da Marco Vergani | Ago 27, 2019 | Impatriate workers
The recent “Decreto Crescita” (Law Decree 34/2019) has modified the regime of impatriates with regard for professional sportsmen. The new discipline – contained in article 16, paragraphs 5-quater and 5-quinquies of Legislative Decree 147/2015 – refers to the “athletes, coaches, technical sports directors and athletic trainers” professionals belonging to the following italian sports federations affiliated to the CONI: FIGC and Serie A leagues, B and C (soccer), Fip (basketball), Fci (cycling) and Fig (golf). A recent project of Law actually under discussion in the Parliament, establishes, moreover, that the figure of the «sports worker» must be identified, without distinguishing between amateur and professional activities.
These athletes could enjoy a tax exemption – for five years – of 50% of the their labour income or (self-employment), instead of the 70% established for the other employees. They can also benefit from the extension for a further five years, in the presence of at least one minor child or in the event of purchase of a residential property after transfer to Italy (or in the previous 12 months) without the obligation to maintain the property throughout the facilitated period (which could cause some abuse).
When the new impatriate regime for sportsmen will apply?
Article 3 of Law 91/1981 establishes that “the athlete’s performance against payment is the subject of an employment contract”. This presumption makes it possible to include in the favour regime all sums for any reason received, including bonuses and prizes.
In Circular 17 / E / 2017 it was specified that the favour regime is also due to the income related to the activities performed abroad (for example for international competitions) of less than 183 days in the year and that in order to benefit the expatriates must submit a written request to the employer.
The sport contract is considered, instead, self-employment if at least one of the following requirements is met:
- the activity is carried out in the context of a single sporting event or of several events linked together in a short period of time;
- the athlete is not contractually bound to carry out preparatory or training sessions;
- the service, although continuous, does not exceed eight hours per week or five days each month or 30 days each year.
In the latter case (which includes the sports services rendered in favor of the National Teams) the related incomes are considered assimilated to employment work.
The new regime has allowed the application of benefits also to professional athletes – thanks to the elimination of the requirements of high specialization and qualification previously requested – and has facilitated the purchase of athletes, Italian or foreign, coming from abroad.
It is not clear, however, why athletes engaged in other sports and other subjects operating in the sector – such as, for example, sports agents or attorneys – or in different sectors, can fully benefit of the 70% tax reduction.
However I think it would have been preferable to provide for all taxpayers concerned a reduction in the tax rate based on the increase in taxable income, as is the case, for example, in Spain in the context of the “new resident” discipline approved in 2014.
The new impatriate rules will also apply to the sponsorship compensations?
The application of the new impatriate regime places some interpretative difficulties in the presence of compensation for sponsorships and in the case of players’ loans.
The compensation coming from technical sponsors is attributable to the employment relationship if the sportsman sells to society the right of economic exploitation of its image.
Instead, compensation for sponsorships contributes to the formation of self-employment income if the activity is carried out with professionalism and habituality.
In both cases it is possible to benefit from the impatriaite rules. In particular, the condition of the prevailing exercise of the activity in Italy must be respected (and should, to this end, refer to the place where the sporting and photo or video shooting events take place).
Our firm can assist international clients, as we do, not only to relocate their residence to Italy, but also to opt for the new resident not domiciled tax package. Contact us with confidence, we have experience about this matter.
da Marco Vergani | Ago 2, 2019 | E-commerce, IVA, VAT registration in Italy
The first electronic communication of distance sales made through the marketplace must be submitted by 31 October 2019, and includes the period from April to July 2019; if the electronic platform between 13 February and 30 April 2019 has also sold tablets, laptops, gaming consoles and cell phones, the related data will have to be recovered and transmitted. The law-decree 34/2019 (as implemented by the 31th July provision) requires companies which manage Internet marketplaces to transmit some data relating to suppliers on a quarterly basis.
Failure to transmit or send incomplete data shifts the Vat liability to the company responsible for sending the communication, unless he is able to prove that it was paid by the supplier. The provision also impose a ten-year timing for the conservation of documents relating to distance sales starting from the year in which the transaction was carried out.
