Ends and unknowns of the new land registry wanted by Draghi

12 March 20222 years ago babelfish

What will change with the reform of the land registry for taxpayers. The comment by Federico Punzi of Atlantico Quotidiano

A few days ago Prime Minister Mario Draghi replied in a succinct way, in front of the cameras in Brussels, to the umpteenth question on the land registry reform, provided for by article 6 of the fiscal delegation being examined by the Chamber: "Nobody will pay more taxes". Closed speech, a laugh and go.

Apparently unequivocal, yet not exactly reassuring to our ears, given that it is the same premier who said last July that "the Green Pass gives the guarantee of being among non-contagious people". A claim that was disproved by the scientific evidence available, and in the public domain, even then.

Yesterday, answering the question time in the Chamber, Draghi returned to the land registry reform, using the same words of a few days before: “no one will pay more taxes”, “no increase in the taxation of real estate”. But this time the premier has surpassed himself, he even managed to deny himself in the span of a few sentences, during the same speech.

Yes, because after admitting that the land registry has become "emotional" for him too, he let himself be carried away, heated up, and in a crescendo of arrogance that reminded us of Colonel Jessep of the Code of Honor , he involuntarily confessed: we need "sensible" values on which to base taxes. "The cadastral estimates on which the revenues are based today are from 88-89, 33 years ago". The purpose, it is assumed, is not a simple "mapping" or reconnaissance, but to update the estimates to ensure that today's revenues are no longer based on values of thirty years ago. And once the estimates are updated, all taxes linked to cadastral values increase in cascade.

Draghi himself, to explain his "transparency operation", among the various property taxes based on cadastral data, has chosen to mention Ici, Imu and Tasi, the assets of 22 billion euros introduced in recent years by previous governments , contesting the tax base.

"The introduction of the ICI, the abolition of the ICI, the introduction of the IMU, the introduction of the TASI, the abolition of the TASI, were always made on non-existent values, which have no meaning, on values of 33 years ago. Applying a fixed coefficient on values that don't make sense to produce numbers that don't make sense must end: we want transparency ".

It is the admission of the fiscal purpose of the land registry reform, which has always been denied up to now, even up to a few sentences before. And now? Will the narrative "yes, but with invariance of revenue" return?

Among other things, the emergence of "ghost" properties, the regularization of abuses and badly registered properties, purposes always cited to de-legitimize criticisms of the reform with the implicit accusation of wanting to protect situations of illegality, are interventions that can be carried out under current legislation. .

But from how Draghi got excited by answering the question, does it seem possible that a simple "mapping" is at stake? No, much more is at stake. "The government was not born to sit still", blurted out the premier.

The point is not that you want to re-evaluate the estimates that are thirty years old, but that you want to do it by changing the philosophy behind the cadastre. The central point that must be understood of the reform whose criteria and objectives are outlined in the delegation – and which probably most parliamentarians are not even able to grasp – is not the revaluation of estimates, but the completion of the transition from an income register. to a property register.

This is a crucial difference, which makes principled opposition to this reform even more important than averting immediate or future increases.

Put simply, not being a technician, an income cadastre means that the cadastral income, on which real estate taxes are based, are calculated on the ability of the property to produce income. And it is on this capacity that taxes are paid. A property register, on the other hand, takes the market value of the property as a reference. And therefore we will have a property tax, that is, based on the mere possession of an asset and its market value, even if it does not produce income, but only expenses.

This passage has actually been underway for years, at least since the introduction of the ICI, then Imu with Monti, and all those multiplier coefficients, those numbers for "meaningless" Dragons, which are nothing more than a way to approach the cadastral income to the asset value of the property and on the basis of this calculate the amounts to be paid into the state coffers.

Now, it is clear that adding the (presumed) market value of the property to the rent, as envisaged by the reform, allows us to do without those "meaningless" multipliers which for Draghi are not "transparent", but is the philosophy of fund that we reject. In fact, it is not only a question of equipping the government with a gun that is always loaded ready to tighten the existing assets on properties (22 billion a year) with extreme ease, with a click, but of ratifying, in fact, the transition to a property cadastre. . As Confedilizia denounced, the premier's words show that “we aimed at the property register to have an ATM ready to use. And so it was ".

What does it mean? That many low-income families who live, for example, in large cities could be considered wealthy for the mere possession of their own house, from which they do not actually derive any income (but only expenses). Even if the first houses were spared from taxation, the value of the ISEE would increase and, for example, the newly introduced single check would be reduced or the rates of other services such as school canteens would increase. Up to the extreme situation of not being able to afford it anymore. Basically, therefore, the transition to a taxation centered on real estate assets – recommended by the EU – means favoring the transition from a company of owners to a company of tenants.

And we at Atlantico Quotidiano will strongly oppose this outcome, because the well-being, stability, savings of Italian families, the bond of individuals with their territory, the culture of investment and the maintenance of value are based on widespread private property. of their assets, the ability to appreciate freedom from state claims.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/primo-piano/fini-e-incognite-del-nuovo-catasto-voluto-da-draghi/ on Sat, 12 Mar 2022 07:21:24 +0000.