by Alessandra Cardone
ROME, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- The 2017 was a record year for Italy in terms of money raised from fighting tax evasion, authorities said on Thursday.
A total 20.1 billion euros (25 billion U.S. dollars) were recovered last year, marking a 5.8 percent increase compared to the sum collected in 2016, according to the national Revenue Agency.
In 2015, the agency had recovered some 14.9 billion euros of unpaid taxes. Overall, the Italian state registered 412.6 billion euros of voluntary tax revenues in 2017, against 405 billion euros in the previous year, and 404.2 billions in 2015, the agency also stated in a report.
The rising trends registered in both tax evasion fighting and voluntary tax revenues were "encouraging" and crucial for boosting Italy's still fragile recovery, Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said on twitter.
The 20.1 billion euros of unpaid taxes recovered would also mark the best result achieved since 2013, according to the agency's director Ernesto Maria Ruffini.
"Another significant signal comes from an improved level of taxpayers' compliance following a communication (on irregularities in their assessments) from our agency," Ruffini said at a joint press conference held with Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.
"Such revenue has more than doubled in 2017, reaching about 1.3 billion euros, with a 160 percent increase compared to the previous year."
In latest years, the country's tax administration has tried to implement a new strategy aimed at increasing the spontaneous compliance of taxpayers, by simplifying fiscal red tape and increasing services to citizens.
On the other hand, taxpayers were given more chances to correct their mistakes without incurring penalties. "This strategy had a clear goal: to increase fiscal (sense of) responsibility, so that it would be possible to cut the tax burden," Gentiloni told reporters.
"It has implied increasing efforts to make compliant taxpayers' life easier, and to develop a more efficient and sophisticated tax evasion fighting system," the prime minister added.
However, Italy remains plagued by one of the highest tax evasion rates in Europe, and the results posted by the national Revenue Agency were still low if compared to those of tax dodging.
Total losses from tax evasion would reach up to 250-270 billion euros a year (considering also the shadow economy), or about 18 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), Eurispes Research Institute estimated in a report in 2016.
The Economy Ministry provided lower figures in its 2017 report on fiscal evasion fighting, yet projecting an average tax gap (difference between total taxes owed and those paid) worth 107.7 billion euros in the period 2012-2014. (1 euro = 1.24 U.S. dollars)
