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

This is a big improvement but the interesting bit is how exactly they will define "under maintenance" which I believe is an exemption provided for somewhere.

Will it mean that the aircraft will have to be "under" some Italian maintenance shop, if still grounded beyond the 45 day point? At most airports, you are not going to find a suitably competent maintenance facility so will probably be arranging someone to come over to fix it.

They are hardly going to permit the pilot or the owner to self-declare non-airworthiness as this would lead to obvious work-arounds.

In Law or Not?......Italian colleagues.....any answers!!
 

Would any of our Italian colleagues be able to enlighten me as to whether this Law has been passed or not......yes, we are all aware that there has been an amendment made, but has this been passed into Law yet.....I am desperately in need of an answer to this, ie by Monday......as the owner of the Aircraft, who is by the way, Italian......does not trust the Italian Government, until he has supportive documentation saying that he won't be hit with a vast bill, for bringing his G550 into Italy for a week.

Unfortunately, my Italian is schoolboyish at best, but any links to a Government website actually explaining whether this is law or not would be very welcome.

4x4

I flew into Sicily 3 weeks ago and like you was unsure whether the owner of my jet would be charged.
Talking to the handling agents there they were also unclear.
On that basis and because of the massive amount the tax would be I positioned the aircraft into Malta for the week.
My fear was someone telling me that the 45 days was a proposal not yet in law so cough up.
The Italians are not known for doing anything fast so until you see it has been passed into law and rubber stamped I would be cautious???

Pace

Foreign aircraft can park in Italy for 45 days without paying the tax. This is effective 17th April and not changed since then.

Grazie tantissimo

Pace

Dc9-32, could you please provide us with a source for that. I'm planning to fly to Italy very soon and would like to ideally bring some piece of paper that the 45 day rule re Tax is now in force. Thanks.

Grassfield,

what I have is a German text by the first secretary of the Italian Embassy in Berlin / Germany.

He states that the Italian Parliament has decided on the 24th of April in favour of the Governments decree Nr.16 , which contains the changes in the Luxury tax for Airplanes (45 days etc.)

Maybe you just ask your Embassy for an explanation in Swedish?

This is the link to the italian parliaments paper (pages 49 & 50)

Camera.it - Lavori - Resoconti delle Giunte e Commissioni - Dettaglio resoconto

I sent this link to the guy in the Embassy and asked wether its in force or not and he said yes.

Hope that helps a bit...

Yours

h_d

Sorry for late reply.

His D, many thanks. Just what I was after.

This now seems to be the proof that the 45 day rule is in force, excellent! Will carry a printout of this with me, just in case...

Happy flying!

Hi,

did anyone paid any of this new taxes lately ??? Mostly I mean for short stay, such as this per leg/distance taxes described above ?

Brokers started to ask about that, if it's included into the prices, so seems like maybe somebody started to charge it ?

Thanks !