World Notes Italy

Italians are notorious for not paying their taxes, but with the government staggering under annual deficits of more than $100 billion, Rome can no longer afford to wink at deadbeats. To embarrass delinquents, Finance Minister Rino Formica launched Operation Glass House, giving computerized lists of the past decade's 270,000 tax evaders to the press. The lists include such figures as leather-goods entrepreneur Roberto Gucci and Benito Mussolini's son Romano.

The nation's No. 1 tax cheat is Domenico Cannarozzo, 42, who told Rome that his income between 1983 and 1985, when he was unemployed, was only about $9,000. In fact, Cannarozzo failed to report roughly $21 million during those years. His overdue tax bill: more than $13 million. So far, the government has had difficulty locating Cannarozzo. But that should be no surprise to Italian tax authorities: for every delinquent tax bill they manage to identify, they succeed in recovering just 24% of the money.