La riforma tributaria della Commissione Cosciani: una visione d'insieme

Abstract. This paper aims at providing an overview of the tax reform that was proposed for Italy by the Commission chaired by Cesare Cosciani in 1964. The Cosciani Report provides a unitary and comprehensive reform of the tax system, deeply rooted in the economic theory of taxation and, at the same time, extremely aware of the implementation problems. The main theoretical and practical points tackled by the Commission and the goals it intended to reach are considered and the set of taxes that was proposed is analyzed in the paper. It results a modern and highly consistent project. However, the Commission’s tax design was significantly altered by the subsequent Committee for the implementation of the reform and further important changes were made during the parliamentary passage. Therefore, while the tax system that was introduced in Italy at the beginning of the seventies — and is still in force — originated from the Commission’s proposals, it deviates from them in several crucial points.