The Tax Burden in the Agricultural Sector: from Vanoni to Calderoli

The aim of this paper is to analyze the tax burden on the Italian agricultural sector from 1981 to 2008. The focus is on differences between agricultural firms and other firms, between single and corporate firms, and between firms located in different regions. Throughout the period considered the tax burden on agricultural firms has proved much lighter than on other firms; within the agricultural sector the taxes on corporate firms have been much higher than the taxes on single firms; the firms located in the northern regions, which are usually the more efficient ones, paid much more in taxes than firms located in the other regions. This scenario will be affected by recent laws on local taxation, but their quantitative impact does not seem particularly significant.