The present research aims to investigate whether the introduction of a flat tax in Italy can constitute a valid remedy to the crisis that has long afflicted the Italian personal income tax (IRPEF), which has failed to ensure a fair and efficient income tax system. The work starts with the analysis of the historical, economic and legal reasons underlying the transition from the proportional tax levied on income coming from separate sources to the progressive tax on total income (so-called comprehensive income tax). The analysis highlights how the preference for a progressive system is linked, on the one hand, to the sociopolitical ideology regarding the model of the welfare state and, on the other hand, to the general acceptance of the principle of ability to pay as the basis of taxation. Since the 1970s, the progressive tax on total income has taken in Italy, as in other legal systems, such a form that it no longer respects not only the canon of horizontal and vertical equity but also that of efficiency due to the distorting effects deriving, from the proliferation of differentiated tax treatments, which have accentuated the complexity and opacity of the tax system on the one hand and the spread of tax avoidance and tax evasion on the other. In this context, liberal-inspired tendencies of North American origin took effect. That has pushed states to abandon redistributive projects, which were supposed to be implemented by means of highly progressive income taxes and fall back on taxation schemes compliant with “attenuated” models of progressivity, including the flat tax model. Its advantages and disadvantages, as well as its feasibility in Italy, emerge from a comparative analysis of flat tax systems in Europe. In Italy, the idea of modelling the IRPEF reform on the flat tax concept has always encountered an obstacle in art. 53, paragraph 2 of the Italian Constitution. Its interpretation provided by the Constitutional Court demonstrates that the constitutional provision does not preclude the introduction of a flat taxation as long as the progressive nature on the tax system considered as a whole is safeguarded. In this perspective, a major reduction of progressivity such as that deriving from the introduction of a single rate income tax without basic exemption is certainly censurable at the constitutional legitimacy level, but the softer models of progressivity deriving from a tax with a single rate, accompanied by a more or less articulated system of deductions may be acceptable. However, the real obstacle to introducing flat tax in Italy is of economic nature and is linked to its not being financially feasible. Thus, the introduction of alternative models has been taken into consideration. For example, the dual system was referred to in the initial version of the enabling law draft approved by the Council of Ministers in October 2021. The transition to the dual system, while presenting a critical issues both on a practical level and on a legal one, could ensure both comprehensive taxation of income and greater uniformity in the treatmnet of income falling within the same tax base. Nevertheless, due to electoral reasons, politicians are willing to uphold the numerous existing flat taxation regimes. That constitutes the primary obstacle to introducing the dual system, and, more generally, to the organic reform of the Italian personal income tax.
Il lavoro di ricerca mira a indagare se l’implementazione della flat tax in Italia possa costituire un valido rimedio alla crisi che da tempo affligge l’IRPEF, rivelatasi incapace di assicurare una tassazione dei redditi equa ed efficiente. Il lavoro muove dall’analisi delle ragioni storiche, economiche e giuridiche sottostanti alla transizione dall’imposta proporzionale sui singoli cespiti reddituali all’imposta progressiva sul reddito complessivo. L’analisi rivela come la preferenza per un prelievo progressivo sia legata da un lato, all’ideologia politico-sociale insita nel modello di Stato sociale; dall’altro, all’accettazione generalizzata del principio di capacità contributiva quale fondamento del dovere tributario. A partire dagli anni ’70 del secolo scorso, l’imposta sul reddito complessivo ha assunto in Italia, come in altri ordinamenti, una conformazione tale da non rispettare più non solo il canone dell’equità orizzontale e verticale, ma anche quello dell’efficienza per gli effetti distorsivi derivanti, da un lato, dalla proliferazione di trattamenti tributari differenziati, che hanno accentuato la complessità e l’opacità del sistema tributario e, dall’altro, dalla diffusione di fenomeni evasivi ed elusivi. In tale contesto, hanno preso vigore orientamenti di ispirazione liberista di origine nordamericana che hanno spinto gli Stati ad abbandonare i progetti redistributivi da attuare per mezzo di imposte fortemente progressive sul reddito e a ripiegare su schemi di tassazione conformi a modelli “attenuati” di progressività. Tra essi si inserisce il modello della flat tax, di cui il lavoro analizza, dopo un esame comparato dei sistemi flat vigenti in Europa, i benefici, i limiti nonché la fattibilità concreta in Italia. La riforma dell’IRPEF secondo il modello della flat tax ha da sempre incontrato in Italia un