrimonial", but that is precisely what many people fear.
The bogeyman raised by the Centre-right is in fact one of the issues on which the electorate belonging to the middle class is most sensitive, and to which the Union will have to pay close attention. It is not enough to specify that "small estates" will be excluded from the proposed measures. It is not even sufficient to state that taxing properties more (already the subject of a heavy increase for several decades) can be inspired by vague principles of equity. If the enrichment is accrued and not collected, as happens to those who own properties but have not sold them, an unexpected increase in taxation can force a partial liquidation of the assets, perhaps of the very buildings that constitute the basis for them. This can hardly represent a desirable effect of an economic program, even of a centre-left coalition. However, there is a suspicion: that in Italy, given the manifest impossibility of combating tax evasion, there is a desire to shift taxation to what is frequently acquired with income hidden from the Treasury, i.e. real estate. In other words: if it is not possible to get hold of those 200 billion euros of taxable income hidden every year (source: Censis), the solution is to 'attack' with even heavier taxation the physical (and as such visible) goods purchased with those same incomes. If this were the case, it would be a very difficult stretch to accept in a rule of law.
source: IL SOLE 24 ORE
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