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Italy is the worst in Europe for tax collection

While countries across Europe have been boosting their state coffers with tax collection, Italy has seen revenues fall this year.

Italy is the worst in Europe for tax collection
Italy’s tax revenue fell by 0.3 percent from January to August this year. Photo: Chris/Flickr

Italy’s tax revenue fell by 0.3 percent from January to August this year, compared to 2012, the country’s finance ministry has announced.

The failure of recession-hit Italy to collect taxes stands in stark contrast to other European countries. France raked in an impressive 8.4 percent more revenue, followed by Portugal with 6.3 percent.

Europe’s largest economy, Germany, collected 2.6 percent more taxes than last year, while Italy’s southern rival Spain drew in 0.2 percent more money.

Italy was the only country of seven profiled to see a fall in tax revenue.

The announcement comes just weeks after the European Commission said Italy was losing €36.1 billion a year to value-added tax (VAT) evasion. Italy fared the worst out of 26 EU countries in the study, with losses largely attributed to fraud.

Despite struggling to collect taxes, Italy’s government this week announced a draft budget which included tax breaks of €14.6 billion over three years.

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