ITALIAN TAXATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 March 1936, Page 2

ITALIAN TAXATION

PROVINCIAL TOWN’S LIST Italy’s acid test is yet to come. A year ago in shops, cafes, public vehicles and private houses every conversation seemed inevitably to turn to taxation. It was not always pleasant talk, and had to be stopped (writes “A Resident in Italy” to the “Manchester Guardian”). Italians now talk not of taxation, but of the inevitable precursor of more taxation —war. They no longer grumble, they proudly boast. War fever, injected daily and hourly by Press and wireless, speeches and posters, has its usual mysterious psychological effect. But as yet the taxes have not been raised, and that will be the acid test.

The net of taxation is already so wide-flung aijd so small-meshed that it is hard to see where further increases can be made. I have before me an ordinary tax-paper, with a list of 26 of the most generally applied taxes of a small provincial town. They are: 1, Land. 2> Supplementary land tax. 3, Agrarian contribution. 4, Vineyards. 5, Buildings. 6, Supplementary on buildings. 7, Contribution to Fascist Syndicate, 8, Sojourn tax (this applies to all persons, Italians or foreign, not born in the commune and not exempted under some other heading). 9, Government income tax. 10, Supplementary Government income tax. 11, Communal income tax. 12, Provincial income tax. 13, Complementary income tax. 14, Chamber of Commerce. 15, Patrimonial. 16, Bachelors. 17, Tenancy. ,18, Pianofortes. 19, Billiards. 20, Certificates (driving and teaching licenses, professional degrees, ,etc.). 21, Licenses to sell or practice. 22, Cattle and horses. 23, dogs. 24, bicycles, 25, Servants. 26, Signboards. Besides these, some and often most of which are paid by every man and woman on the roster, there are taxes on motor cars and on machinery of all kinds, including reapers, binders/ ploughs, and all farm, instruments, on radios, one coffee-makers, and on cigarette lighters. A tailor (or dressmaker) pays a tax on his tapemeasure and a grocer on his scales. In most towns owners of houses, though not forced ’to make repairs, must pay a “tax on repairs. There is a tax oh letting a house,.another for renting one, and another for selling furniture out of it. There is a tax on entertainments, exhibitions, lectures, and tennis, golf and football played in! a club. There is a. tax on having a family (“tassa di famiglia”) and another not having one (“tassa celilbi”). The “complementary” and supplementary taxes’ are not super-taxes on the rich, but a further percentage added to the original. Some of the taxes are not very high; others are quite out of proportion to the importance of the article or activity faxed. Provincial and communal taxes vary in different localities. The dog tax (communal) is seldom less than 50 lire (about 16/6) in a town, but may be only five lire in a village a few miles away. The annual wireless tax is about 30/-. '■ Besides these direct charges there are Government taxes, charged to fte consumer, on electric light, gas, water and telephone, all of which are provided by private companies. An enormous revenue is collected from fiscal stamps on invoices. Any public notice, be it only for a strayed dog and written in pencil on a half-sheet of paper and pllaced in a shop window, must have a fiscal stamp, and the charge on posters is often, greater than the cost of them. All applications and almost all communications 'to a communal, provincial, or State office must be made on stamped paper. No. 26 of the list quoted includes a fairly heavy charge on names over shop windows and any lettering on the windows; awnings over shops are taxed, and so are balconies over a street. These are not all the taxes. There are others to meet special cases. There are many indirect taxes, which affect the individual by an increase of the price of goods. The cost of a. huge, well-equipped army maintained at a distance from the homeland is the burden facing the Italian taxpayer. The discipline, which, with justification, is the proud boast of the Fascist regime still has its acid test, before it.