Summer 2010 Interim Budget Act
16/6/2010
The law-decree containing measures aimed at promoting financial stability and competitiveness (known as the Summer 2010 Budget Act) has been published and is in force as of May 31, 2010. 
Following are the most significant provisions.
• Assessment and fine notices served on or after July 1, 2011, and relating to tax periods in course on or after December 31, 2007, will become enforceable upon service.  If the taxpayer fails to make the required payment within 30 days of the due date, its collection and possibly its forced execution will be entrusted to collection agents.
• Tax bills can be notified via certified electronic mail.
• The regional governments of Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Molise, Puglia, Sardinia and Sicily are allowed to enact changes in IRAP rates (including reducing them to nil) and to allow exemptions and deductions for new business projects.
• Companies registered in another EU country that start new businesses in Italy can opt to follow the tax laws in force in another EU country in lieu of the Italian ones; the same rule applies to their employees and collaborators.
• In the period from January 1 through December 31, 2011, bonuses paid to private-sector employees for achieving increases in productivity, quality, profitability, innovation or organizational efficiency, or in relation to business results or to any factor of importance for improving competitiveness, will be subject to a substitute tax instead of IRPEF and any local increments thereof, and will benefit from an abatement of social-security taxes. This provision will apply to bonuses no higher than €6000 gross paid to employees whose wages or salaries amount to no more than €40,000 yearly.
• Tax audit planning will focus on enterprises that claimed tax losses in their returns for more than one fiscal year, unless such losses were due to remuneration paid to directors and shareholders.
• If the Italian tax authorities correct transfer prices charged by or to an Italian affiliate of an international group, thereby raising the Italian company’s taxable income, the fine for an untruthful return (ranging from 100% to 200% of the unpaid amount of tax) will not be charged if the group’s pricing policy has been documented. To this end, during the audit the Italian company must exhibit a document drawn up in conformity with an order (soon to be issued) by the Revenue Agency and such as to enable the tax authorities to determine whether the transfer prices charged conform to the “normal” (fair) market value of the goods or services provided.
• All municipal governments shall participate in the activity of fiscal and social-security assessment.
• As of July 1, 2010, public deeds and authenticated private agreements whose subject matter is, inter alia, the transfer of real rights in urban properties must contain, under penalty of nullity, not only the unit’s Property-Office identification but also the reference to the maps and drawings filed with the Property Office; as of the same date, all applications to register property leases (or any transfer, termination or extension thereof) must specify the relevant Property-Office data.
• To hinder money laundering, the ceiling on cash payments and bearer instruments is set at €5000.
• VAT-relevant transactions involving amounts of €3000 or more must be notified telematically to the Revenue Agency.
We shall take up these matters again from time to time, when the tax authorities issue their interpretations or implementation measures.