VAT numbers

Forfeiters, concordat on the way: proposals from the IRS on the way

The calculation software for flat-tax VAT returns is expected. The application will act on the 2024 income model to be submitted by 31 October

15 July 2024

4' min read

The arrangement procedure also officially starts for flat-rate taxpayers. With the release of the software by Sogei, expected on 15 July, even VAT numbers in the facilitated regime can begin calculating the tax proposal. And while the corrective decree to the tax reform retouches procedures and calculation methods, the requests of the professional associations to provide further advantages for those who adhere to the fiscal pact remain on the table, first and foremost on the control front.

The delayed start compared to Isa subjects (for whom the processing programme has been available since 15 June) is certainly not the only peculiarity. For flat-rate taxpayers - 'on an experimental basis' - the tax pact will be annual and not biennial. And it is clear that firms, self-employed persons and professionals will be induced to wait until the last minute to decide whether to accept the income proposal on 2024 (the deadline for joining is 31 October), so as to have the widest 'visibility' of the year's results. With no need to bet as of now on 2025 - unlike colleagues in the ordinary regime and subject to Isa - and with a historic 2024 of almost ten months, the agreement is more consumptive than preventive. Those who are certain to have growing business in 2024 and will therefore be able to agree on a lower taxable income, on which to pay the flat tax at 15% (5% for 'new activities'), will have a good chance.

IL TREND

The target of the flat tax

How many flat-rate taxpayers will potentially be affected by the operation? Certainly not all of the 1.8 million recorded in the latest tax statistics of the Finances. Because, apart from the 2,000 euro minimum income barrier, there are several grounds for exclusion, such as having switched to the facilitated regime in 2024 or having opened a VAT number in 2023 directly as a lump sum (see the article opposite).

In the 2023 declarations, the net taxable income of flat-rate taxpayers amounted to approximately EUR 27.5 billion, with a per capita average of EUR 16,381. While the substitute tax (of 15% or 5%) amounted to about EUR 3.2 billion, with an average value of EUR 1,947. Of the more than 1.8 million flat-rate taxpayers, about 1.5 million (83%) were already in the flat-rate regime the previous year, more than 258,000 were not VAT holders, 30,000 had declared an income subject to ordinary taxation, and 17,000 were in the tax advantage regime (the former 'minimi').

New field application

Taking the sectoral Isa parameters and the relative revaluation coefficients as a reference, the new software will act directly on the declaration model: it will allow, through the Redditionline application, to calculate the proposal of arrangement by filling in the LM framework of the 2024 income model. Proposal that can be accepted by the deadline for submitting the declaration (31 October, as mentioned).

The timeframe is lengthened by the corrective decree to the tax reform, which also intervenes in the calculation methods for the second advance payment 2024 due on 30 November, on which the result of the tax agreement will be 'dumped'. There are two ways. If one chooses the historical method and looks at last year's tax, there is an increase in the advance payment equal to 12% (4% for 'new initiatives') of the difference between the agreed income and the income declared in 2023. If, on the other hand, one chooses the provisional method, there is no surcharge, but the instalment at the end of November is calculated as the difference between the total advance payment due on the basis of the agreed income and that already paid (in July) under the ordinary rules.

Data, incentives and controls

The IRS information on flat-rate taxpayers is not yet as structured as that on Isa subjects. They will be more precise next year, thanks to the influx of data on electronic invoices, which became compulsory for everyone on 1 January, and thanks to the 'tax pacts' that will be signed. This is one of the reasons for the annual experiment of the concordat for those applying the flat tax. Concordat that already in itself - recalls the Senate Finance Committee - exposes to the 'risk of a failure to achieve a balance between the Agency's discretion' in proposing the taxable amount and 'protection of the taxpayer in seeing recognised all the elements (positive or negative) that contribute to a realistic income result'.

The taxpayers' yes to the preventive agreement on income needs other incentives, emphasises the commission, which in the opinion approved last week urges the government - a binding condition - to "introduce a system of incisive rewards" for those who adhere to the tax pact, "also with the postponement of the payment of the advance to the following year with appropriate instalments". Another condition: from 1 January 2025, extend from 30 to 60 days the deadline to pay the sums requested by the Agency with the reminder notices, 'following the automated and formal control of declarations and the settlement of income subject to separate taxation'. While a third condition relates specifically to Isa subjects, for whom Parliament calls for a flat rate on the incremental income covered by the agreement, calibrated on last year's tax report cards.

The Senate Finance Committee, on the other hand, reported as 'simple' observations - and therefore not binding on the government - other requests made by associations and professional orders. For flat-rate taxpayers, for example, the idea of introducing 'measures to exclude assessments based on simple presumptions' (which must, however, be 'serious, precise and concordant'). This request came mainly from accountants: but this shield, in the final version of the corrective decree, will not be there.

Dario Aquaroredattore
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Luogo: Milano
Lingue parlate: inglese
Argomenti: norme, fisco, tecnologie, professioni
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