Studio PonchioSTP
Tax Observatory
A review of tax developments, administrative guidance and case law — selected and rewritten by the firm.
The società benefit: incorporation, governance and the impact report
A status, not a new type of company: the clause in the articles, the impact officer, the annual report under paragraphs 376-384 and the tax aspects. The firm’s practical guide, with worked cases and specimen documents.
Latest analyses
61 items
Does an amending return in the taxpayer’s favour, filed after the notice of irregularity, save you from the collection notice?
The Corte di cassazione (Italian Supreme Court) takes as settled the validity of a dichiarazione integrativa (amending tax return) filed after the comunicazione di irregolarità (notice of irregularity) and before the tax roll.
Rottamazione-quinquies: no grace period for the second instalment due on 30 September
On 30 September 2026 the second instalment of the settlement of debts entrusted to the collection agent between 2000 and 2023 falls due.
Accertamento con adesione and conciliazione do not fix the evaded tax: when the criminal court may redetermine it
Accertamento con adesione (settlement of a tax assessment by agreement) and conciliazione (judicial tax settlement) do not fix the evaded tax for criminal purposes: the court redetermines it on its own and departs from the agreed amount only on the basis of concrete factual elements.
Stamp duty on electronic invoices: List B can be corrected until 10 September
Until 10 September 2026 a taxpayer may correct the list the Italian Revenue Agency has pre-populated with second-quarter invoices on which stamp duty appears to be due.
Sports volunteers: the reimbursement is not income, but it eats into the €15,000 allowance
Flat-rate reimbursements to sports volunteers, up to €400 a month, are not income, but they take up room within the €15,000 allowance for sports-work fees.
Omitted VAT return: the Agenzia computes the tax without an assessment
From 31 August 2026 the Agenzia delle entrate (the Italian revenue authority) may compute the VAT of an undeclared year, without an assessment, from the electronic invoices, the electronic daily takings and the periodic VAT statements already in its possession; the implementing rules are dated 28 August 2026.
Short-term rentals: the entrepreneurship threshold drops to two properties
From the 2026 tax year, the flat tax on short-term rentals stays available only up to two properties per tax year.
Partial autotutela: is it a fresh, separately challengeable assessment?
No, not if the underlying notice of assessment has already become final.
Digital VAT reporting: recapitulative statements end on 1 July 2030
From 1 July 2030 Articles 265 to 271 of the VAT Directive are deleted and recapitulative statements give way to the transmission of data transaction by transaction, at the time the invoice is issued.
Call-off stock: last dispatch on 30 June 2028, the regime closes in 2029
30 June 2028 is the last day on which goods may be dispatched under call-off stock arrangements; on 30 June 2029 the simplification ceases to apply.
Daily takings by software solution: twelve hours without a connection and the till stops
The technical specifications for the software solution for daily takings were updated to version 1.4 on 7 August 2026.
Excise duties: the guarantee waiver gives way to SOAC status
The waiver of the obligation to provide a guarantee, granted to operators found to be reliable and of established solvency (affidabili e di notoria solvibilità), is due to lapse: in its place comes the status of accredited liable person (SOAC), introduced into the Italian consolidated excise act by Legislative Decree no. 43 of 28 March 2025.
Unpaid VAT: does an instalment plan rule out the offence?
Since 29 June 2024, failing to pay declared VAT is not automatically a criminal offence: Article 10-ter of Legislative Decree 74/2000, as replaced by Legislative Decree No. 87 of 14 June 2024, punishes an omission exceeding €250,000 per tax period only if the debt is not being extinguished through a validly requested and duly honoured instalment plan.
EU e-commerce: how the EUR 10,000 place-of-supply threshold changes in 2027
From 1 January 2027, the EU’s EUR 10,000 threshold for distance sales will neither increase nor disappear: its scope will be clarified.
The INPS Guarantee Fund: unpaid TFR and final wages where the employer is insolvent
When the employer does not pay, the end-of-service indemnity and the wages for the last three months are not necessarily lost: the Guarantee Fund established within INPS steps in, subject to conditions, ceilings and time limits that are all laid down in the legislation.
