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LA STAMPA

Sicilian Honeymoon Is Over: Palermo Tax Collectors Want Your Wedding Receipts

Sicilian tax collectors are cracking down on a large, underground industry: weddings. Because many weddings services on the Italian island are done off the books, newlyweds must name the suppliers of their dresses, cakes and photos -- and whether they han

Sicilian
Sicilian
Laura Anello

Life as a newlywed couple is never easy. After months of preparations, the wedding celebrations, and the return from the honeymoon, the new twosome should be set to finally start their new life together. But in Sicily, rather than happily-ever-after, newlyweds run in to a visit from the taxman.

The tax-collection agency for the Sicilian capital of Palermo has launched a crackdown on tax evasion in the lucrative wedding business.
Some 2,000 couples from Palermo who have gotten married in the last five years have received a form from the local tax office requiring a full accounting for every detail of their ceremonies, which in Sicilian tradition tend to be extravagant affairs even if the bride and groom come from modest backgrounds.

The newlyweds are required to list who provided flowers, photos, wedding gifts, and the bride's bouquet, how much they paid and, most importantly, if they have received sales receipts, which are supposed to be mandatory for every sale or service in Italy. 

Despite the economic crisis, the wedding business is still very successful in Sicily, where an average ceremony costs 25,000 Euros. On the other hand, many dodge taxes. The sales receipts are the proofs that they are paying VAT. Too often they do not.

A young professional who got married in Palermo three months ago spoke with La Stampa of his experience. "A famous local photographer asked 2,500 Euros, but he invoiced only 1,000 Euros. We didn't receive sales receipts for the car we rented and for my wife and the other women's hairdresser and make up artist, for whom we paid a total of 1,500 Euros." On the other hand, the florist and the restaurant owner released receipts that included VAT. But the professional did not receive receipts from the violinist and organist who played in church.

It is pretty common. This is why Palermo Internal Revenue Service has started an investigation asking the newlyweds to declare all their wedding expenses. They won't be persecuted for evasion, but they are required to denounce the tax dodgers, under penalty of a fine.

Read the original article in Italian

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Society

Big Brother For The People: India's CCTV Strategy For Cracking Down On Police Abuse

"There is nothing fashionable about installing so many cameras in and outside one’s house," says a lawyer from a Muslim community. And yet, doing this has helped members of the community prove unfair police action against them.

A woman is walking in the distance while a person holds a military-style gun close up

Survellance and tight security at the Lal Chowk area in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India on October 4, 2022

Sukanya Shantha

MUMBAI — When sleuths of the National Investigating Agency suddenly descended on human rights defender and school teacher Abdul Wahid Shaikh’s house on October 11, he knew exactly what he needed to do next.

He had been monitoring the three CCTVs that are installed on the front and the rear of his house — a chawl in Vikhroli, a densely populated area in suburban Mumbai. The cameras told him that a group of men and women — some dressed in Mumbai police’s uniform and a few in civil clothes — had converged outside his house. Some of them were armed and few others with batons were aggressively banging at the door asking him to immediately let them in.

This was not the first time that the police had landed at his place at 5 am.

When the policemen discovered the CCTV cameras outside his house, they began hitting it with their batons, destroying one of them mounted right over the door. This action was captured by the adjacent CCTV camera. Shaikh, holed up in his house with his wife and two children, kept pleading with the police to stop destroying his property and simply show them an official notice.

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