On 24th of October the Italian government published the second
version of the Italian voluntary disclosure (VD) programme under
art. 7 of Decree-Law no. 193/2016.
In the same fashion as the first VD, introduced in 2014, this
measure is aimed at Italian tax residents holding assets abroad
that have not been disclosed to the tax authorities. Moreover, it
involves the disclosure of cash held in Italy: thus, this law
allows Italian taxable entities and individuals to regularize their
assets by reporting them to the Italian Revenue Agency. As
mentioned below, this program provides the applicants with some
benefits. In contrast, no fiscal advantage is granted to those who
regularise 'national assets', namely undisclosed cash held
in Italian safe deposit boxes.
1. Subjective requirements: who can participate?
The new VD is aimed at anyone has violated the Italian tax
regime up to September 30th, 2016: all applications should be
presented by July 31st and completed by September 30th, 2017.
There is only one proviso: those applicants who benefited from the
previous version of the VD with respect to their assets held abroad
can only now apply for regularising their 'national
assets', and vice versa.
2. Relevant changes from the first version.
The new version of the VD has introduced four main changes. Firstly, taxpayers, together with their advisors, should calculate and pay the exact amount of taxes and sanctions due. The sanctions to be applied for any violations of 'Section RW', which concerns any assets held abroad by Italian taxpayers, will be reduced at a rate of either 0.5% or 1.5% respectively, dependent on whether the foreign country in which the assets were held was on Italy's White or Black List of jurisdictions. Thus, the Italian Revenue Agency will only intervene in exceptional circumstances in the new procedure; namely in case of any mistakes regarding the assessment of the amount due. In particular, the Agency will have the powers to address any faults in the use of the VD procedure up until December 31st, 2018. In case of mistakes, taxpayers will be subject to severe sanctions:
(a) With respect to withholding taxes, the sum due will be
increased by 10%, where, due to mistakes, the taxpayer paid at
least 10% less than they should have;
(b) In other cases, an increase of 10% will be applied to those who
paid 30% less than the amount due;
(c) For any other mistakes, there will be an increase of 3% on the
amount due.
Secondly, the legislator has clarified the procedure for regularizing cash held in Italy, though those who disclose such assets will enjoy no advantages. In particular:
(a) By the time they apply for the VD, the taxpayers should
provide a declaration that states that these assets do not derive
from criminal offences;
(b) By the time they deposit all the documents related to the VD,
they should open and register, under the control of a Notary, the
safe deposit boxes in which the assets are held;
(c) By the same point, they should also deposit the cash or other
assets with financial intermediaries who are authorised for this
purpose.
Thirdly, the taxpayer is exempted from preparing his tax return
for 2016, though this exemption covers only the assets included in
the VD procedure. In fact, the new voluntary disclosure permits the
taxpayer to disclose any activity he did not declare to the Italian
Revenue Agency before December 31st, 2016. More noteworthy, the
statute of limitations for assessments is extended to (i) 31
December 2018 with regard to the new voluntary disclosure, and (ii)
30 June 2017 with regard to the former voluntary disclosure.
Lastly, the legislator has introduced a new criminal offence for
the fraudulent disclosure of assets related to crimes that are not
exempted under the VD procedure. This provision concerns only those
who apply for the new VD, whereas those who applied for the
previous VD programme are not involved.
3. What makes the new VD attractive?
The success of the previous VD was based on the offer of
regularizing assets held abroad before the introduction of the
automatic exchange of information between Italy and some financial
havens, such as Switzerland and Monaco (as well as FATCA and CRS).
Another incentive was the introduction of a new criminal offence
for 'self-laundering', in other words, any attempt by those
using the voluntary disclosure process to disguise the origins of
undeclared funds or goods. The incentives remain the same, except
for those who are holding undisclosed assets in the countries that
have agreed to automatically exchange information from 1st January
2017. These taxpayers will have to remit all taxes that would have
been payable on undisclosed assets, but with much reduced
administrative penalties.
As before, any person filing a voluntary disclosure is granted
impunity for specific crimes, such as misrepresentation, failure to
declare, non-payment of certified withholding tax, non-payment of
VAT, and fraudulent misrepresentation using invoices or
non-existent transactions or other mechanisms.
With a great deal of expertise on Italian and international fiscal
matters, Withers is ideally placed to advise Italian tax residents
holding undisclosed assets abroad as well as regularising Italian
assets. As a leading tax law firm, Withers is particularly suited
to assist those clients who are interested in this
procedure.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.