Figures of Capital Levy Declarations

«The Economist», 21 Agosto 1920, pp. 300-301

Turin, August 14

The first figures are available of the number of taxpayers who have made the declaration of estate possessed at December 31, 1919, for the purpose of assessment of the extraordinary capital levy imposed by decrees of November 24, 1919, and April 22, 1920. The statistics relate only, as yet, to the number of the declarations filed by taxpayers and not to their amount. But they are interesting enough:

The declarations are evenly distributed over all Italy. At the head of the list (the scale is descending according to column 4) are the great manufacturing and trading regions of Liguria, Lombardy, and Piedmont. Latium is third because of the great concentration of rich men in the capital, Rome. Aemilia occupies a high position as one of the most progressive agricultural regions. At the bottom are the poor regions of the South of Italy, and the two islands of Sicilia and Sardinia, with little or no industry. The wealth in Italy is not concentrated in one single city, as is seen by the column 2, which gives the figures for the capital cities of each region: Genoa (Liguria), Milan (Lombardy) Turin (Piedmont), Bonania (Aemilia), Naples (Campania), Florence (Tuscany), &c. In Latium, however, Rome absorbs nearly all the declarations. If you add to the 115,650 declarations of the capital cities of the regions another 66,000 declarations of other cities head of provincia (corresponding to French departments or English counties), you have a total of 181,650 urban against 179,430 rural declarations.

The number of declarations which ought to be made to the capital levy is by no means complete. The House of Deputies, in passing the Bill for the compulsory inscription of all stocks and shares and debentures – of which I will have more to say when it is passed by the Senate – has inserted in the Bill a clause in virtue of which an extension of time shall be given to taxpayers for filing a complete declaration as to bearer securities not previously declared. This is a sort of bill of indemnity given to reticent taxpayers to make up for their past reticence. The Government will have to fix the new date for new declarations. A great number of new declarations will also have to be made when the land has been valued at its true value at December 31, 1919. At present the valuation is made on an empirical basis, by multiplying by 325 the land tax paid to the Exchequer in 1916; with the consequence that many proprietors fell by this system under the exemption limit of 50,000 lire, and have not made any declaration at all. The land valuation will be a truly gigantic task, so that it may be justly said that the so-called capital levy will not be made at all at a given moment – say, December 31, 1919 – but will go on for many years to come.

Up to date nothing is known of declarations made in foreign States by Italians and foreigners liable to the levy. The foreigners are liable only for the part of their capital which is legally domiciled in Italy; while Italians are liable also for a part of the wealth acquired in foreign countries after August 1, 1914. But the difficulties of assessment will be even greater than for the wealth existing in Italy.