Welcome to Casoria: Antonio Manfredi, director of CAM (Contemporary Art Museum) of Casoria, burns a painting of French artist Severine Bourguignon (Reuters/Stringer)
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Welcome to Naples (yes, it’s near Casoria) where books are missing from an ancient library.
You just can’t put your adverts on the first free wall you find. You have to use the right places and pay the fees the City has set. Unless…
Unless you’re a political party. In that case you can take advantage of the exemption that the Parliament (i.e. the same political parties) has ruled, stating that the fine is reduced to a mere € 1.000,00 for every province. This means that the city of Milan – that was supposed to receive an estimate € 6.000.000,00 (yes, 6 millions euros) will have to be satisfied with less than a dozen thousands. And you still have more than 30 days to use…
It’s all true! And it has happened before…
You’ve made it! Italy, at last! You walk along via Veneto… ah, Fellini! La Dolce Vita! Is it a dream? No. You get to your car, parked along many others in a nearby street. You find a ticket for parking where you weren’t supposed to. The fine is € 38,00 but there’s no sign that indicates that parking is not permitted… don’t worry, if you got a ticket that you think wasn’t deserved… you can appeal to an onorary magistrate: the “Giudice di Pace” that will, in a matter of few months, decide if you have to pay or not.
Oh, btw, don’t forget to pay the € 38,00 tax needed to file the appeal. What? You’re asking me why pay the same amount of money you’re asking back? Dunno, you came to Italy, we didn’t call you. We don’t even notice this sort of things anymore…
The novel by H.G. Wells sound more plausible than italian reality:
the paper you see below is the summoning for the hearing in the Appeal Court in Rome that rules over taxes: it is set for january 18th 2011, at 10:30 (don’t be late). The object will be an appeal filed by the defendant in the year 1995 (yes, 16 years before) for a tax – allegedly not payed in 1989 (yes, 22 years before).
I have to keep myself in good shape and good health. It is november 2010 and by the end of this month I’ll finish paying my taxes.
Well, not all of them. 99% to be precise.
But no on what I have earned in 2009. No, on what I will earn in 2010… that still has 65 days to live…
This is the timeline:
june 2010: I file my form and finish paying what I have to pay on my 2009 earnings;
june 2010: I pay, along with what I owe for 2010, 40% of 99% of what I have payed this year;
november 2010: I pay the remaining 60%;
june 2011: I’ll finish paying my 2010 taxes and start paying for the 2011 taxes…. and so on…
Billy Mack is a detective down in Texas
You know he knows just exactly what the facts is
He ain’t gonna let those two escape justice
He makes his livin’ off of the people’s taxes
I took this picture this morning here, although at the time the sign wasn’t there… it’s where the light blue car is parked.
3 “selfpromoting” posters of “Popolo Delle Libertà”, the party that rules Rome, Lazio (the region where Rome is) and the whole Italy are covering the poster advetising a french movie, starring Gerard Depardieu.
I don’t particularly love french cinema…, but the producers pays a tax to display that poster and they find it illegally covered by the party that rules the city, the region and the nation that should protect their rights.
But pay for the gas… next time you’ll be driving along the Amalfi coast or among the Chianti hills remember that everytime you stop to fill the tank this is what you’re paying for:
Among the “taxes” are such unbelievable “items” such as public funding of the following events:
and – mind that – the VAT is added on top of all the previous taxes, not on the net price.
Yea, baby you can drive my car, yes I’m going to be a star…
