Padoan says tax gap 108 bn (3)

(ANSA) - Rome, November 21 - Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said during a finance police event on Tuesday that Italy's annual tax gap - the difference between the amount of tax that should be collected and what is actually pocketed - was 107.7 billion euros during the 2012-2014 period. But he also stressed that tax evasion was coming down, with the propensity to evade dropping 0.6 of a percentage point from 33.5% in 2014 to 32.9% in 2015. "This is an important change in the behaviour of taxpayers, who are orientated towards higher fiscal compliance, confirming the effectiveness of the government's strategy," Padoan said. He said Tuesday that almost 5.5 billion euros of value-added-tax evasion was uncovered in 2016, an increase of 10.8% with respect to 2015.
    He said another 6.3 billion had been recovered in undeclared personal income and 1.6 billion regarding businss tax IRAP.