Berlusconi and Son Under Investigation

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s legal woes seem to be never ending.  Up until recently, it was only Silvio himself who had attracted the attentions of law enforcement authorities in Italy.

Now though, Silvio Berlusconi’s son, Mediaset Vice-Chairman Piersilvio, has been named in investigations into an alleged attempt by an arm of the Berlusconi family’s Mediaset empire, MediaTrade, to defraud Italy’s tax system. Read more

A Taxing Problem

It’s just about 1:30 in the morning here in Milan.  I should be heading for bed, but my head is awash with thoughts, and I want to try and create order from the chaos reigning in my mind.  I’m thinking about Italy’s incredibly high levels of tax evasion.

Yes, I know taxation is probably not the most thrilling issue to be writing about, but then that’s what comes of having a mind which thinks about too many things in a desperate search for explanations.

If you feel like finding out just what my crazed mind has been turning over, then read on, otherwise skip to something lighter like my recent post on Floriovo, which is much more drinkable. Read more

Tax Deductible Drugs

I went to the chemists/pharmacy today to get some more cough syrup and came across the spanking new system for registering purchases from these places, which I had heard about a few days before. Now, when you pay for your drugs you can also hand over your health card – a credit card sized piece of plastic – and your ‘codice fiscale’ – tax code – will be written onto the receipt for the pills or potions you have just bought. The personalised receipt can then be passed to your accountant who will arrange to have a certain amount deducted from your income. Neat.

This new system has been introduced, I suspect, to cut down on tax fiddles because in the past a receipt for just about anything from a pharmacy could have been written off against income tax. And you can be sure that all manner of face creams and other cosmetics had become tax deductible. With the new system, this will no longer be possible, or rather, it will be more difficult to pull off.

It’s quite a shrewd move on the part of Italy’s expensive politicians, and it may even save the country a few bob.

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