Revocation of revaluations of business assets
The revaluation of business assets, as provided for in Decree-Law 104/2020, has been an opportunity for many companies to highlight, on favourable terms compared to the past, the higher values of their assets and to take advantage of significant tax benefits.
The objective scope was broad as it included tangible and intangible fixed assets, as well as fixed investments in subsidiaries, associates and joint ventures.
The element that made this measure attractive in the first place was, in addition to the fact that it included almost all fixed assets (even non-capitalised intangibles), the payment of a 3% substitute tax for IRES/IRPEF and IRAP.
The year 2022 brought as a dowry novelty that changed the regulations on the revaluation of trademarks in peius, firstly through the Budget Law that increased the fiscal amortisation period of trademarks to 50 years, allowing companies to revoke the operation from a fiscal point of view and, secondly, with the law converting the Decree-Law Sostegni ter, allowing the cancellation of the operation also in civil law terms.
In view of these changes, the CNDCEC has produced a document analysing the operational aspects of the various applicable solutions.
In particular, the applicable solutions, based also on the liquidity needs of companies, are the following:
- “acceptance” of the changes introduced and therefore tax deduction of the greater revalued value in 50 years;
- maintenance of the tax deduction of the greater value in 18 years, paying a further substitute tax (12%,14%,16%) net of what has already been paid;
- revocation of the tax application of the revaluation, with restitution, also through compensation in F24, of the substitute taxes already paid;
- cancellation of both the tax and statutory transaction (pursuant to interpretation document no. 10 of the Italian Accounting Standards Board (OIC) with impact exclusively on the balance sheet) with adequate disclosure in the notes to the financial statements.