The Domestic Stability Pact should guarantee the participation of all Italian levels of government in assuring the comprehensive respect of European public financial obligations. The paper analyses – through some empirical evidences – the principal limits of the Italian Stability Pact legislation and suggests some desirable amendments and reforms.

Le fondamenta della partecipazione dei comuni all’accertamento; criticità del sistema; incentivo economico a sostegno dell’attività comunale; partecipazione comunale a seguito delle novità del 2008; un nuovo modello di partecipazione comunale; contrasto all’evasione fiscale nel federalismo fiscale; altalenante legislazione sui consigli tributari; ruolo delle Regioni a Statuto Ordinario e delle Province; conclusioni

Osservazioni generali; applicazione della tassa; presupposto impositivo; Soggetti passivi ed ammontare della tassa; accertamento, liquidazione e riscossione; ricorso

Con la Circolare n. 34/E del 21 novembre 2013 l’Agenzia delle Entrate ha definito il trattamento tributario ai fini IVA delle erogazioni effettuate dalle amministrazioni pubbliche. Il documento di prassi, tuttavia, presta il fianco a riflessioni ed osservazioni sui criteri individuati dall’Amministrazione finanziaria per attrarre a tassazione alcune tipologie di erogazioni. Il presente lavoro, dopo aver ripercorso l’inquadramento amministrativo-contabile dei contributi pubblici, si focalizza sul loro trattamento tributario ai fini delle imposte dirette ed indirette, soffermandosi sulle indicazioni derivanti dalla giurisprudenza europea nonché sull’evoluzione della dottrina e della prassi sul tema. La predominanza dell’interesse pubblico alla realizzazione degli investimenti e l’apprezzamento del legislatore verso forme contrattuali che consentano la realizzazione di opere di interesse pubblico tra cui le partnership pubblico-privato, rendono non assoggettabili ad IVA alcune fattispecie di contributi, diversamente da quanto sostenuto dall’Amministrazione finanziaria. With Circular n. 34/E of November the 21th, 2013 Tax Agency has defined the tax treatment relating to VAT on public disbursements. This document, however, opens the way to reflections and observations on the criteria identified by the Tax Authority to tax certain types of disbursements. This paper, after reviewing the administrative and accounting framework of public contributions, focuses on their tax treatment for the purposes of direct and indirect taxes, with a stress on the claims arising from European cases law as well as on the evolution of doctrine and Government documents on the subject. The predominance of the public interest in the realization of investments and the appreciation of the legislator to types of contracts that allow public works, including public-private partnerships, make certain types of contributions immune to VAT, despite Tax Authority claiming otherwise.

According to EU Commission, “The use of tax expenditures in times of fiscal consolidation, Economic papers, July 2014”, while central government tax expenditures reports are widely covered, tax expenditures related to local taxes seem to be less frequently recorded. This is partly due to the heterogeneity of the taxes applied by local and regional entities. There are several important issues in the reporting of tax expenditures such as whether it should cover all levels of government or only national government. The paper concentrates on this topic, focusing on tax expenditures of Italian local governments, and evidencing the overlap risk, between local direct expenditures and central government tax expenditures, due to a recent Italian tax reform.

The role of the European Union with regard to national budgetary policies seems to be more direct in the recent reform of public sector accountancy (Law n. 243/2012), unlike the repealed so-called Domestic Stability Pact, whom failure, primarily concerning the decrease of public investments, has been belatedly pointed in the academic and institutional debate. Domestic Stability Pact is definitively ceased at midnight of December 31, 2015. Such recent reform seems to be hopeful for local levels of government, both in terms of tax assignment and related maneuverable local choices, safeguarding financial stability in each entity. It is time each local Italian Entity would be having the chance to get certain revenues, to spend for its own community, in a reliable and durable frame.