Italian police said they had discovered a billion-euro fraud to gain unlawful tax credits using government incentives intended to stimulate house improvements.
Finance Police in the northern town of Savona said they had arrested 311 people and confiscated tax credits totaling one billion euros ($1.09 billion) after searching 85 enterprises in ten Italian provinces.
In recent years, Italy has implemented a number of programs aimed at strengthening the economy, including the Superbonus, which allowed homeowners to deduct 110% of the cost of energy-saving work from their taxes, or to utilize the large tax credit as payment when doing business with builders or banks.
Investigators say the initiatives are easily abused and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government revealed last month that it had uncovered 16 billion euros of fraud tied to the various bonus schemes.
Meanwhile, Italian lawmakers approved measures to reduce the pricey incentives, which, in addition to enticing crooks, have proven far more popular than predicted among genuine homeowners, causing a hole in the state’s budget.
According to the police, the billion euros in tax credits “were completely non-existent, as they were obtained through the use of false invoices for work that was never done”.
According to the police, the investigations revealed how the alleged swindle in the province of Savona was reproduced nationwide by other firms, some of which turned out to be empty shell companies.
