Card payment refund scheme aims to wean tax-dodging Italians off cash

Hundreds of thousands of Italians have signed up for a govt plan offering a 10pc refund for card payments in merchants in just two weeks in an attempt by Rome to slash tax evasion and boost vendors strike by coronavirus limitations.

The roaring get started to the plan, which requires downloading an app adopted by a prolonged registration procedure, comes in stark distinction to Italians’ lukewarm reaction to the less complicated Immuni app introduced in June to trace Covid bacterial infections.

The so-referred to as “cashback” program will officially kick off upcoming thirty day period but the pilot programme from Dec 8 to the stop of the stop, which makes it possible for savings of up to €150, has currently attracted a tenth of the adult populace.

“Around 5m subscriptions is no modest feat,” said Leonzio Rizzo, a professor of general public finance at the College of Ferrara, informed Reuters.

Key Minister Giuseppe Conte’s govt believes that weaning Italians off money can lessen rampant tax evasion, estimated by the Treasury at about €110bn a year.

Digital payments, as opposed to notes and coins, are harder to conceal from the taxman.

On the other hand the programme has its critics, which includes the European Central Bank, which said last week that governments really should get a neutral approach to means of payments and complained it experienced not been consulted.