From Monday the Italians traders and professionals are required to enable its customers to pay their purchases and fees over 30 euro by debit or credit card.
In that way, the Ministry of Finance aims to reduce tax evasion, which continues to be particularly high in Italy, according to the Italian media.

However, freelancers emphasize that the cost for the acquisition of equipment that will allow payments to be made with “plastic money” is over than 1,000 euro.

This new initiative against tax evasion is something which at first seems difficult to grasp: No penalty applies for holders of commercial businesses and professional activities that don’t want to adapt.

According to calculations by the Italian authorities, the informal sector generates an annual turnover which corresponds to 17% of GDP.

The Bank of Italy estimates that each year on average each Italian makes 74 payments with “plastic money” against 194 on average in other countries of the Eurozone.