CBAM: the 50-tonne threshold and the new monitoring function in the register
Since 1 January 2026 the CBAM obligations do not apply to an importer whose net mass for the calendar year does not exceed 50 tonnes.
POS terminals and electronic cash registers: the 5 per cent tolerance does not cover failure to link
The corrective decree introduces a 5 per cent non-punishability threshold for discrepancies between electronic payments accepted and transactions recorded.
Origin of goods: whoever declares it must be able to prove it
In a customs declaration, origin is a statement the business makes and the authorities may ask it to substantiate.
Carried interest: when the manager’s return is investment income or other income
Shares and quotas carrying enhanced economic rights (diritti patrimoniali rafforzati) allotted to directors and employees generate a return which art. 60 of d.l. 50/2017 classifies ex lege as reddito di capitale (investment income) or reddito diverso (other income, covering capital gains and similar items) where the conditions set out in the provision are met.
Company struck off: who can challenge the tax assessment after five years?
Once five years have elapsed since the request for cancellation, the company no longer has standing: the appeal must be brought by the shareholders, as successors to the tax liability.
Input VAT: more time, and a new rule for year-end invoices
The corrective decree implementing the tax reform, given final approval on 4 August 2026, restores the second following year as the deadline for deducting and recording, and would allow invoices received in the following year to be attributed to the year of the transaction.
Service of a tax demand: specific challenge and proper reasons
A denial of copies takes effect only if it is specific, document by document; the court’s duty to give reasons on each ground, by contrast, does not depend on it.
Shareholder loans and the presumption of unrecorded revenue
A shareholder’s payment does not by itself explain the increase in company funds: absent proof of its title and origin, the Italian Tax Office may treat it as unrecorded revenue.
Electronic retail receipts: what the omnibus decree actually says
As things stand there is no obligation to issue the retail receipt electronically at the customer’s request: the corrective decree before the Italian Parliament contains no provision on the documento commerciale (retail receipt), and the rule of prior agreement with the recipient still applies.
Assessment signed before the sixty-day period from the pvc: unlawful
The Court of Cassation ties the breach of the waiting period to the signature of the assessment, not to its service: relevant to proceedings still pending.
IRAP and professional partnerships: the tax is not automatic
The Italian Constitutional Court sets aside the automatic link with legal form: in professional associations IRAP is due only where the service has genuinely been depersonalised.
Capital gains: no more spreading on operating assets from 2026
The 2026 Budget Law removes the five-year spreading option: what can still be spread, and how disposal planning has to change.
Sale of a business in fraud of the tax authorities: unlimited liability for the buyer
The ordinary limits on the buyer’s liability, the discharging effect of the pending-liabilities certificate and the six-month fraud presumption.
Static holding companies and retained dividends: the line between a lawful choice and abuse
Deferring tax on dividends is inherent in the system only while it is temporary: what the current audits are challenging, and how to document the non-tax purposes.
Composizione negoziata: handling tax debts
The checks, the documents and the treatment of tax debts needed to enter the procedure on a sound footing.
Cassetto fiscale: new documents and tracked service of notices
More documents in the secure area and the status of served notices now tracked: what changes for compliance.
Reconstructing revenue: the limits of the analytical-inductive assessment
Mark-up percentages, stock and financial investigations: when an adjustment arises and how to defend against it.
Parallel books: when informal records become evidence
Day books and internal files count as serious, precise and consistent presumptions: a blanket denial is not enough.
Judicial liquidation: tax debts and the public prosecutor’s initiative
Under the Italian crisis code the prosecutor may apply to open the procedure: the warning signs, the conditions and how to prevent it.
Dormant companies in the 2026 REDDITI return
The operating test, the grounds for exclusion and for disapplication, to be handled correctly in the return.
DAC8: the automatic exchange of information on crypto-assets
Crypto-asset service providers must report their EU clients’ transactions: what changes for intermediaries and for holders of virtual currencies.
Contributions of shareholdings and controlled realisation under art. 177 TUIR
Contributions and exchanges of shareholdings without an immediate taxable gain: the conditions for controlled realisation and the tax base recognised.
