On 6 December 2017, changes to the Italian Value Added Tax (VAT) Law, introduced by Law Decree no. 148/2017 (Law no. 172/2017, published in the Official Gazette no. 284 of 5 December 2017) entered into force.

Specifically, the Law provides for:

• Changes regarding the Communication of issued and received invoices (so called Spesometro)
• Application of the split payment mechanism to all companies controlled by the Public Administration (PA)

Communication of issued and received invoices

With reference to the Communication of issued and received invoices, the Law provides that:

• No penalties due to the incorrect filing of data are applicable with reference to the Communication for the first semester of 2017 if the correct information is filed by 28 February 2018.
• The taxpayer has the option to file the Communication data semi-annually by indicating the VAT registration/tax number of the subjects involved (the fiscal number, for non-taxable persons), the date and number of the invoice, the taxable amount, tax rate and VAT amount, and the type of transaction if the VAT amount is not indicated in the invoice.
• The taxpayer has the option to file the data of the summary document instead of indicating the data of every issued and received invoice if the cumulative amount is lower than €300. At a minimum, the taxpayer has to indicate the tax number of the supplier and the tax number of the customer, date and number of the summary documents, total taxable amount and total tax amount, separately indicated by VAT rate.

Furthermore, for all the national administrations, regions, provinces, municipalities, mountain communities, university institutions, autonomous institutes, the Chambers of commerce, industry, crafts and agriculture, all the national, regional and local authorities, National Health Service's administrations, companies and entities, the Agency for the Negotiation Representation of Public Administrations (ARAN) and agencies of national interest, the Communication of issued invoices towards the final consumers is not required.

The Communication also is not required for the agricultural entrepreneurs, living in mountain areas, under a VAT exemption.

Application of the split payment mechanism to all companies controlled by the PA

The same Law also provides that the split payment mechanism is applicable to:

1. National, regional and local economic public entities, including special companies and public service companies
2. Foundations owned by public administrations for an overall percentage of the endowment fund not lower than 70%
3. Companies controlled by the Government or by individual Ministries
4. Companies directly or indirectly controlled by PAs or by the companies under (1), (2), (3) and (5)
5. Companies owned – for an overall percentage of capital not lower than 70% - by PAs or by entities and companies under (1), (2), (3) and (4)
6. Listed Companies included in the FTSE MIB index of Borsa Italiana (i.e., the Italian Stock Exchange) identified for VAT purposes

Application of the above provision will be set by a Decree of the Minister of the Economy and Finance.

These provisions are effective as from 1 January 2018 with reference to transactions for which an invoice is issued from this date on.

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CONTACTS

For additional information with respect to this Alert, please contact the following:

Studio Legale Tributario, Rome

• Nicoletta Mazzitelli
  nicoletta.mazzitelli@it.ey.com
• Valentina Casale
  valentina.casale@it.ey.com
• Emma Greco
  emma.greco@it.ey.com

Studio Legale Tributario, Milan

• Stefano Pavesi
  stefano.pavesi@it.ey.com
• Anselmo Martellotta
  anselmo.martellotta@it.ey.com
• Marco Cantisani
  marco.cantisani@it.ey.com

Studio Legale Tributario, Treviso

• Fabio Babolin
  fabio.babolin@it.ey.com

Studio Legale Tributario, Turin

• Anna Paola Deiana
  anna-paola.deiana@it.ey.com

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ATTACHMENT

PDF version of this Tax Alert