Migrants, don’t you pay taxes? No more residence permit. Here is the new proposal from the League

The League doesn’t like tax evasion. That of foreigners even less. Precisely for this reason, on 13 October a group of members of the Carroccio presented a new bill to the Chamber. The text would amend the legislation that identifies the criteria for issuing the renewal of the residence permit. If until now it was necessary to demonstrate a minimum income that would allow the survival of the applicant, now taxes are being introduced to hinder the measure.

The proposal: “With rights also duties”

The Northern League deputies are among the signatories of the proposal Simone Bordonali, Richard Molinari And Dominic Furgiuele. The latter also ended up at the center of controversy for having presented the proposal, which was later reversed, to grant bonuses of up to 20 thousand euros to spouses who celebrate the wedding ceremony in church.

“Together with the residence permit, the foreigner is given a wealth of rights whose conservation is closely associated with his full social and occupational integration. This dual condition requires, among other things, by the foreigner, the observance of a precise framework of duties, which include the regular payment of taxes and contributions”, reads the text of the new proposal. “The sanction of non-renewal of the residence permit constitutes an effective deterrent against recourse to incorrect conduct unrelated to the sphere of strict legality – the deputies continue – as well as harmful to the national economy, carried out by foreigners who aspire to live in the Italian territory”.

Council of State: “Evasion is not a reason for refusal”

In 2018 the Tar of Florence rejected the denial of the document by the authorities. “As a result of tax evasion, the Police Headquarters cannot automatically deduce the non-existence of income resulting from documentation whose authenticity is not disputed”, wrote the judges. A decision based on a sentence of the previous year of State Council, the highest administrative body. In it, the magistrates clarified that “tax evasion cannot be a reason, not even an indirect one, for refusal to renew the residence permit, as the legislator has not foreseen that tax evasion is an impediment, considered in itself. For which a possible situation of evasion pertaining to the immigrant, regularly ascertained, – the sentence continued – must be the object of typical measures, adopted by the competent bodies of the tax administration and by the social security institutions, aimed at combating evasion through both the credit recovery is the sanction of tax and fiscal non-compliance”.

The new proposal by Northern League exponents intervenes to legitimize the no to the renewal of the residence permit for tax reasons. According to the deputies, the text would repair an “obvious economic damage to the State” which “ends up representing a factor of unfair competition to the detriment of legal workers, whether Italian or foreign”. A proposal which, between 3 million and 600 thousand holders of residence permits, sanctions tax evaders and irregular employees.