A new circular on tax regimes announced by Customs and Monopolies Agency Director Claudio Oliviero followed opening remarks by the Central Director of Large Enterprises of the Italian Revenue Agency, Francesca Vitale. A new edition of Boating, Tax and Customs will be published by the Italian Marine Industry Association
The opening address was given by the Chairman of the Italian Chamber of Deputies Finance Committee, Marco Osnato.
This year’s edition of the annual comprehensive legal analysis held by the Genoa International Boat Show was organised in partnership with Gianni & Origoni and moderated by Francesca Staffieri, alongside the Head of Institutional Relations of the Italian Marine Industry Association Roberto Neglia, with remarks by Dr. Marco Frulio, from the same Studio G&O, and with the participation, among others, of Walter Vigo, Head of Tax Italy at Unicredit.
Defining topics included deadlines for the discharge of the Temporary Admission for “Commercial Yachts” and inward processing, a customs guarantee dedicated to work on non-EU yachts, loss of competitiveness of Italian nautical leasing, and triangular transactions involving the sale of export-intended yachts through non-EU dealers when Italian yards deliver the unit directly to the final customer in Italy.
Opening the proceedings, the Chairman of the Italian Chamber of Deputies Finance Committee, Marco Osnato, recalled how “too often the matter of our boating industry is absent in political debate, which is a pity because it is an industry that elevates the prestige of our nation and is an essential asset.
The first challenge is enhancing the industry, including from a regulatory standpoint, especially when compared to other European nations. I am pleased to see the Revenue Agency and the Customs and Monopolies Agency here at the Genoa International Boat Show, because we want to provide a financial administration that is closer to citizens, closer to entrepreneurs. This is why we are also waiting for the Italian Marine Industry Association to join the hearing in the Finance Committee”.
It is not rare that non-European distributors of Italian yards need to deliver a recreational boating unit in Italy to the final customer, so that they can spend the season on the Mediterranean before transferring the unit outside the EU. Italy’s exemption regime (Article 8 of Presidential Decree n. 633/72) applies when it is the Italian yard itself that delivers the boating unit to a non-EU country of destination in the hands of the final purchaser, but this is not the case for the subsequent country of destination. The rule seems to exclude VAT exemption for export when the transport is handled by the final purchaser, after delivery by the dealer. “However,” noted Dr Marco Frulio “this could be the subject of an in-depth study by the Agency in view of supporting the competitiveness of our supply chain“.
Ezio Vannucci, Moores & Rowland Partners, expressed his views on the issue of work guarantees on non-EU yachts, pointing out how even the openings made by ADM do not allow for the cancellation of customs guarantees, and on the consequent costs for yards, recalling how the industry’s concern regards commercial yachts that have not been definitively imported into the EU and that today must therefore face, according to the provision contained in the so-called “Circular 8”, the limitation of being able to moor solely for the period in which they carry out commercial activities.
Stefano Comisi, Armella & Associati, pointed out that there are many issues concerning entering a yard, concerning when it becomes necessary to present a statement of temporary admission, and when one must consider that the regime no longer applies. And if the statement has been presented it is also necessary to present the “Toro”, i.e. the yard’s responsibility statement, another matter that deserves clarification.
Claudio Oliverio, Director of the Customs Directorate of the Customs and Monopolies Agency, clarified that, “as far as guarantees are concerned, at the end of August, a deliberation was adopted, bearing my signature, with a relative circular replacing the former Article 90 of the TUD, which regulated the guarantee exemption. We inserted a specific paragraph for production activities on a project, a commission, an order, whatever the terminology,, which includes boatbuilding, aerospace, and of course the construction of large machinery or plants, where AEO certification paves the way for total guarantee exemption.” He also announced that a new circular on regimes was in the pipeline, “however, it must be clear that if I enter the customs territory of the European Union under temporary admission I cannot stay in the waters, waiting to carry out chartering activities.”
At the centre of the debate was the lack of competitiveness of Italian boating leasing, which today sees the Treasury penalised first and foremost. Dr. Marco Frulio recalled how the National Revenue Agency has adopted a series of measures “with clear and peremptory indications, perhaps even too much so, which entail the difficulty of putting together all the required information, of collecting it, of verifying it, in addition to the responsibility of managing such data. In addition, navigation evidence has to be somehow set aside and managed accurately by individuals who are not a part of the industry“.
Above all, Studio Gianni & Origoni pointed out how many non-resident boatowners interested in being compliant with Italian regulations are forced to appoint a fiscal representative on whom the joint and several responsibilities of these professional figures become focused, so much so that it is often difficult to locate such a figure because they refuse the assignment. Finally, Frulio stressed, “in neighbouring countries, such as France, they obtain certifications from the user, which are valid until proven otherwise and, in the case of geolocation tools, what emerges from the detector system is considered as evidence, without it being possible to use this evidence in support of any presumptions.”
Walter Vigo confirmed how “the size of Unicredit and the fact that we have practically centralised all tax activities, in an attempt to have a protocol for all our companies, allows us to benefit from a relationship with the financial administration to address risks and find solutions, but the issue of regulatory complexity still remains. We need methodology, more clarity and we need to explain to operators what they have to do in order to be compliant”. Finally comes the issue that the leasing company cannot be admitted into the collaborative regime, ‘so it is more than appropriate to have clarity when it comes to the rules, in the interest of both the user and the treasury”.
Francesca Vitali picked up the need for clarity, stating that she “really does have every intention of trying to understand the sector and provide an answer“, and in thanking the Italian Marine Industry Association she announced that a renewed collaboration will be initiated to edit a new edition of the publication Nautica, Fisco e Dogane (Boating, Tax and Customs) in continuity with the effort made in recent years to strengthen the tools essential for open dialogue. “Given VAT territoriality, the demand for effective navigation that we receive from the Committee, and the impossibility of using flat-rate simplification criteria, we realise the need to know, even from the lender beforehand, the amount that will then be due on the individual instalments that characterise leasing relationships. The balance is fairly well known, but perhaps there has been a proliferation of tools over the years that can cause complications and we need to work on this.” The final topic concerned the request for a solution in the case of VAT triangulation, when, not infrequently, non-European distributors of Italian yards need to deliver a recreational boating unit directly in Italy to a non-EU final customer, with the request to spend the season in the Mediterranean before transferring the craft abroad. The rule seems to exclude the VAT exemption regime provided for exports when the transport is taken care of by the final purchaser and not by the yard.
