Skip to main content
News from IVA members

Refund without guarantees in Italy

By November 17, 2015July 10th, 2021No Comments

Bearing in mind that as from January 2015 VAT refunds which amount is not higher than € 15.000 are exempt from any VAT fulfilment (except for VAT return submission, of course) …

Bearing in mind that as from January 2015 VAT refunds which amount is not higher than € 15.000 are exempt from any VAT fulfilment (except for VAT return submission, of course), Agenzia delle Entrate memo n. 35 (issued on October 27th, 2015) highlights that not only Italian taxable persons but also nonresident VAT payers can get VAT refunds (when the amount is higher than € 15.000) without submitting a bank guarantee, provided that:

  • their annual or quarterly VAT return is “assessed” by the so called “visto di conformità” (a certificate stating that: i) VAT return figures just correspond to those included in the VAT ledgers; ii) VAT ledger figures correspond to those included in the invoices) issued by a certified chartered accountant. With regard to businesses whose balance sheet is subject to an audit, it is not sure at the moment whether the subscription of the VAT return by an auditing company can replace “visto di conformità”;
  • a self-statement released (under his own penal responsibility) by the company legal representative is attached to the VAT return.

Self-statement has to certify that:

  • both company net capital and fixed assets didn’t fall more than 40% vis-à-vis last balance sheet results;
  • company activity didn’t stop or decrease due to sales of lines of activity;
  • company shares have not been sold in the last year for an amount higher than 50% of the net capital (for unlisted companies only);
  • company properly paid social security taxes.

This being stated, Agenzia delle Entrate memo n. 35/15 points out that  for EU citizens/businesses signature of such a self-statement doesn’t have to meet any particular requirement.

With regard to non EU citizens/businesses, abovementioned facts have to be proved through documents/certificates issued by competent foreign authorities; Italian translation of documents/certificates has to be legalized by an Italian consular authority.

 

dott. Alessandro Garzon