Allowance days and unpaid absences: the payroll rules
Employment tax allowances are calculated on the days carrying a right to pay: which absences stay in the count and which reduce it.
A first statutory audit engagement: where the compliance work starts
Independence, the engagement letter, understanding the business and setting up the working papers: the right sequence for accepting a first engagement.
Full carry-forward of losses and a new productive activity
Corte di Giustizia Tributaria of Lecce, judgments nos. 1345 and 1346 of 2026: the conditions of art. 84(2) TUIR for newly incorporated companies.
Summer suspensions 2026: payments, informal notices and tax litigation
Payments due between 1 and 20 August deferred, time limits for avvisi bonari (informal notices) suspended, and the court recess suspension of procedural time limits.
Off-the-books profits: the presumption that they are distributed to shareholders
In closely held companies, off-the-books profits found on assessment are presumed to have been distributed: the scope of the presumption and the defences available.
Concordato preventivo biennale: election by 31 October 2026
The requirements, how the proposal is calculated and a cost-benefit analysis with the substitute tax by ISA band, within the 85.000 euro cap.
The new consolidated income tax act
The recodification of the TUIR within the reorganisation of Italian tax law: structure, coordination and commencement dates.
The new OIC 5: the criteria for liquidation accounts change
The updated standard redefines the measurement criteria and the disclosures in liquidation accounts.
Assessments using the «Radar» system: benchmarking and safeguards
The tax administration’s new benchmarking tool and the taxpayer’s procedural safeguards.
Rent arrears after eviction for non-payment: how they are taxed
The income tax treatment of rent never received and later recovered after the eviction is confirmed.
Sale of building land by private individuals: the gain and the costs
Calculating the gain on a sale of building land and the costs that may be deducted.
Alternatives to tax litigation: choosing the best option
Adesione, acquiescenza, ravvedimento operoso (voluntary settlement) and conciliation compared, together with the prior hearing under art. 6-bis.
Rottamazione-quinquies: with ContiTu you choose the demands
The settlement scheme for amounts referred for collection, and the ContiTu feature for choosing which demands to settle.
Service of a tax demand valid without the second registered letter
The case law on whether service is valid without the second registered letter of notice.
Access, inspections and audits of non-profit bodies and amateur sports clubs
Investigative powers, the L. 398/1991 regime and traceability: what a breach actually entails (a penalty, not loss of the regime).
Tax and compliance in amateur sports employment
The reform of sports employment after d.lgs. 36/2021 and corrective decree no. 120/2023: the exempt amount and the social security thresholds.
Tax and accounting treatment of the contratto di rete
Rete-contratto and rete-soggetto: the common fund, recharging costs and invoicing with and without agency.
Agriturismo: administrative and tax aspects
The flat-rate regime under L. 413/1991: taxable income at 25% and a flat-rate VAT deduction of 50%.
Fringe benefits and employee welfare 2026
Thresholds of 1.000/2.000 euro over the three-year period, cars in mixed use for contracts from 1 January 2025, and performance bonuses.
The regime forfettario: entry, staying in, and whether it pays
The 85.000 euro threshold, the profitability coefficients and the 5%/15% substitute tax compared with the ordinary regime.
Tax offences and the entity’s liability under D.Lgs. 231/2001
Thresholds for criminal liability, grounds for exemption from punishment and the entity’s liability, in the light of d.lgs. 173/2024.
Electronic invoicing and digital archiving
Issue deadlines, reverse charge (TD17), the esterometro cross-border report and the penalties reformed by d.lgs. 87/2024.
CBAM and DAC8: the new international obligations
CBAM in its definitive regime from 1 January 2026 and DAC8 on crypto-assets: single 50-tonne threshold, certificates, CBAM factor, penalties and 2027 rules.
The ViDA package: e-invoicing and digital reporting in EU VAT
«VAT in the Digital Age»: mandatory electronic invoicing and digital reporting, with the European timetable.
International observatory
The institutional sources and international reviews the Studio draws on in its daily work.