Legislative Decree no. 13 of February12, 2024, in force since February 22, 2024, introduced the two-year preventive agreement, which aims to rationalise returns obligations, as well as to encourage spontaneous compliance by minor taxpayers.
Legislative Decree no. 13 of 2024, implementing the Delegated Law to the Government for the Tax Reform (Article 17, Law no. 111 of 2023), introduced in Title II the two-year preventive agreement, that provides for the proposal of the Italian Revenue Agency for the two-year settlement of the income deriving from the exercise of business activity or the exercise of arts and professions for the purposes of direct taxes and of the value of net production for the purposes of Regional Tax on Productive Activities (“IRAP”).
The two-year preventive agreement is targeted at smaller taxpayers (both individuals and partnerships and assimilated entities), holders of business income and self-employed income deriving from the exercise of arts and professions who carry out their activities in Italy and who, alternatively:
– apply the so-called Synthetic Index od Reliability (“ISA”);
– opt for the forfeiture regime pursuant to Law no. 190 of 2014 (for such taxpayers, the arrangement is applied on an experimental basis for fiscal year 2024).
For the purposes of the application of such agreement, it is also necessary that the taxpayer, with respect to the fiscal year covered by the proposal, has no tax debts or, in any event, has discharged debts in excess of Euro 5 thousand (including interest and penalties), deriving from taxes managed by the Italian Revenue Agency or from welfare contributions.
At the same time, the legislation provides for the following exclusion grounds that preclude the application of the institute:
– the failure to file a tax return in at least one of the three fiscal years preceding the application of the agreement;
– the conviction for one of the tax crimes set out in Legislative Decree no. 74 of 2000 or for the crimes of false corporate communications, money laundering, self-laundering and use of money, goods or benefits of unlawful origin, committed in the last three fiscal years preceding the application of the agreement;
– the start of the activity in the fiscal year preceding the one referred to in the definition proposal.
The procedure envisaged by the rule provides, firstly, for the communication, by the taxpayer, of its data through the software set up by the Italian Revenue Agency (in 2024, the deadline for making the software available is June 15); then, the Italian Revenue Agency issues the agreement proposal, followed by the taxpayer’s eventual acceptance (in 2024, the deadline for acceptance is October 15).
By accepting the proposal, the taxpayer is obliged to report the agreed amounts in the tax returns for the fiscal years covered by the agreement. In any event, in the two-year period covered by the agreement, the taxpayer will be obliged to: (i) file income and IRAP tax returns; (ii) comply with accounting obligations; and (iii) make ISA disclosures.
Among the benefits deriving from the acceptance of the proposal, the rule provides that the fiscal years covered by the agreement may not be subject to tax assessment, unless audits reveal that there are any grounds for exclusion from the regime.
After the expiry of the two-year period covered by the agreement, as long as the taxpayer still meets the access requirements, and in the absence of the grounds for exclusion, the Italian Revenue Agency makes a new proposal for the agreement relating to the following two-year period, which the taxpayer may again join.
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