In general, the communication must be submitted by all those operators who, using electronic platforms, perform activities as facilitators in the sale of goods, allowing buyers and suppliers to be put in contact, who sell goods through a marketplace. On the other hand, those who, while facilitating sales, are just carrying out only one of the following operations are expressly excluded: processing of payments; cataloging or advertising of goods; redirection or transfer of buyers to other electronic interfaces in which goods are sold, without further intervention in the sale.
The communication must therefore be transmitted by all companies, even if they are not residents in Italy, which facilitate distance sales of imported goods or distance sales of goods within the European Union, through the use of a electronic interface. In order to transmit the communication, non-resident companies without a permanent establishment in Italy, are deemed to VAT direct identification or use a tax representative resident in Italy.
For each supplier which has made at least one sale through a marketplace a series of data must be communicated: the data relating to the name or personal data, including residence or domicile, as well as the unique identifier used to make sales facilitated by the electronic interface; the total number of units sold in Italy and, at choice, the total amount of sales prices or the average sales price, expressed in euros.
da Marco Vergani | Giu 26, 2019 | E-commerce
The electronic commerce of goods is exempted from the obligation of issuing an invoice or fiscal receipt. The Revenue Agency, with Resolution 274 / E / 2009, stated that the e-commerce activity is similar to mail order sales and, therefore, is not subject to the obligation of issuing the invoice, if not requested by the customer, and not even the obligation of certification by issuing the tax receipt (article 22, paragraph 1, number 1, of Presidential Decree 633/1972 and article 2, of Presidential Decree 696/1996).
For these reasons, the seller can simply register the daily sales data without the need to issue any fiscal document.
The sale of goods via the Internet is also exempted from the obligation of electronic transmission of the daily sales data, based on the Ministerial Decree 10 May 2019.
da Marco Vergani | Mag 2, 2019 | Impatriate workers
Greater appeal to the tax regimes for impatriate workers (article 16 of the legislative decree 147/2015) with the norms foreseen by the recent Decree n. 34 (Decreto Crescita). In order to favor the return of these subjects to Italy, the Government has strengthened the existing relief measures, relying on the further reduction of the tax base and the extension of their duration.
For those who are resident and transfer their residence in Italy from the tax period following the date of entry into force of the decree, a further reduction in the tax base is foreseen, which goes from 50 to 70%; the income produced will compete for 30 percent.
Work activities – no longer in a managerial position or highly qualified or specialized – must be carried out in the Italian territory, but no longer necessarily in favor of a resident company or one of its subsidiaries. The tax periods of residence abroad prior to the transfer were then reduced from five to two. Confirmed the commitment to reside in Italy for at least two years post-repatriation. The favorable regime can be applied not only to employees, income assimilated and self-employed workers, but even to natural persons who start a business company from the tax period following 31 December 2019.
Italian citizens not registered in the Aire who have returned to Italy from the tax period following 31 December 2019 will also be able to access tax benefits as long as they have resided in another State with which there is an agreement against double taxation in the two periods tax prior to the transfer.
The facility is also extended for another five tax periods in the presence of at least one child who is a minor or dependent, even in pre-adoptive foster care, and the purchase of a residential property in Italy, even by the spouse, cohabitant or children, also in joint ownership.
The tax base is further reduced for the additional five tax periods in favor of workers who have at least three children who are minors or are dependent, even in pre-adoptive foster care, or who have transferred their residence to regions of Southern Italy (Abruzzo, Molise, Campania, Puglia, Basilicata , Calabria, Sardinia, Sicily).
For the facilitation of the return of the brains (reduction by 90% of the income perceived by teachers and researchers) the decree foresees the extension from four to six years of the duration for the subjects that transfer residency in Italy starting from the tax period following 31 December 2019. The duration of the favorable tax regime is further extended to eight years in the presence of at least one minor child or dependent child, including those in pre-adoptive custody, and the purchase of residential property in Italy, also by the spouse, cohabitant or children, also in joint ownership. The duration of the facility is elevated to 11 and 13 years in the presence of two or at least three children respectively. Italian professors and researchers not enrolled in the Aire who have returned to Italy from the tax period subsequent to 31 December 2019 will also be able to access the facilitation provided they have resided in another State with which there is an agreement against double taxation.
