[ad_1]
The state that taxes the state. This is the paradox that theItaly due to the latest decisions, released by the European Commission, in which Rome is asked to repeal the exemptions of taxes enjoyed by companies that manage i ports In our country.
The story begins from afar. There DG competence, the General Directorate of the European Commission that is in charge of supervising compliance with Community regulations on competition and free market, raised the case of the management of Italian ports. In particular, the exemption to which companies are subject must for all purposes be regarded as State aid. Therefore, an element that contrasts with the principle of free market and competition, one of the pillars of the EU economic system.
At the end of 2018, a commission investigation was opened against Italy. Since then push and pull between Brussels and Rome it never ended. The governments that have taken turns at the helm of our country have argued that the Asp, that is, the Port System Authorities are public bodies that emanate directly from the With, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport.
As entities, Asps are not subject to the payment of IRES and other taxes. The reasoning presented by Italy is very simple: it is not possible to tax public entities that emanate directly from the state administration. It would be like collecting taxes.
However, Europe has gone its own way. In a letter the commission sent to the Italian government and published in the Gazzetta on January 10, Brussels called on Italy to comply. In short, for the commission the Asps give life to real business activities because, as it is written in the letter, “they entrust authorizations and concessions against the payment of a fee.”
The question has arisen in the last hours with a new warning from the EU executive: “The European Commission – read a note reported by AgencyNova – called on Italy to abolish the corporate tax exemptions enjoyed by Italian ports in order to adapt the national tax system to the EU rules on state aid ”. According to Brussels, the fact that Italy has not yet complied with Community legislation on the matter prevents free competition in the port sector.
“The EU rules on competition – the Commissioner responsible for Competition commented in the last hours, Margrethe Vestager – recognize the importance of ports for economic growth and regional development and allow the Member States to invest in this sector ”.
“At the same time, in order to protect competition – continued the representative of the EU government – the Commission must ensure that the profits generated by the economic activities of the port authorities are taxed in the same way as the profits of other companies. Today’s decision directed at Italy, like those directed at the Netherlands, Belgium and France, reiterates that the granting of unjustified exemptions from corporation tax to ports distorts the level playing field and undermines fair competition. Therefore, these exemptions should be abolished ”.
Hands on work in Italian ports
Brussels does not want to hear reasons: ASPs should be taxed. This even if the Italian state considers them as entities of its own administration. From the headquarters of the government of the EU they specified that “the dialogue with Italy continues”, in reality the European is a aut aut: Rome by January 2022 must comply with the directives of the commission. Otherwise one will click infringement procedure.
If the government decided to apply the taxes that rained down from Brussels, then we would arrive at the paradox of a public body taxed by the state. But above all, the Asp would lose the monopolies on the management of the ports. Translated: our scales would be put on the market. And maybe another slice of Italy will be sold.
