Good morning everyone, and thank you. I of course wish to greet all colleagues and all attendees and authorities here today, and my thanks go to Deputy Minister Leo and Minister Giorgetti for organising this opportunity for discussion. I gladly accepted the invitation to attend as we believe this issue is crucial for our nation’s development and well-being, and the topic of today’s conference is indeed a focus of this Government’s work.

We are facing particularly complex times, especially at international level, and, as is always the case, crises can also become opportunities. At times like this, we are called upon to provide bold and structural solutions. At this historical moment in time, we are required to tackle, once and for all, issues that have so far not been addressed at structural level. The tax system is undoubtedly one of these issues and I am proud to say that this was one of the first matters we addressed, by approving a reform that Italy had been awaiting for 50 years and through which we are envisioning a new Italy that is more in line with taxpayers’ needs, more attractive to businesses and more attractive to investors. In so doing, we also delivered on a commitment we made to citizens when we asked for the consensus we needed to govern this nation; we included this in our government programme and we are duly following through on it.
Why was this such a priority for us? If we take a closer look, the tax reform is not just a simple piece of legislation, it is not a set of technical measures or a mass of rules that are perhaps difficult to understand, intended for tax professionals only. No, tax reform is one of the cornerstones of a nation’s economic fabric. It is a tool that central government can use to help society grow and prosper, by putting those who create wealth (and it should always be remembered that it is not the State that does that but rather companies, the productive fabric, workers) in the best conditions to produce it. The more wealth that is produced, the more the State can use its share of that wealth to provide the solutions citizens are waiting for.
The tax system is the means by which central government collects the resources it needs to provide public services, to ensure the public sector functions properly and to make society more equitable by redistributing resources particularly to the benefit of the most vulnerable, as indeed we are endeavouring to do. This is what a tax system should do. The purpose of a tax system is not to stifle society, but rather to help it prosper. It is not an instrument the State uses to impose itself on citizens, but is rather a means for the State to give citizens what they need. 
It should not burden households with abstruse and incomprehensible rules or an unfair level of taxation that often does not correspond to the level of services the State in turn provides with the resources it has collected. The tax system must ask for a fair amount, and must then be able to use what it collects from citizens applying the same criteria that a responsible head of household would, in other words with common sense and vision and without wasting them. This is key if those resources are to be collected in the first place. 
I do not think, and I will never say, that taxes are a wonderful thing. Voluntary donations are a wonderful thing, not levies imposed by law. This is precisely why I think that those required to manage the resources coming from such levies bear a great responsibility; those resources cannot be used irresponsibly or, even worse, to gain easy consensus in the short term and leave it to those who come after to pay for that irresponsibility. Taxes have to be designed to ensure that those who pay them, understandably against their will, can at least say: “but these resources are being spent on useful things, on things that are useful to me, on things that are useful to the national community”. This is the vision we are trying to achieve, and this is the vision that has driven us to take on the historic responsibility of leaving behind a logic of ad hoc measures in order to carry out a comprehensive tax reform. We have done so because we believe it is only through a complete and comprehensive reform that we can aim to reach one of our major goals: a generalised reduction of the tax burden borne by this nation’s households and businesses. As soon as we entered office, we immediately got to work, approving an enabling law which we are now rapidly implementing. I wish to sincerely thank Deputy Minister Leo in particular for the work on this that is being carried out in a prompt and very determined way. 

Seven months have passed since the enabling law in question was definitively approved. Over these seven months, we have passed no less than ten implementing decrees, eight of which have already received final approval. I think the speed with which this is being implemented gives a very good idea of how important we consider this matter to be. All sorts of things have of course been said about this reform, as indeed has been the case for almost everything that we do. We have been accused of wanting to help tax evaders, of wanting to loosen the tax system and conceal imaginary tax amnesties. In response to these accusations, I won’t use my ideas as an argument because, thank goodness, there are figures to prove these accusations wrong, and figures, unlike ideas, are not debatable.

