Italy Redditometro Compare Spending to Tax Return

Italy Redditometro Compare Spending to Tax Return.

In Italy, the long awaited redditometro has gone live on 4th January.

What is Redditometro?

It is an Italian government data gathering system that compares Italian residents spending on cars, yachts, credit cards and the link to yearly tax returns.
The system has been commissioned by the Ministry of the Economy and Finance.  

The scheme is designed to wheedle out tax avoiders i.e.  those not declaring income for taxes honestly.

Same in Spain

In Spain, there is already a system similar to redditometro, where the Spanish tax authorities are comparing tax returns filed with the Hacienda to card spending in leading expatriate department stores such as El Corte Ingles.

Will Redditometro come to UK?

The simple answer is that it is already here.  HMRC are running pilot schemes around the UK monitoring what self-employed people declare income for tax at compared to their spending.  This is being rolled out over the next couple of years to all self-employed across the UK and we see it as a natural and easy extension to then roll out to all employed people and particularly company directors of small private firms.

You have been warned.  Redditometro is already here in the UK.