Taxes for those selling shares, land and businesses: here’s how the payment arrangements might change
The Supervisory Commission for the Tax Register is open to proposals from the National Council of Notaries. Casasco (Forza Italia): a push to strengthen tax collection and tackle tax evasion
by Marco Mobili and Giovanni Parente
Key points
Changing the way in which substitute taxes on capital gains from company shares, building land and businesses are paid. Why not? The parliamentary committee overseeing the Tax Register has taken up the suggestion. Chairman Maurizio Casasco (Forza Italia) has welcomed the proposal put forward by the National Council of Notaries during the hearing held on the morning of Wednesday 1 July.
Tackling failure to file a tax return
What is the idea? To use notaries and other authorised intermediaries to collect the levies due, through the tried-and-tested mechanism of withholding tax. ‘The proposal to extend the mechanism for the payment of substitute tax – which has already been trialled in other areas – to capital gains arising from the sale of shareholdings, building land and businesses, as well as to other income generated by the creation of real property rights, with a view to strengthening tax collection and combating tax evasion.” In fact, the mechanism could bring a number of benefits. Tax payments could reach the State in real time, taxpayers would be unable to omit declaring capital gains, and at the same time there would also be a simplification in terms of calculation.
Tax registration numbers for foreign individuals and organisations
But Casasco has also shown openness to other proposals from the National Council of Notaries. These refer to proposals that ‘provide for notaries to have direct access to the Tax Register to obtain the tax identification numbers of foreign individuals and entities other than natural persons who do not hold a VAT number, as well as to consult essential data on such entities, such as their name, date of death and any restrictive measures’. These measures, according to the chair of the bicameral commission, are “aimed at streamlining property transactions and the formalities involved in setting up organisations and companies, thereby reducing time, costs and red tape”.
From proposal to practice
Given the favourable reception from MEPs, “the proposals,” explains Casasco, “will form part of the Commission’s final report, due by the end of the year, and will be forwarded to the relevant institutions, with a view to speeding up the adoption of measures necessary to implement the regulatory changes required to improve the country’s tax and economic system.”
