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VAT Refund for Guarantees in Italy

By September 21, 2015July 10th, 2021No Comments

Two news items refer to the guarantees requested by the Italian VAT administration to refund VAT. The first one: on August 5th, 2015 Corte di Cassazione (the Italian Supreme Court) stated that costs suffered by …

Two news items refer to the guarantees requested by the Italian VAT administration to refund VAT.

The first one: on August 5th, 2015 Corte di Cassazione (the Italian Supreme Court) stated that costs suffered by taxpayers as to the guarantees needed to get the refund of taxes (including VAT, of course) have to be reimbursed by Italian tax administration.

Judgement delivered by the Court is quite new (and interesting, at the same time); it is based on art. 8 (4) of L. 212/2000 (the Taxpayers Statute), according to which the Tax administration has to refund the costs for guarantees requested by the administration itself to get the refund of taxes.

As per art. 8 (6), proper explanatory regulations had to be issued by Minister of Finances to put such a rule into practice. So far, no regulations have ever been issued. That is way tax administration always refused to refund guarantee costs to taxpayers.

Corte di Cassazione judgement changed such a scenario, by pointing out that art. 8 (4) applies to all cases, since it is clear as to the right of refund requirements, to the refund object, to the beneficiary and to the person required to pay back. So, missing delivery of explanatory regulations by Minister of Finances cannot prevent general rule from fully working.

Lastly, right to get back guarantee costs arises at the moment the right of VAT deduction is definitively acknowledged (if no VAT check is made, as from January, 1st of the fifth year following the year in which VAT return/reclaim has been submitted).

The second one: as from June, 27th new guarantee form for VAT refund purposes is to be taken into account; the former one, however, can be used until December 31st, 2015.
Hence, the way to compute interests (which are included in the overall amount of the guarantee) has changed.

 

dott. Alessandro Garzon