VeRa — Italy's AI risk-scoring algorithm for tax-evasion detection

VeRa (Verifiche e Riscontri Automatizzati) is Italy's AI tax-risk-scoring algorithm, run by the Agenzia delle Entrate with state ICT company Sogei, reaching operational scale in 2022. It ingests e-invoices, bank-account data, the property register, motor-vehicle records and customs filings to compute a composite risk score per taxpayer.

Risk scores are used to prioritise audits and voluntary-disclosure nudges; personally identifying data are pseudonymised before analysis; an AI chatbot was added in 2023 to flag anomalies in real-time VAT returns for human officers. Law no. 111/2023 gave the Agency formal statutory authority to use AI for compliance detection.

In 2022 VeRa flagged more than one million high-risk VAT cases; the Italian Revenue Agency attributed prevention of more than €6.8 billion in fraud that year, against €20.2 billion recovered overall from tax-evasion enforcement.

The European Commission's Technical Support Instrument provided independent documentation of the approach; similar risk-scoring concepts exist in other OECD countries, though VeRa itself has not been formally transferred to another jurisdiction.