The Finance Committee of the Chamber of Deputies expressed a favorable opinion today on the draft legislative decree that introduces important clarifications regarding value-added tax on international shipping services. The amendment, contained in Article 9 of the text (also containing provisions regarding the Third Sector and business crises), more precisely defines the perimeter of VAT non-taxability for services related to the transport of goods for export and import.
The regulatory revision accepts the requests that Fedespedi – National Federation of International Shipping Companies – had submitted to the Ministry of Economy, which aimed to mitigate the effects of an interpretative application deemed excessively rigid of the VAT Directive conveyed by the Court of Justice of the European Union with the judgment /2016.
The president of Fedespedi, Alessandro Pitto, expressed satisfaction with the regulatory intervention: “The approved legislation clarifies that services provided between two shipping companies are also non-taxable. This is an important clarification, which eliminates market distortions caused by an overly rigid application of the rule, with negative effects on company organization, costs, and, ultimately, on Italian exports.”
Pitto emphasized that this regulatory clarity will have immediate positive repercussions, avoiding “administrative burdens and financial risks for many companies, with direct benefits on the quality of service.”
On behalf of the Honorable Laura Cavandoli, deputy of the Finance Committee of the Chamber and rapporteur for the text, thanks were expressed to the Government “for this intervention which marks an important step forward in making the regulatory framework for services provided to international trade clearer, which favors the competitiveness of operators in the transport and international shipping supply chain in a particularly challenging phase for the import-export of the Italian system.”
