Deputy Premier and Transport Minister
Matteo Salvini was engaged in an exchange of barbs with the head
of Italy's tax agency on Monday linked to the League leader's
call for an overhaul in the State's relationship with taxpayers.
At the weekend Salvini called for a "great, definitive fiscal
peace" to liberate "millions of Italians who have been held
hostage for too many years by the inland revenue agency".
The government is trying to install a 'fiscal peace' with
taxpayers to end the current situation in which the authorities
have a huge backlog tax disputes with millions of people worth
many billion euros, much of which is unlikely to ever be
collected.
Opposition parties have criticised this approach, saying it
risks helping tax evaders.
On Monday inland revenue agency Director Ernesto Maria Ruffini
said the fight against tax evasion is not driven by the desire
to persecute.
"It is a question of justice towards all those, and they are the
vast majority, who pay their taxes year after year," Ruffini
told a conference.
Salvini defended his stance after Ruffini's comments.
"Fiscal peace is advantageous for the State," he said.
Environment Minister Gilberto Pichetto, meanwhile, said an
amnesty for some tax disputes was a possibility.
Ex-premier and 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Giuseppe Conte
accused the government of "inciting tax evasion".
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