In order to benefit from the impatriate tax regime introduced by Article 16 of Legislative Decree 147/2015, the impatriate workers must submit a written request to the employer.
This request must contain:
– general information (name, surname and date of birth of the employee);
– fiscal code;
– the indication of the date of return to Italy and the one of the first employment in Italy (in case of successive assumptions or more employment relationships);
– the declaration to possess the requisites envisaged by the regime for which application is requested;
– the indication of the current residence in Italy;
– the commitment to promptly communicate any change in residence before the expiry of the minimum period provided for by the law;
– the declaration of not simultaneously benefiting from the tax incentives provided by other regimes such article 44 D.L. 78/2010, Law 238/2010, Article 16 of Legislative Decree 147/2015 and Article 24-bis Tuir.
The employer must recognize the benefit from the pay period following the request and, at the time of the adjustment, from the date of the hiring, by applying the withholding tax on the taxable amount reduced to the percentage of taxable income foreseen by the tax incentive scheme (50% for “impatriate” workers), to whom the relative deductions will be commensurate.
In the event that the employer has not been able to recognize the facility, the tax payer can apply it, in the presence of the requirements established by law, directly in the tax return (Modello Unico). In this case, the work income must be indicated already in the reduced measure.
With regard to self-employed workers, they will be able to access the preferential tax regime directly at the time the tax return is presented or, alternatively, they may benefit from the facilitation when applying the withholding tax made by the client pursuant to of article 25 of Presidential Decree 600/1973.
The client, at the time of payment, must operate the withholding tax of 20% provided for in article 25 D.P.R. 600/1973 on the taxable amount reduced by the percentage of taxable income foreseen by the tax incentive scheme for which the worker has submitted a written request (equal to 50%).
With regard to the amount of the benefit, the Article 1, paragraph 150, letter a), n. 2 of the 2017 Budget Law changed the percentage of income subject to taxation provided by Article 16 of Legislative Decree 147/2015, establishing that the income will be taxed just by fifty percent of its amount, with effect from January 1, 2017 (in the pre-amendment version the percentage of taxation was set at 70%).
The tax benefit for impatriate workers will persist for five tax periods and, specifically, for that one in which the person transfers the tax residence in Italy and for the four subsequent tax periods.
The beneficiary of the incentives loses the benefit if the residence in Italy is not maintained for at least two years. In this case the benefits already used are recovered, with the application of the relative penalties and interests.
Finally, Agenzia delle Entrate, in circular 17 / E / 2017, specified that the two-year periodo of stay in the State starts from the tax period in which the worker becomes fiscally resident in Italy. For example, if the worker has moved to Italy in March 2016, and has therefore acquired the tax residence for the entire year (having satisfied the residence requirement for most of the tax period), the two-year period may be considered completed on 3 July 2017, that is to say, after the 183 days referred to in the aforementioned article 2, paragraph 2, Tuir, which determine the tax residence for the entire year.
In the case, instead, where the worker has moved to Italy in November 2016, so he can not therefore be considered fiscally resident in Italy in that year, the two-year period will begin to run from the next tax period (2017) and may be considered on 3 July 2018, once the 183 days referred to in the aforementioned Article 2, paragraph 2, Tuir have passed.