COMMERCIAL OPERATORS NOW INCLUDED IN THE MODIFIED ITALIAN TAX
The Italian government has worked upon an amendment to the controversial Italian Luxury Tax originally adopted in December 2011. The amended version will result in a set of new rules that will quite considerably change the obligations of Italian and foreign operators to Italian tax authorities. It will be presented this afternoon to the Senate and voted on by the end of the week, after having been approved without changes by the Lower House of Parliament. It will eventually supersede the rules established by the decree in December 2011.
The new rule introduces a tax on Italian and non-Italian commercial operators. This new tax on 'aero-taxi' will be paid by each passenger for each leg and is equivalent to 100 on legs of less than 1,500km and 200 for legs above 1,500km; the fee will be paid by the operator around modalities not fixed yet but which will be set by the Tax Office within 60 days from now. According to our interpretation, a return flight to Italy consists of two legs and will therefore require a double payment of the above-mentioned figures. Any additional domestic flight inside the Italian territory will count as an additional leg. This is a new tax, imposed this time on passengers of air taxis. This move of the Italian authorities is unfortunately in line with the taxes already existing in other countries (UK, Austria, Germany).
As regards the tax on non-commercial operations established in December 2011, the amounts initially considered have been reduced by 50% (e.g. for aircraft up to 1,000 kg, 1.5 /kg were foreseen, while in the amended version this has been dropped to 75 ’). These amounts will continue to be charged to both Italian and non-Italian operators however the significant change compared to the previous rule is that non-Italian non-commercial operators will be charged only if the aircraft stays more than 45 days on Italian territory instead of the previous limit of 48 hours. Non-Italian registered aircraft having spent more than 45 days on Italian territory will be subject to the tax on a pro-rata monthly basis, i.e. 1/12 of the annual rate for each month spent in Italy in excess of the 45 days tax exemption period. The tax and airport authorities will monitor actual payment. According to the new rules this change will be applied retroactively to December 2011 so in other words and in our opinion the Italian government has realized this tax was a mistake negatively affecting foreign investments and has decided to downgrade it to an almost irrelevant degree.
EBAA continues to coordinate with the Italian stakeholders and regulators its political action both at European and Italian level so as to ensure that decision makers are informed of the impact of these measures.
Pedro VICENTE AZUA
Chief Operating Officer
European Business Aviation Association (EBAA)
Phone: +32 2 766 0070
[email protected]
www.ebaa.org