Blockchain Technology To Support Italian Tax Process

Abstract

The rapid spread of blockchain technology and all its applications has aroused great interest from the scientific world and is likely to change many business contexts in the coming years. The fiscal area represents a strategic sector for the public administration and the recent introduction of the electronic tax process by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance has made it possible to significantly improve the resolution of tax disputes. With the aim of overcoming some of its data security limits, in this work we propose a blockchain based solution designed to improve the conduct of the digital tax process by making it safer, faster and with lower transaction costs. In particular, the main improvements relate to two different dimensions of analysis, on the one hand a better level of privacy guaranteed by the introduction of trial files within a blockchain network, on the other hand the use of smart contracts ensures the enforceability of the court's decision and reduces transaction costs related to the conduct of the tax process. The specific model designed is based on a permissioned blockchain and an algorithm for reaching distributed consent, for which we describe in detail the principles of operation that allow the different entities involved to take part in the tax process.