The figures tell us that 2023 was a record year in terms of the fight against tax evasion, with debt collection activities by the Agenzia delle Entrate [Italian Revenue Agency] bringing no less than EUR 24.7 billion into the State coffers, which is EUR 4.5 billion more than in the previous year; it is the first time in this nation’s history that such a figure has been reached.
An additional EUR 6.7 billion came from the work carried out by the Agenzia delle Entrate on behalf of other entities: INPS [National Social Security Institute], INAIL [National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work], Ministries, Prefectures and Municipalities. 
The sum of these two amounts gives us the record figure of EUR 31 billion. These results have clearly been achieved thanks both to the excellent work of the Guardia di Finanza [Italian Finance Police] and the Agenzia delle Entrate, whom I thank, and to specific regulations introduced by this Government. I am thinking, for example, of the regulations we have introduced to combat the despicable phenomenon of so-called ‘open and close’ businesses. We had also proposed this measure to previous governments, but in vain; they were incomprehensibly closed to this measure which instead is now yielding great results.  
The message we want to give is very simple. We do not have friends we want to help out; the only ones we want to help out are honest Italians who pay their taxes and contribute to maintaining the public budget. The only friends we have are honest Italians, even when they can’t manage to pay but want to. There is no room for those wanting to get one over on the system, but honest people who find themselves in difficulty deserve to be helped and put in a position to be able to pay what they owe.
Citizens and businesses understand this, as we can see if we look at the amounts paid voluntarily to the Agenzia delle Entrate: up by more than EUR 26 billion compared with 2022. This is because a fair State, an understanding State, a State that is willing to help, is a State that is no longer perceived as an adversary or even as an enemy, as it has been perceived at times, and, as a result, is a State that does not deserve to be bypassed.

This is the cultural challenge we have taken on and the figures show that it is working. We are working on this principle with a common-sense approach and with pragmatism, as we have also shown by implementing the enabling law after discussing it with Parliament and having it approved with the support of part of the opposition, whom I also wish to thank for their fundamental contribution.

We have worked, and are continuing to work, to increase and improve the fairness of the tax system, also through innovations to encourage greater cooperation between taxpayers and the tax authorities. I am referring, for example, to the two-year ‘concordato preventivo’ [pre-defined tax scheme] for smaller-scale taxpayers, which is a measure that opens up new possibilities for over 4 million entrepreneurs and self-employed workers, allowing them to plan their futures with greater peace of mind and allowing us, the State, to count on higher and more certain revenues. 

In the space of just a few months, we have launched an IRPEF [personal income tax] reform, reducing the number of tax brackets from four down to three. This measure has a direct and tangible effect on workers’ and pensioners’ wallets. We have regulated international taxation and reviewed the tax dispute process, compliance requirements and, above all, sanctions. We are working to align our sanctions to European standards, because the ones we had were disproportionate, illogical, vexatious and, judging by the figures on tax evasion (which have remained substantially unchanged despite harsher sanctions), also rather useless. As I was saying, these measures convey a vision: a vision of an Italy where the tax authorities are finally seen as an ally for growth and development; an Italy where entrepreneurs, self-employed workers, employees and pensioners can feel supported by the institutions; an Italy where everyone rows in the same direction because they share the goal of making this nation grow, together. 

The tax reform is only the beginning of this journey. We will continue to work to improve the system, to make it fairer and increasingly aligned with the needs of all citizens.
Before coming to a close, I would like to add one last thing regarding the consolidated laws, which Minister Giorgetti and Deputy Minister Leo will of course be providing more technical details on, together with today’s other topics.
We have drawn up drafts for consultation, and also for these we will welcome input from both politicians and industry professionals in order to take all observations on board and then launch a much simpler tax system, with legal certainty being the fundamental principle of the entire reform.
Allow me to say how I proud I am that it is this Government to be bringing order to a matter that had been shelved for too many years as it was considered too complex to be addressed. I am very proud that this is the Government that is bringing Italy in line with the main European taxation standards and is working to enable our businesses and citizens to compete with other G7 economies, with all the major world economies, on an equal footing. I am very proud that this is the Government that is giving citizens a fairer, more just and easier to understand tax system.

We clearly still have a lot of work to do, but we also have an advantage that others before us did not, and that is the advantage of time: the prospect of a term of office that allows us to do things well, with common sense and in the interest of Italians. Thanks to all those who intend to continue working with us on this objective, which is not an objective of a political party or of a government majority, but rather I believe it must be an objective for the nation as a whole. 
Thank you.

[Courtesy translation]