As already anticipated by FIRSTonline, from 2014 January 58,5 the XNUMX% ?scale levy on electronic cigarettes will come into force under the VAT-Labour decree converted in August (Law 99 of 2013). But the provision in question also envisaged, to allow the start of the consumption tax collection system (as it is defined, despite being to all intents and purposes an excise duty), the publication by 31 October of a Ministerial Decree of which until yesterday only a draft was available on the AAMS website (since when are the draft decrees on the websites official documents?). Draft signed by Economy Minister Saccomanni last November 16, but remained firm, evidently due to some problem.
The problem came to light, and was raised by Court of Auditors which, in a letter addressed to the Finance Department of the MEF, accuses the Ministry of having jeopardized the collection of € 117 million expected by the tax authorities. This is because the delay with which the implementing decree was sent to the Court of Auditors for registration prevented the necessary verification of legitimacy and in practice prevents operators in the sector from complying with the rules.
The draft establishes that the Monopolies have 60 days to carry out checks on the storage rooms. Another 30 days are necessary for the authorization provision which in turn, in any case, must be adopted within 30 days from the date of delivery of the deposit to the Monopolies. Then, as for tobacco products, the registration of marketed products in the tariff is envisaged, with the Monopolies who will have 60 days from the request to publish the products in the tariff list. And, incidentally, when it comes to products, the DM also includes all hardware spare parts. Consequentially USB cables, batteries identical to those of mobile phones or "stylus-like" will be taxed at 58,5% just because they are sold for a different purpose, as well as food flavourings used for e-cigarette liquids. Something that the industries of the respective sectors have not yet paid attention to.
Returning to the timing, even with a forthcoming publication in the Official Gazette of the ministerial decree, it will take months for the marketing subject to the 58,5% tax and regulated by the AAMS to start. According to FIRST reportsonline, some AAMS regional offices confidentially estimate a time of up to 240 days, despite – as reported by Italia Oggi – a note sent last November 20 to the regional offices of the Monopolies by the deputy director of the Agency, Luigi Magistro, gave instructions to «carry out the technical verification in a timely manner, so as to allow the authorization to be issued by 1 January 2014». It is a pity that in the absence of a decree, the operators have not been able to start any practice.
A mess with a cost for the state coffers of € 117 million, however presumed, given that already last July the Senate Budget Service had underlined (can be read in the dossier on page 57) as "It does not seem that possible disincentive effects have been taken into account in relation to the impact on the price deriving from the tax introduced".
The technicians had highlighted that in the technical report of the "VAT and Work" Decree which introduces the consumption tax "it was not clarified on the basis of which parameters, i.e. observed trends, it was possible to hypothesize a market in the sector of 200 million euros starting from 2014?. Thesis confirmed by Anafe-Confindustria in a recent hearing in the Finance Committee. Coverage not even on paper, then.
But in the letter sent by the Ministry of Economy's Records Control Office, dated December 3, 2013, the Court of Auditors uses much harsher tones, starting from the premise of “having implemented the provision for reasons of familiarity, in consideration of the need to avoid the paralysis of the sector, with the intuitive repercussions in terms of lost revenue for the state coffers", stating clearly that "The adoption of the decree, which will have to be published in the Gazette, so close to the entry into force of the provisions, has drastically limited the carrying out of the preventive control of legitimacy by the Office which has not been able to carry out the necessary investigations".
A hole of € 2014 million therefore opens up in the 117 budget of the state coffers which will probably already have to be covered with a provision within the stability bill currently in second reading in the Chamber and on which the Budget Commission chaired by the Hon. Francesco Boccia (PD), while, as regards the solution of the taxation problem it seems that the Government – in which rumors have been raised from many quarters about the risk of destroying an entire growing sector, which is also the leading exporter in Europe – can move towards an extension to 2015 and a review of taxation from 58,5% to the more sustainable 25%, percentage already approved by the Senate Budget Commission with an amendment, then erased with a stroke of a pen, by the representative of the Ministry of Economy in the maxi-amendment.
But, 25 days after the entry into force of the law, uncertainty reigns.
