Welcome to the Hilarious World of Taxation!
Ah, taxation—the one subject that makes people bolt for the door faster than a Royal Family member at a family reunion. If you thought taxes were boring, wait till you hear about the recent meeting on 15 October, where the National Union of Chambers of Tax Lawyers (UNCAT) convened with the oh-so-illustrious Fiorenzo Sirianni from the Ministry of the Economy. This isn’t your average sitcom, though; it’s more like a dark comedy about the ever-exciting **Tax Justice Database**—and let me tell you, I almost chuckled my coffee out through my nose!
The Meeting: A Taxing Affair
Picture this: a gaggle of tax lawyers huddled around, plotting how to make taxes not just bearable but actually useful. The main course of discussion? You guessed it: **digital initiatives** and projects that would make the tax system as exciting as, I don’t know—watching paint dry! Buckle up, you might get dizzy from all the jargon!
The Union hand-delivered an elaborately detailed document addressing the current state of affairs with the Tax Justice Database. They must have spent more hours on that document than I spend deciding what to have for breakfast! Proving that an effective tax system is tantamount to a well-oiled machine—much like a room full of comedians trying to find the punchline… more about that later.
Gianni Di Matteo: Tax President Extraordinaire
“The Tax Justice Database is certainly a useful tool.” Here’s a serious question: if a tool is so useful, why doesn’t it come with a manual that’s legible? UNCAT’s President Gianni Di Matteo was there, along with a lively band of tax aficionados, literally taking the “tax” out of “taxation.” But all jokes aside, they appreciate Mr. Sirianni’s willingness to listen, which is commendable—like a husband who actually asks for directions!
Observations from the Legal Circus
And it gets better! The observations fall into three mouth-watering categories:
- Effectiveness of interaction with the user
- Search criteria (or lack thereof!)
- Reliability of the answers (which may or may not involve a crystal ball).
First up, the user experience is so “improvable,” it could audition for a reality show! Currently, you must digest complete sentences without so much as a clever headline—sorry folks, no cliff notes here! I mean, who has time for a literary debate while sifting through a mound of legalese?
Then we have usability: the system does not indicate progressive reading of sentences—so good luck keeping track! The digital road to tax justice suddenly feels like a game of Monopoly, where you keep landing on ‘Go’ but never pass ‘Collect $200’!
The Reactions: What’s Next?
Dr. Sirianni, bless his heart, appeared receptive to the feedback! He laid out a roadmap that reads like a treasure map for digital transformation. “We need high-quality judicial data,” he declares—well, don’t we all want that!
It may not be as entertaining as a stand-up gig at The Comedy Store, but it’s refreshing to see professionals trying to improve the system for the good of the people. Here’s hoping this digital revolution can smooth out the wrinkles in the Tax Justice Database so it doesn’t just spill coffee on its tax returns!
Final Thoughts: A Light at the End of the Tax Tunnel
So, what did we learn from this episode of “As the Tax Turns”? It’s that even in the world of tax law, dialogue is a thing! Improvement is possible, and who knows, maybe one day our tax systems will inspire a Netflix series titled “The Adventures of Tax Justice.” Until then, we’ll just have to keep laughing through the chaos—and perhaps donating a little to *Taxation Comedy Relief*! Taxation may never be funny, but if we all chuckle a little, it might feel less like a prison sentence!
On 15 October the National Union of Chambers of Tax Lawyers (UNCAT) was received by the director of the MEF Fiorenzo Sirianni.
The meeting
On 15 October, the meeting was held at the Mef between the UNCAT delegates and the Director of Tax Justice Fiorenzo Sirianni. The discussion between Uncat and the Tax Justice Directorate of the Ministry of the Economy was extensive, and concerned new digitalisation initiatives and projects.
The Union has delivered a detailed document analyzing the current functioning of the Tax Justice Database, which collects the observations also received from the local Tax Chambers, which in recent months have “tested” the effectiveness of jurisprudential research.
Statements by the UNCAT President
“The Tax Justice Database is certainly a useful tool and we appreciate the invitation of the Director of Tax Justice, Fiorenzo Sirianni, to highlight the areas for improvement and his willingness to listen, demonstrated in today’s meeting. We believe that the direct and continuous involvement of operators in these important projects is not only in line with the same indications contained in the AI Act but is an indispensable channel to ensure full fairness, trust and reliability”explained the Uncat president Gianni Di Matteo, received on 15 October together with the delegation composed of the secretary councilor Silvia Siccardi and the treasurer councilor Raffaella D’Anna, as well as the councilors Paola Pregliasco, Michele Tiengo, Ida Pansini.
The observations
They fall into three categories:
- effectiveness of interaction with user
- search criteria
- reliability of the answers.
With regard to the first, UNCAT found an improvable user experience, since the sentences are, at the moment, reported in full without either abstracts or maximizations, specifying that, at the same time, in the event of an evolution in this sense, it will be necessary to share the technological choices and algorithmic.
Regarding usability, the system does not indicate the progressive reading of the sentences, with the risk of having to re-read the same text again; therefore, it was highlighted that it would be useful to insert links via direct link with similar and/or referred sentences. Related to this are the observations relating to the search criteria: the obligatory nature of the search criteria, according to a progressive logic, risks “blocking” the search. For example, the “words” field is mandatory if the year of the search is not indicated, however it may not be useful if you search by topic. Conversely, it is not possible to carry out a search by normative extremes and, even attempting the search with logical operators, the result comes out distorted.
Regarding the reliability of the results, the “judgment outcome” search includes conciliations (over 3,500 sentences currently) and amnesties (over 38 thousand sentences), without the possibility of getting an idea of the direction of the judgment in the context of the matter . In cases where there is a lack of appeal, the wording “appeal not present”, according to the same explicit observations, is insufficient, having to specify whether the sentence has become final, particularly in the case of terms that are still current.
The reply of the Director of the MEF
The Dr. Sirianni, with his team, accepted the observations also in view of the announced improvement of the database and illustrated the next steps, from the ministerial decree implementing the electronic tax process, to the improvements currently being defined for the database, guaranteeing the openness to discussions with specialist lawyers:
“We have obtained many important clarifications and we are confident that the common objective of obtaining judicial data of the highest quality is an excellent starting point towards transparent and fair digitalisation”.
