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29 August 2020 Tax evasion in Italy is estimated at around 110 billion euros per year, a frighteningly high amount which, however, appears to be decidedly lower than the burdens that citizens and businesses suffer by virtue of waste, waste and inefficiencies present in our PA, which would amount to over 200 billion a year, an economic dimension almost double compared to tax evasion. This was argued by the Studies Office of the CGIA of Mestre, comparing the loss of revenue that the Public Administration suffers due to the tax infidelity of Italians with the additional costs that are borne by families and businesses due to the malfunction of public services.

The CGIA specifies that the comparison "has no scientific rigor" and that "the economic effects of public inefficiencies that affect companies in particular are from different sources, the data are not homogeneous and the areas in many cases overlap". However, according to the artisans association "despite there is a lot of evasion, an inefficient PA causes much greater economic damage to individuals".

A conclusion "by no means taken for granted, given that a large part of public opinion has a strong sensitivity towards the issue of tax evasion, deeming the effects of waste, waste and inefficiencies in our public machine less alarming".

"Let us clear the field of any misunderstanding - specifies the coordinator of the Studies Office, Paolo Zabeo - the evasion must never be justified and we must fight it wherever it lurks, whether it concerns small or large tax evaders. If, in fact, we led to light a good part of the resources illegally stolen from the treasury, our PA would have more money, it would work better and, probably, the conditions would be created to lighten the tax burden. In addition to this, it is equally essential to intervene to significantly reduce the waste that burdens on state spending and to increase labor productivity in the public. Italy would benefit greatly and, most likely, tax evasion and tax burden would be lower. In other words, with less tax evasion and a more efficient PA - he underlines - we could create the conditions to relaunch this country ".

It would also be wrong to generalize, continues the CGIA, and not recognize the levels of excellence that characterize many sectors of our PA, such as health, education, research and the quality of the service provided by the police. Among the main inefficiencies and waste of the public administration, the CGIA Studies Office lists, among others, the annual cost incurred by companies for managing relations with the bureaucracy, equal to 57 billion euros (source: The European House Ambrosetti); trade payables to suppliers for 53 billion (source: Bank of Italy); the logistic-infrastructural deficit of 40 billion per year (source: Mit); 24 billion in excess public spending that does not allow us to lower the tax burden to the EU average (source: Discussion paper 23 European Commission).