This work analyzes the Italian tax offences’ system, regulated by d.lgs. n. 74/2000, and underlines how the urgent need for "fiscal security" has influenced the most recent legislative and court decisions involving criminal tax matters. It is generally known, how the negative value of economic crimes – and consequently of fiscal crimes – is not fully perceived by citizens, because those kinds of infringements are considered as events far away from their individual needs. For this reason they are not fully highlighted by the medias which are more interested in pursuing other areas of judicial chronicle. For this reason, criminal law of economics – historically characterized by a certain degree of specialty area to the general rules laid down by the penal code – saw sectoral reforms, sometimes ending up to real forms of decriminalization, which are not justified given the importance of the legal protected asset. Criminal tax law, in an apparent alienation from other areas of criminal law, had the uneasy task to protect tax interests, after abandoning the offences repression logic of the tax evasion in the previous law n. 516/1982. Legislative power, in accordance with doctrine, had decided to split tax evasion in two main categories: 1) the so-called "great evasion", mainly considered in criminal cases contained in d.lgs. n. 74, regards unlawful conduct, in particular detrimental tax interests; 2) the so-called "small and medium evasion" on tax discipline breaches subject to administrative sanctions. Although decreasing tax income, this kind of evasion would not be detrimental to public finances as criminal tax evasion would be. However this elaborate system – certainly in conformity with the General principles – doesn't seem to have reached the desired results. The current unfavourable economic environment has highlighted the limits of tax legislation and, consequently, of its related sanctions, despite the innovations that have improved the efficiency of financial Administration. Therefore, in an attempt to fight tax evasion there has been a dual outcome: a) on one hand, jurisprudence has extensively interpreted criminal law, getting to use in some cases the analogy in malam partem of penal precept; b) on the other hand, legislators have recently intervened by modifying the original structure of the above cited decree n. 74, setting new cases and heavier sanctions. These initiatives although sharable in their goal, raise doubts in the doctrine. The aim of this writing is to illustrate the evolution of criminal tax matters, with a particular focus on how the legislative power and the jurisprudence have reformulated, in terms of penalties, some of the institutes and cases contained in d.lgs. n. 74/2000.

I REATI TRIBUTARI TRA VECCHIE E NUOVE ISTANZE PREVENTIVE

CRIVELLIN, Enrico
2013

Abstract

This work analyzes the Italian tax offences’ system, regulated by d.lgs. n. 74/2000, and underlines how the urgent need for "fiscal security" has influenced the most recent legislative and court decisions involving criminal tax matters. It is generally known, how the negative value of economic crimes – and consequently of fiscal crimes – is not fully perceived by citizens, because those kinds of infringements are considered as events far away from their individual needs. For this reason they are not fully highlighted by the medias which are more interested in pursuing other areas of judicial chronicle. For this reason, criminal law of economics – historically characterized by a certain degree of specialty area to the general rules laid down by the penal code – saw sectoral reforms, sometimes ending up to real forms of decriminalization, which are not justified given the importance of the legal protected asset. Criminal tax law, in an apparent alienation from other areas of criminal law, had the uneasy task to protect tax interests, after abandoning the offences repression logic of the tax evasion in the previous law n. 516/1982. Legislative power, in accordance with doctrine, had decided to split tax evasion in two main categories: 1) the so-called "great evasion", mainly considered in criminal cases contained in d.lgs. n. 74, regards unlawful conduct, in particular detrimental tax interests; 2) the so-called "small and medium evasion" on tax discipline breaches subject to administrative sanctions. Although decreasing tax income, this kind of evasion would not be detrimental to public finances as criminal tax evasion would be. However this elaborate system – certainly in conformity with the General principles – doesn't seem to have reached the desired results. The current unfavourable economic environment has highlighted the limits of tax legislation and, consequently, of its related sanctions, despite the innovations that have improved the efficiency of financial Administration. Therefore, in an attempt to fight tax evasion there has been a dual outcome: a) on one hand, jurisprudence has extensively interpreted criminal law, getting to use in some cases the analogy in malam partem of penal precept; b) on the other hand, legislators have recently intervened by modifying the original structure of the above cited decree n. 74, setting new cases and heavier sanctions. These initiatives although sharable in their goal, raise doubts in the doctrine. The aim of this writing is to illustrate the evolution of criminal tax matters, with a particular focus on how the legislative power and the jurisprudence have reformulated, in terms of penalties, some of the institutes and cases contained in d.lgs. n. 74/2000.
BERNARDI, Alessandro
NEGRI, Daniele
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11392/2388900
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