Italy Published Law Decree No. 87 of 12 July 2018 was entered into force following its publication in Official Gazette No. 161 of 13 July 2018.

Details of the tax measures are summarized below:

Regarding Incentives: Under article 7 of the Law Decree, the temporary enhanced accelerated depreciation regime introduced by Law No. 232 of 11 December 2016 (the Budget Law for 2017) and recently amended by Law No. 205 of 27 December 2017 (the Budget Law for 2018) (see Italy-2, News 3 February 2017 and Italy-2, News 12 January 2018) only applies provided that qualifying assets are allocated to production facilities located in Italy. Furthermore, where qualifying assets are sold or allocated to production facilities abroad during the period in which the favorable regime applies, the amount of benefit will be recovered (without penalties or interest). The amendments apply with respect to investments made after 14 July 2018.

Under article 8 of the Law Decree, with effect from tax year 2018, costs incurred to purchase or in-license qualifying patents and know-how deriving from transactions between related enterprises are not included in the calculation of the tax credit available for research and development (R&D) activities, introduced by Law Decree No. 145 of 23 December 2013 and subsequently amended by Law No. 190 of 23 December 2014 (the Stability Law 2015) and Law No. 232 of 11 December 2016 (the Budget Law for 2017) (see Italy-1, News 29 October 2014 , Italy-2, News 7 August 2015  and Italy-2, News 3 February 2017 ).

Communication of data of invoices: Under article 11 of the Law Decree, the communication of data on invoices related to the third quarter of 2018 can be submitted by 28 February 2019.

Taxable persons may also opt to submit the communication on a semestral basis as follows:

  • by 30 September of the same year, for communications related to the first semester; and
  • by 28 February of the following year, for communications related to the second semester.

Split payment system: Under article 12 of the Law Decree, the split payment system does not apply to supplies of services to qualifying public bodies and public entities carried on by self-employed individuals whose payments are subject to withholding tax for income tax purposes (see Italy-1, News 8 January 2015 , Italy-1, News 28 July 2017  and  Italy-1345, News 19 January 2018 ). The amendment applies with respect to supplies for which invoices are issued after 14 July 2018.

Amateur sports companies: Under article 13 of the Law Decree, the corporate income tax and VAT measures related to (for-profit) amateur sports companies, as introduced by Law No. 205 of 27 December 2017 (the Budget Law for 2018) (see Italy-2, News 12 January 2018 and  Italy-4, News 12 January 2018 ), have been repealed.