Our firm can assist international clients, as we do, not only to relocate their residence to Italy, but also to opt for the new resident not domiciled tax package. Contact us with confidence, we have experience about this matter.
da Marco Vergani | Apr 29, 2019 | Taxation in Italy, Web Tax
Last budget law (number 148/2018) has anchored the launch of the Italian Web Tax to a very precise timing, linked to the issue (by April 30th, precisely) of a series of measures.
In particular, a decree of the MEF in order to establish «the provisions for implementing the digital services tax “.
At the end of all this, and within 60 days of the Mef / Mise decree, the Italian Web Tax will become operational.
Actually the Mef / Mise decree has not yet been issued.
So, at best, the web tax would have started in the second half of the 2019, now any forecast appears to be risky and the possibility of another false start is far from being remote, as already happened with the rule set forth in previous year’s budget law (205/2017).
The tax on digital services designed last winter in some ways is in line with the work of the European Commission merged into the proposed directive of 21 March 2018. From a subjective point of view, the first condition for the application is identified in the exercise of a business activity.
It is also necessary to overcome, during the calendar year, a double threshold of revenues: the total amount, that is “global” of those realized (not less than 750 million euros) and the total revenues deriving from “digital media services »obtained in the italian territory, which must not be less than 5.5 million euros. The exceeding of the thresholds also takes place at the group level.
At the same time as these two conditions occur, the tax affects both non-resident companies and those resident in Italy, regardless of the nature of the customers, both business-to-business and business-to-consumer revenues.
The Italian web tax, as it was structured, affects all three areas of the digital economy, from e-commerce to multi-sided platforms such as Airbnb, Uber, Foodora, Blablacar, but also activities by Over the top, or the big web portals like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube. In this case, users access the website for free, but in return they give the portals valuable personal information that is the new added value of the digital economy.
da Marco Vergani | Apr 15, 2019 | Impatriate workers
Agenzia delle Entrate clarifies how the italian special regime of the impatriate workers is applied. According to a recent interpellation (Ris. 904-107 / 2019), the regime also applies to workers returning to Italy and employed by the same employer after having been posted abroad for at least 24 months as long as it carries out different tasks and the return is the result of a new agreement.
Established by Legislative Decree 147/2015, the regime has undergone a couple of changes before settling – from 2017 – in its current formulation. In practice, the income from employment or self-employment produced in Italy by the worker contributes to the formation of his total income only for 50% of its amount (for the tax period in which the residence is transferred in Italy and for the four later).
The circular 17 / E (part II, par. 3.1) excludes the regime for workers posted abroad as their return, taking place in execution of the clauses of the pre-existing work contract, is in substantial continuity with the former position of workers resident in Italy and therefore does not meet the attractive purpose of the standard. However, resolution 76 / E clarifies that it is always possible to grant the regime in “specific hypotheses in which the return to Italy is not a consequence of the natural expiry of the posting but is determined by other elements functional to the ratio of the facilitating rule. Quoting, for example, the cases in which the posting has been repeatedly extended (so as to determine a relaxation of the links with the Italian territory) or those in which the return is not in continuity with the previous job position carried out in Italy.
The question discussed in the recent resolution concerns the case of a manager, an Italian citizen and an Italian company, who is in the following situation:
- he was seconded to the Singapore subsidiary, to develop the group’s presence in Southeast Asia;
- he has transferred residence abroad and qualifies as a non-resident subject for the 2016-18 tax periods;
- the posting formula was chosen to preserve the contributory position (on the one hand) and obtain the local work permit (on the other);
- the secondment contract, initially scheduled for the end of 2017, was renewed until December 31st 2018 and also provided for the possible relocation to other foreign companies of the group;
- the secondment contract was revoked in writing on 30 July 2018 and from the following 1 September the manager returned to Italy holding a different and more important position than the one he worked abroad.
Agenzia delle Entrate confirm the application of the favorable regime noting that, in the specific case, the requirements set by previous interpretation documents are respected. In fact, the posting was first extended and then interrupted earlier than the natural deadline; furthermore, the worker has shown that he has been assigned to tasks superior to the previous ones.
The clarification comes while the a recent decree (actually subject to a parliament discussion) prefigures an enhancement of the advantages for the workers who will transfer their residence in Italy from 2020. The hypothesis is to increase to 70% the tax reduction, applying the regime also to those who will work “mainly” in Italy and to those who will start here a company from 2020.
