Important changes to your Italian VAT returns

The Italian government announced important changes in the VAT compliance obligations of all VAT registered businesses. 


Italian VAT returns changing since 2017

Starting 1st of January 2017, all taxpayers are obliged to submit Italian VAT returns on a quarterly basis. In addition, VAT ledgers will need to be submitted also quarterly. These two obligations will replace the Spesometro, which is currently filed on an annual basis, and the Intrastat returns, which are filed monthly. However, it is still not clear how will the Intrastat returns be removed while keeping a reasonable amount of data requirements in the quarterly ledgers return.

Changes as to how the information is presented

These changes are bringing Italy into the standard VAT reporting obligations, as the exception is the current Italian mechanism. At the moment, the taxpayers do not have to submit Italian VAT returns during the year, instead, they make ´VAT calculations´ and have them available only in case they are requested by the tax authorities. Payments are still required on a monthly or quarterly basis, so that VAT is collected periodically even if tax returns are not submitted. At the end of the year, every company submits a very detailed annual VAT return reporting all transactions made during the previous year. Following the changes announced this week, Italy will start requesting VAT forms to be submitted on a quarterly basis while keeping the payment obligations. Also VAT ledgers will be required with separate lines for each transaction made during the reporting period.

In addition to the above changes, the Blacklist return is planned to be abolished next year. The authorities recently published guidelines about this return, which is an annual report declaring transactions with countries considered tax havens by the Italian tax authorities. Also the annual VAT return for 2016 has been affected by the changes published this week. The due date for this return is back to 28 February 2017.

Businesses across Italy have reacted against these changes. It is therefore not certain that all published amendments will be introduced as expected. Marosa will be publishing updates in the coming weeks about the final outcome of the new law.

If you are VAT registered in Italy, we suggest to start looking at these new obligations to avoid last minute problems and associated penalties. In Marosa, we submit over a thousand returns every year for multinational businesses and we are ready to start preparing and submitting your new returns in Italy. Please contact us for more information.

 


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