new limits from 2020 or 2021? New chaos on impediments

New limits for the flat rate scheme: the 2020 Budget Law has not yet been approved and has already been created chaos more total.

The doubts of the holders of VAT number, endorsed by two different positions of commentators and experts, concern the effective date of the new ones impediments and by when it will be necessary to verify the exceeding of the limits for the exit in the facilitated regime.

The answer is relevant, as it will determine who will be able to remain in the flat-rate scheme for 2020 and when the new limits on employee income and compensation for employees will be applied.

The doubt arises from the large window granted by the Revenue Agency last year regarding the sale of controlling shares in SRL: the circular no. 9/2019, published following the standard rate reform introduced by the last Budget Law, postponed to the end of 2019 the removal of the hostile cause for stay in the flat-rate scheme.

The reasons given were two: the date of publication in the Official Gazette of the Budget Law and the provisions of the Taxpayer Statute. There are still many doubts about the fate of the flat rate in 2020, and there is a risk that the new year will begin without any kind of certainty.

Flat-rate scheme: new limits from 2020 or 2021? Total chaos between the VAT numbers

One of the major critical points of a constantly changing fiscal policy is the impossibility, for companies, professionals and their intermediaries, to carry out any kind of planning.

The new changes on the limits for access or permanence in the flat-rate regime, contained in the Bill of Budget 2020, I am the clear confirmation.

Starting from 1 January 2020, in addition to the limit of revenues or fees set at 65,000 euros, compliance with the following will be required requirements:

• expenses for employees and ancillary work not exceeding € 20,000 gross;
• obtaining income from employment or similar and pensions not exceeding € 30,000.

These are the two changes planned to date, even if – we specify – we await the final approval and publication in the Official Gazette of the Budget Law 2020 to talk about official status.

And it is precisely in consideration of this (date of approval and publication date in the Official Journal) that the doubts about the effective date of the new limits are raised.

Check flat-rate regime limits, because it should be except for 2020

Any doubt should be a rule contained in the Statute of the Taxpayer which, in article 3, paragraph 2, establishes:

"In any case, the tax provisions cannot provide for obligations to be paid by taxpayers whose deadline is set before the sixtieth day from the date of their coming into force or the adoption of the implementing provisions expressly provided for therein."

From here the Inland Revenue started for the moratorium introduced on the new limits for access to the flat rate in 2019, and specifically with regard to the transfer of controlling shares in SRL and the date of the exit from the flat rate in the event of failure removal of the hostile cause.

Specifically, with circular letter n. 9/2019, the Revenue Agency postponed to the end of 2019 the removal of the impediment for the stay in the flat rate regime, considering the date of publication in the Official Gazette of the Budget Law and the provisions of the Statute of the Taxpayer.

By assimilation, considering the practice concerning last year, there are those who claim that i new limits coming with the 2020 Budget Law will actually be operational – and therefore must be subjected to verification – only at the end of 2020, for the purposes of permanence in flat-rate scheme starting from 1 January 2021.

New flat-rate regime limits, no date indicated in the 2020 Budget Law

According to this interpretation, even those who, in reference to 2019, will have exceeded the limit of 20,000 euros relative to the remuneration paid to collaborators, and that of 30,000 euros relating to income from employment or pension received will remain in the flat-rate scheme in 2020.

A sort of "initial moratorium" would then be a "concession" of civilization, due to the many VAT numbers in the flat-rate regime for which, only last year, the reintroduction stakes had been eliminated.

However, talking about certainties is premature. To understand what destiny will be of the many VAT number holders in a flat-rate scheme who, in 2019, will exceed the limits of income from work or compensation for employees, we will still have to wait.

After the Budget Law 2020, in which at present no date is foreseen from which the verification of exceeding the limits will start, the now usual interpretation of the Revenue Agency is awaited.

It is not known, however, what the times will be and, likewise, the hypothesis of the less optimistic, who give for "passed off" the flat-rate payments that in 2019 will have exceeded the new limits on arrival is not entirely excluded.