WTI Magazine #9    2013 Dec, 13
Author : Destinazione Italia      Translation by:

Developed in close coordination with the economic policy priorities set out in the Economic and Financial Planning Document, Destinazione Italia establishes a set of measures to foster inbound investments in a cohesive and structural manner and increase Italian companies' competitiveness. These measures will be introduced to our legal system following a timescale on which the Government's agenda will be based. 

In its initial version, Destinazione Italia consists of 50 measures whose goal is to reform a broad range of sectors, from tax to employment and civil justice to research; to enhance and build upon our assets; and to develop investment-focused policies to promote our country at the international level. Every week We the Italians will promote 2 of these measures

1) CLOSER COLLABORATION BETWEEN REVENUE AGENCY AND INVESTORS. TAX AGREEMENTS AND DEDICATED DESK 6

Problem/opportunity: investors need a reliable, predictable system that offers a readily accessible interface capable of providing assurances based on previous agreements.

Solution: introduce, in compliance with European laws on the equal treatment of national and foreign investors and State Aid, tax agreements for investments above a certain threshold, through which the companies and the Revenue Agency agree on fixed tax rates over a specific period (for example, the first 5 years of the investment), thereby providing certainty regarding the tax burden to be borne by investors. The new regimen will be outlined starting with the pilot cooperative compliance project launched by the Agenzia delle Entrate (Revenue Agency).

A Foreign Investors Desk has been set up at the Agency to facilitate and speed up communication, resolve potential pre-existing interpretative issues and direct contributors toward instruments of cooperation with the Finance Ministry already provided by law, such as the filing of complaints or international rulings.
Forms of communication and strengthened cooperation are to be introduced between businesses and financial administrations, with a view to fostering large corporations' broad-based management of the risk associated with fulfillingtax obligations. To that end, businesses must install risk management and control mechanisms and clearly attribute responsibilities within the framework of a complex system of internal controls and corporate governance. Firms that create such internal control mechanisms, may receive incentives in the form of the reduction either of the tax burden or eventual fines.

• Obtaining permits
To become operational, investments need to be granted the necessary permits from the competent authorities. The timescales and certainties regarding the issuance of such permits are crucial to making Italy attractive to foreign investments.

2) REFORM OF "CONFERENZA DEI SERVIZI" 

Problem/opportunity: the "conference of services" was born of a desire for simplification, which aims to coordinate all the authorities involved in permit procedures: certain timescales must be ensured.

Solution: a reform of the conference of services, with a view to streamlining and simplifying procedures, will be based on the following criteria:
- elimination of the obligation of presence for the authorities issuing preliminary clearance certificates (nulla osta preventivo) to the authority handing the request;
- a single session for presentation by the various authorities involved in the permit procedure of the findings of their own completed assessment. The problem of the absence of an authority must, where legally possible, be overcome through the application of the principle "silence means consent".
- granting an executive status to the provision produced by the conference, to be published on the institutional websites of the authorities involved and to be communicated to the parties involved in a timely manner;
- the conference session is to be fully conducted online, with the consequent elimination of the difficulties thus far encotered