For the average holiday-maker, this summer at Punta Ala, a classy marina on the Tuscan coast, has seemed like any other. Hundreds of elegant yachts and motorboats lie peacefully berthed sterns to jetties. For many of their owners, however, the season has been far from peaceful. As well as battling the economic crisis, they have been up against the Guardia di Finanza, the tax police.
Speaking from his holiday base in Switzerland, Mario Monti, Italy’s prime minister, said the struggle against tax evaders is “like a war” and it is “right to be tough”. A national pastime, tax evasion is put at about 18% of GDP, some €285 billion ($355 billion), making a big hole in Italy’s stretched public finances.
Fairly or unfairly, boat-owners are seen as among the rich who do not pay their share. A new tax on boat ownership and people leasing boats was introduced this year. Boats between 10 and 12 metres now incur an annual tax of €800, those between 20 and 24 metres one of €4,400, those over 64 metres €25,000. In recent weeks the tax campaign has hit marinas along Italy’s 8,000 km coast, with the Guardia di Finanza operating in plain clothes or uniform onshore.
Italy’s public finances: The boat-tax war | The Economist
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