The tax reform re-introduces the two-year arrangement with creditors for companies.The tax delegation approved by the Council of Ministers, as per a note from the MEF, aims to “completely rewrite the current tax system launched in the 1970s”. The new rules, operational within 24 months of the entry into force of the enabling law, affect different areas: from Irpef for citizens to Irap for companies called to collaborate to a greater extent with the tax authorities.
As far as businesses are concerned, for which the government’s objective is the gradual elimination of Irap, it is instituted the two-year arrangement with creditors. It is about “strengthening collaborative fulfillment” with the idea of rewriting the rules of fight against tax evasion “which becomes preventive and no longer repressive”.
The mechanism
In summary, the due taxes are paid in advance without post-agreement tax assessments (one of the characteristics of the old 2003 law on the arrangement). The new mechanism is based on a discussion, an agreement between the company and the tax authorities, with simplified procedures. The result of this negotiation will be a two-year proposal formulated by the Revenue Agency which defines the company’s tax base for income tax and IRAP purposes. It is a mechanism which is therefore based on transparency and which allows the entrepreneur to disclose his tax position in advance with a view to collaborative compliance. This system will then also be applicable to issues referable to tax periods prior to the start of the new regime.
The doubts
However, the system has raised some criticisms. At the moment, no income thresholds have been entered beyond which the composition with creditors expires, which therefore seems to prevail over actual income. Which creates significant problems. Consider the case in which a company in composition with creditors doubles its income in the year following the agreement. He would find himself paying much less taxes than he owes. This means, as the accountants’ portal Eutekne points out, that tax evasion beyond a certain degree risks being unpunished.
