LA FINANZA PUBBLICA ITALIANA. RAPPORTO 2007

The Report on the Italian Public Finance is an annual publication with a twofold aim: review and evaluation of developments during the year in the first part and a monographic in-depth analysis of a structural policy issue in the second part. The seven papers in the first part review the following themes: budgetary policies, taxation, social security, contrast to poverty and family aid, health, housing, fiscal federalism, public utilities and liberalization policies. The main underlying issues are the determinants of the unexpected positive increase of tax revenues, the enhanced fiscal responsibilities of different levels of government, the structural reforms under discussion.National economic policies are conditioned by European union’s rules and by the demand of stronger responsibilities of sub-national governments as well. The six papers of the second part of the Report examine two aspects of the interactions between Eu, national and local policies. The first aspect relates to State aids, that is the actions of single member States that benefit enterprises or economic sectors so to violate competition rules. The papers examine how the Eu control on State aids has been interpreted and exercised, its impact on the Italian industrial policies and the problems it poses to the tax policies of the Italian regions. The second aspect concerns tax harmonisation. In the field of direct taxation, the focus is on the main consequences on the Italian tax design following the pronounces of the European Court of Justice aimed to remove discriminatory laws. In the field of harmonized indirect taxes, such as Vat and excises, it is analyzed how the existing differences across countries in the effective implementation of these taxes introduce deviation from neutrality and free competition.