• Home /
• News /
• 2010 /
• may /
• Italy: Customs authority reconstructs tax fraud through motorway "Telepass" data

Italy: Customs authority reconstructs tax fraud through motorway "Telepass" data

01 May 2010

On 27 May 2010, the Guardia di Finanza (GdF, customs and excise police) reported that it had uncovered an important tax fraud operation worth almost 112m Euros by two Swiss-based wholesale textile and clothing companies which did not pay any tax in Italy, although most of their activity and profits resulted from their operations in Italy between 2004 and 2008. The reconstruction of the company cars' movements by using data from their "Telepass" cards which leave records of their passages through motorway toll points, was a key element of the investigation by the GdF of Olgiate Comasco (Lombardy, near the Swiss border), with the cooperation of the Italian motorway company Autostrade per l'Italia spa. Apart from revealing extensive movements around Italy and across the Italian-Swiss borders, they showed that the company directors' presence in Italy was almost stable, and a large majority of their network of clients was also based in Italy.

The Telepass spa company has been operating since December 2007 and its cards are marketed as a way to avoid queues at motorway toll points through automated payment by using a card that is read by optical devices at the toll barrier and is kept in the customer's car, which is either pre-paid or linked to a customer's bank account. It boasts having 5.7 million active customers, with over seven million Telepass and two million Viacard automated payment cards currently in use. Sources: Il Giornale 28.5.2010; Repubblica, 27.5.2010; Stampa, 27.5.2010.