Tax evasion in Italy is pandemic and estimated to be over 150 billion euros (the fiscal burden has now reached on average 55 percent of tax payers income) and to fight the debt crisis, the technocratic government run by Mario Monti has stomped down even harder with their controls – some of which are very public – like invading high-end resort towns with numerous agents to check out, restaurants, hotels, bars, and stores and even stopping drivers of expensive cars to check out if their tax returns correspond to their life styles.
In this type of climate, the fact that Marco Melandri was found guilty of tax evasion for not paying income tax on earnings of 3.
6 million euros (from 2003 to 2005) and received a 19 month sentence – which was suspended – has more or less become the norm these days, if you consider that Italy’s former PM Silvio Berlusconi was also sentenced to four years in prison for tax evasion (which he will appeal) the other week.
Melandri’s fault was taking advantage of the UK’s British non-domiciled resident status (he resided in Derby), but according to the prosecution his financial interests were mainly in Italy, as he spent more time in the country than permitted by law, and had numerous properties and cars – Valentino Rossi was also caught out in the same manner in 2007 (his name was smeared across the front pages for days that summer).
Italian tax authorities have been cracking down in these recent years on high profile celebrities who declare they live abroad, and have chased after Max Biaggi, Loris Capirossi, the late Luciano Pavarotti, former Olympic skier and gold medalist Alberto Tomba, former road cyclist Marco Cipollini, porn star Rocco Siffredi – just to name a few – to help stir up public outrage and persuade everyone to declare income, but these scare tatics are slowly backfiring in this economic recession, as even poor and simple Joe Public’s spending habits have come under the close scrutiny of the tax man.