Nick Schifrin and Phoebe Natanson wrote an article describing Italy’s latest initiative to crackdown on tax evaders: pull over luxury cars and ask to see the driver’s tax ID. Highlights of the article include:

• The Italian government is trying to change a culture that prides the ability to dodge tax.
• The police have identified over 2,000 luxury car owners that have underpaid taxes.
• In one tax blitz the police investigated the owners of 133 luxury cars and found that almost a third declared incomes of less than $30,000 per year.
• The crackdown appears to be working. $12 billion in unpaid taxes have been recovered, and stationary stores are seeing rising demands for tax receipt rolls.
• There has been a backlash. Letter bombs and Molotov cocktails have targeted tax collection buildings. One man held a tax collector hostage for six hours at gun point.
• To avoid the attention many have tried to sell their Ferraris. But the surge in supply has caused prices for them to drop by 20%

To read more about the plumber who drove a Ferrari, the small business owners who have committed suicide, the size of the underground economy in Italy, and why one Ferrari owner chose to retire his luxury-car for non-tax related reasons, click here.

Source: ABC News