Tax Officials Invade Italian Beaches

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

11 August 2010

There is currently a wave of checks and controls along the coast of Italy, as tax officials from the Italian Revenue Agency visit ports, beaches, and seaside businesses to try to uncover tax evasion hidden beneath the beach umbrellas.

The seaside controls, stretching from the north to the south of Italy, are particularly intense in the principal 805 tourist centres along the 8,000km of Italian beaches. For example, the commercial wharves of Amalfi and Agripoli are under surveillance, as are beach chalets on the Venetian lido which can cost up to EUR10,000 (USD13,250) per season.

It has also been necessary to check the coast of Lazio from Ostia to Nettuno, not only the places where a berth for a boat goes for up to EUR200,000, but also the numerous discotheques and other entertainment hotspots.

Given the high cost of vacations in more than 60 tourist centres on the island, the sandy beaches of Sardinia have also attracted the men from the Revenue Agency in search of those who fail to issue tickets or receipts, completing tax returns that understate their income and utilising undeclared employees.

The objective of the Revenue Agency’s campaign is to obtain details which allow the reconstruction, as far as possible, of a tourist business’s net income. This would include, for example, the purchase of holiday packages from agencies and tour operators; the letting of cabins, sun loungers and umbrellas; the rental of boat moorings; the frequency of windsurfing and diving courses; or the table turnover seen in the various types of restaurants.

The Revenue Agency’s target is to make 25,000 such checks this year, rising to 35,000 in 2011. The synthetic assessment method used allows the reconstruction of the taxpayers’ income, net of expenses, by looking not only at how that income is produced, but also at how they maintain a certain standard of living.

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