ostacolo nell’art. 53, comma 2 Cost. Tuttavia per la Corte costituzionale il dettato costituzionale non preclude l’introduzione di imposte piatte purché sia salvaguardato il carattere progressivo del sistema fiscale complessivamente considerato. In questa prospettiva, se sono certamente censurabili sul piano della legittimità costituzionale le attenuazioni macroscopiche della progressività derivanti dall’introduzione di un’imposta sul reddito ad aliquota unica senza esenzione alla base, non altrettanto censurabili sono quelle attenuazioni della progressività derivanti da un’imposta con aliquota unica, corredata di un sistema più o meno articolato di deduzioni. Il vero ostacolo all’implementazione della flat tax in Italia ha, in realtà, natura economica ed è legato alla sua insostenibilità finanziaria. Il lavoro, quindi, esamina la possibile implementazione di modelli alternativi come quello duale, richiamato nella versione iniziale della bozza di legge delega approvata dal Consiglio dei Ministri ad ottobre 2021. L’esame rileva come il passaggio al sistema duale, pur presentando non poche criticità sia sul piano pratico, sia sul piano giuridico ha il merito di assicurare, tanto un’imposizione comprehensive dei redditi, quanto una maggiore uniformità nel trattamento dei redditi rientranti nella medesima base imponibile. Tuttavia, la volontà politica di confermare, più per ragioni elettorali che di sistema, le numerose flat taxes esistenti costituisce il principale limite alla sua implementazione e, in generale, ad una riforma organica dell’IRPEF.
Flat tax: un'alternativa possibile alla crisi dell'IRPEF? La rivisitazione del mito della progressività per un sistema fiscale più equo
DE VITA, Marialuisa
2022-11-29
Abstract
The present research aims to investigate whether the introduction of a flat tax in Italy can constitute a valid remedy to the crisis that has long afflicted the Italian personal income tax (IRPEF), which has failed to ensure a fair and efficient income tax system. The work starts with the analysis of the historical, economic and legal reasons underlying the transition from the proportional tax levied on income coming from separate sources to the progressive tax on total income (so-called comprehensive income tax). The analysis highlights how the preference for a progressive system is linked, on the one hand, to the sociopolitical ideology regarding the model of the welfare state and, on the other hand, to the general acceptance of the principle of ability to pay as the basis of taxation. Since the 1970s, the progressive tax on total income has taken in Italy, as in other legal systems, such a form that it no longer respects not only the canon of horizontal and vertical equity but also that of efficiency due to the distorting effects deriving, from the proliferation of differentiated tax treatments, which have accentuated the complexity and opacity of the tax system on the one hand and the spread of tax avoidance and tax evasion on the other. In this context, liberal-inspired tendencies of North American origin took effect. That has pushed states to abandon redistributive projects, which were supposed to be implemented by means of highly progressive income taxes and fall back on taxation schemes compliant with “attenuated” models of progressivity, including the flat tax model. Its advantages and disadvantages, as well as its feasibility in Italy, emerge from a comparative analysis of flat tax systems in Europe. In Italy, the idea of modelling the IRPEF reform on the flat tax concept has always encountered an obstacle in art. 53, paragraph 2 of the Italian Constitution. Its interpretation provided by the Constitutional Court demonstrates that the constitutional provision does not preclude the introduction of a flat taxation as long as the progressive nature on the tax system considered as a whole is safeguarded. In this perspective, a major reduction of progressivity such as that deriving from the introduction of a single rate income tax without basic exemption is certainly censurable at the constitutional legitimacy level, but the softer models of progressivity deriving from a tax with a single rate, accompanied by a more or less articulated system of deductions may be acceptable. However, the real obstacle to introducing flat tax in Italy is of economic nature and is linked to its not being financially feasible. Thus, the introduction of alternative models has been taken into consideration. For example, the dual system was referred to in the initial version of the enabling law draft approved by the Council of Ministers in October 2021. The transition to the dual system, while presenting a critical issues both on a practical level and on a legal one, could ensure both comprehensive taxation of income and greater uniformity in the treatmnet of income falling within the same tax base. Nevertheless, due to electoral reasons, politicians are willing to uphold the numerous existing flat taxation regimes. That constitutes the primary obstacle to introducing the dual system, and, more generally, to the organic reform of the Italian personal income tax.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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