Taxation on Incomes in Italian Agriculture

In Italy taxation on incomes in the agricultural sector is based mainly on a cadastral criterion introduced over two centuries ago. Special treatment for incomes in this sector is common to many developed countries, although the tax bases are periodically revised. In Italy average cadastral incomes are rarely updated. The data collected by the Italian tax registry show that the farms’ income tax bases have traditionally been very small. However, in recent years the income tax bases of small firms in other economic sectors have also proved very small, not only because of tax evasion but also because of the recent implementation of flat-rate fixing of income tax bases (seldom revised). Thus relatively little revenue is collected on incomes in the agricultural sector (but also on the incomes of other small firms). Moreover, low taxation is an obstacle to effective tax policies for the restructuring of important parts (especially in agriculture) of the Italian economy.