Delay To Italian Sectoral Studies For 2009 Tax Declarations

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

22 September 2009

Meeting recently, the relevant Italian commission was unable to finalize the sector studies (studi di settore) under review for the 2009 fiscal year.

Sector studies are utilized by the Italian Revenue Agency to evaluate the tax declarations of all businesses producing or selling goods and services, from sole traders to limited companies. Utilizing a computerized system named Ge.Ri.Co (Gestione dei Ricavi e dei Compensi), each business is allocated to one (or more) subsector groupings – divided between services, commerce, manufacturing, and the professions.

The system tracks "normal" profits and expenditure over each subsector, in relation to accounting and non-accounting variables, including regional differences and the general economy. Thereby, for those businesses within a (maximum) turnover limit per subsector of EUR7.5m (USD11m) annually, it enables the Revenue Agency to use the parameters it produces to examine the credibility of their tax declarations.

However, the group of contributors and consultants brought together to evaluate changes for this fiscal year have been unable to conclude the studies under review by the end of September, as would be required by law. They have requested a delay to end-March 2010.

The requested delay arises largely from the fact that the exact effect of the economic recession on various sectors of the economy will be unknown before 2008 tax declarations are received. Those declarations are due in September, but the data from them are unlikely to be analyzed before October or November this year.

As the system has been improved and, therefore, is more complex in 2009, more time has been asked for further checks on the reliability of the data produced. Finally, it was considered that the availability of information on VAT payments for the whole of 2009, produced in February 2010, would also be useful.

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