At €60 the limit below which merchants are not obliged to accept electronic payments – Wants to increase the cash purchase limit to €5,000
The Italian Prime Minister, Georgia Meloni, as part of her government’s latest economic measures, has announced that she wants to raise the threshold below which merchants are not obliged to accept “electronic payments” by card to €60. At the same time, the government of Rome wants to increase the possibility of paying in cash, up to 5,000 euros. For the definitive adoption of the measure, however, the completion of a relevant dialogue with the European Commission is expected.
The specific intention of her new government of Rome caused a series of criticisms with the main argument being that tax evasion in the commercial sector is increasing in this way.
With today’s video on Facebook, with which she addresses the citizens and calls it “The notes of Georgia”, the Italian prime minister wanted to defend her choice and underlined:
“The limit on cash payments creates a problem for our economy. We are in a European market, this limit only makes sense if it applies to everyone. In Europe there are many, different limits for the use of cash, but also countries that have not established it. Germany has no cash limit, and neither does Austria, which borders Italy. Anyone who has cash and wants to spend it prefers to do it in other countries.” According to the head of the Italian government, “in her country, the year in which the smallest tax evasion was recorded was 2010, when payments were allowed in cash up to 5,000 euros».
“The more the cash limit increases, the less tax evasion is encouraged. If I can’t legally spend some money, which I have available for a thousand different reasons, I will tend to do it undeclared, “said Georgia Meloni online.
Referring finally to card payments, she added: “Our government is considering not requiring merchants to accept electronic payments for small amounts from now on. Up to 60 euros we would not like the relevant obligation to apply. We will see how the dialogue with the European Commission will be concluded, but the obligation, for such low amounts, affects the traders a lot.”
It is recalled that until today in Italy merchants are obliged to accept card payments, regardless of the amount, while the limit for the use of cash for payments has been set at 2,000 euros and, before the intervention of the Meloni government, it was decided to reduce it to 1,000 euros from on January 1, 2023.
RES-EMP
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