Simplify 'opaque' taxes, employers say

(ANSA) - Rome, July 24 - The association representing Italy's largest employers urged parliamentarians Thursday to simplify the "opaque" tax system so as to help kickstart recovery from recession.
    The fiscal system on the peninsula is still "heavy and unclear (and) discourages investment and internationalisation," Andrea Bolla, president of Confindustria's taxation committee, told members of the Senate finance committee.
    "In this difficult economic phase, as the premier has said recently, firms that export and internationalise themselves offer a chance for recovery that can involve the whole country," said Bolla.
    "We can't waste this, hindering with vague norms that offer facile but arbitrary solutions fuelling expensive litigation with increasingly uncertain outcome," he added.
    Bolla warned that firms are also hampered by taxation on company real estate which is "unsustainable" in terms of cost and complexity.
    "Fiscal competition must be made up primarily of simple rules - a tax regime that does not take this into account scares off companies from investing in Italy and reduces worth that can generate income".