Flat tax regime: new important clarifications
| Insights
The Revenue Agency, through a series of recent rulings on the flat rate tax regime (referred to in art. 1, paragraphs 54 to 89, Law no. 190/2014) has provided important clarifications with particular reference to the related impediments.
The aforementioned pronouncements are as follows:
– n. 102 of 14 April, regarding the limit of € 30,000 revenue as employee in the presence of additional income subject to separate taxation;
– n. 103 of April 14, regarding the commencement of the two-year surveillance in case of termination of the employment relationship;
– n. 106 of 15 April, on the application of the regime for non-residents in an EU / EEA state:
– n. 108 of 16 April, regarding the application of the regime in case of extraordinary operations related to the employer and the two-year surveillance period.
1. Income subject to separate taxation and limit of € 30,000 (response 102 of 14 April)
The case addressed by the Agency concerns a lump sum taxpayer who in 2019 received:
- pension income for an amount lower than the limit of € 30,000;
- emoluments relating to 2018 paid by INPS, subject to separate taxation pursuant to art. 17, paragraph 1, lett. b), TUIR.
In this case, the Agency has specified that the taxpayer can continue to apply the flat-rate regime also in 2020 (without prejudice to the existence of the other requirements), since the impedimental cause referred to in letter d-ter) of paragraph 57 on the basis of which the exclusion from the flat-rate regime is envisaged for persons in possession of employee / assimilated income in excess of € 30,000.
2. Termination of the employment relationship and commencement of the two-year period (response 103 of 14 April)
The Agency addressed the possibility of applying the flat-rate regime by a subject who terminated his employment in 2018 and who in 2019 received payments from the former employer in excess of 50% of the total compensation perceived in the year.
For 2020, the taxpayer cannot apply the flat-rate regime because the impedimental cause referred to in letter d-bis) of paragraph 57 according to which the regime cannot be adopted by the subjects who carry out the activity mainly against employers with whom employment relationships are in progress or relationships have occurred in the previous 2 years.
According to the Agency, the taxpayer can apply the flat rate regime from 2021 (without prejudice to the existence of the other requirements).
3. Subjects not resident in an EU / EEA state (reply 106 of 15 April)
With the Reply in comment, the Agency examined the possibility of applying the flat rate regime by:
– an Italian citizen residing in Switzerland (registered with AIRE)
– which achieves self-employment income in Italy to an extent of less than 75% of the total income produced
In this case, the Agency specifies that the subject cannot apply the flat-rate regime, since the impedimental cause referred to in letter b) of paragraph 57 according to which non-resident subjects cannot make use of the flat-rate regime, with the exception of residents in an EU / EEA State if they produce in Italy at least 75% of the income.
4. Former employer and extraordinary operations (reply 108 of 16 April)
The case in question concerns a taxpayer employee of a S.p.a. until 31.8.2017, holder of an open-ended contract as teacher since 1.9.2017 and holder of VAT number from 5.9.2017.
The S.p.a. was affected in 2017 and 2018 by the following extraordinary operations:
– transformation into S.r.l. in November 2017;
– renaming following the partial demerger.
The “new” S.r.l., while maintaining the tax code / VAT number unchanged, had a different corporate structure and governance than those present in the “old” S.p.a. at the time the employee relationship was in progress.
The Agency highlights that the extraordinary operations that affected the S.p.a. during 2017 and 2018 they did not entail a “modification” of the employer therefore, in application of the impedimental cause referred to in letter d-bis) of paragraph 57, the taxpayer in 2020 cannot continue to benefit from the flat-rate regime.
The taxpayer will be able to apply the flat-rate regime from 2021 (without prejudice to the existence of the other requirements).