The Revenue Agency has confirmed the suspension of the fee for granting tourist landings

PKF-TCL firm focuses on the publication in the Official Gazette of conventional wages for 2020 for employees employed abroad

The Italian Revenue Agency provided clarifications on the Article 34 of the “Milleproroghe” Decree (DL. Number 162 of 2019), which provided for the suspension of the payment of the fees due to the maritime state property concessions for tourism and recreational purposes and the maritime state concessions for the management and construction of structures for pleasure boating.

The purpose of the suspension of the fee is to support the seaside tourism sector and that of pleasure boating, for this purpose the suspension is going into force from 1 January 2020 to 30 June 2020.

In the Article 34 of the Milleproroghe decree, which suspends the payment of the above fees, the concessions, that are registered in the list of debtors and the sums they owe compiled by the offices of the Tax Administration, are not explicitly included.

In this regard, the Revenue Agency responded with the note number 211379 of 2020, extending the suspension of the payment of the license fees, also to cases where the amounts in question are subject to collection following registration. The purpose of this provision is to reduce the ongoing tax litigation relating to the payment of the fees analyzed.

The Ministerial Decree of 11 December 2020 established conventional wages for 2020

The interministerial decree establishing conventional wages that will be applicable to employees working abroad in 2020 was published in the Official Gazette number 5 of 8 January 2020.

The conventional wages are taken as a reference basis for the determination of the employee income as the article 51 of the TUIR, if the job is continuously provided abroad by employees who have stayed abroad for more than 183 days in the last 12 months. In this case, therefore, the conventional remuneration will replace that actually received by the employee for the work done abroad.

From a social security point of view, instead, conventional wages are taken as the basis for calculating the compulsory contributions for those Italian employees who work abroad in countries outside the European Union where social security agreements are not in force or in countries with social security agreements that do not include compulsory insurance.

Territorially, conventional wages do not apply to the States that participate to the EEA (European Economic Area) agreement such as Liechtenstein, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland.

It should be noted that conventional wages are determined based on the production sector to which they belong, therefore reference should be made to the conventional wages of the specific sector to which the worker belongs.

Finally, we have to consider that in case of hiring or termination of the employment relationship or of transfers of the worker abroad during the month, the conventional remuneration identified by the ministerial tables must be divided by 26 days.

The Italian adjustment to EU provisions on VAT non-taxation for the supply of goods and services

Important changes for Italian VAT domestic law to allow compliance with EU regulations

The article 32-bis of Legislative Decree 124 of 2019 states the adjustment to the principles established by the European Court in the judgment of 20 June 2019 number C-291/18.

The ruling concerned the VAT treatment of sales of offshore self-elevating oil platforms and established that the VAT non-taxation regime, referred to Article 148 letters a) and c) of Directive 2006/112 / EC, did not apply to these sales. In fact, the VAT non-taxation regime could only be applied to the sales of ships "used for navigation on the high seas", which, in the opinion of the European Court, cannot include self-elevating offshore oil platforms.

The European Court therefore wanted to clarify that the term "ships used for navigation on the high seas" means only those ships that are mainly used to move in the maritime space for the exercise of commercial activities.

To this end, it should be clarified that the previous version of the domestic law, before the reform referred to the art. 32 bis of Legislative Decree 124 of 2019, included in the concept of ships used for navigation on the high seas also off-shore self-elevating platforms, as well as other assets including submarines, fire floats, barges for research on marine oil, etc.

With the reform referred to the DL. 124 of 2019, any reference to off-shore self-elevating platforms has been eliminated, specifying that the non-taxable VAT cannot be applied to "platforms anchored to the ground with emerged structure intended for the cultivation of hydrocarbons or to assist in prospecting, research, cultivation and exploitation of hydrocarbon deposits in the sea ".

It should be noted that the adjustment of the Italian domestic law, in light of the modification pursuant to Legislative Decree 124 of 2019, is however partial, as the concept of "ships used for navigation on the high seas" established by the European Court excludes a whole series of other goods besides platforms. This in the light of the fact that the non-taxable VAT required by European law has the purpose of encouraging international transport and therefore goes to include categories of goods that are suitable for this purpose.

Studio PKF – TCL

Irene Angeletti