NYTimes.

Massimiliano D’Angeli, a criminal defense lawyer, said he believed that if more services like those provided by lawyers, plumbers and electricians were tax deductible rather than subject to the nation’s 23 percent value-added tax, people would have an incentive to ask for receipts. Instead, many workers and professionals offer a “VAT discount” for payment under the table.

I would be more likely to pay tax, were I not subject to taxation. It's also pretty clear what the "plumbers and electricians" are doing here. In Italy as in the States, they are the bone and sinew, the real workers, the real job creators. Lawyers... not so much.