This article analyses the political and systematic reasons leading the European legislator to introduce a special VAT scheme for agriculture. Moving beyond the traditional justification based on the structural weakness of agriculture, it is argued that this justification is too general. After reconsidering the environmental reasons and the reasons connected with the regressive nature of VAT on agricultural foodstuffs, it is argued that the essential justification is the need for administrative simplification for farmers. The genesis of the VAT Directives provides evidence for this conclusion, though in the European perspective there is a need to strike a balance between the objective of simplification and the neutrality which is of particular importance for VAT. This balance between simplification and neutrality represents the key feature of the flat-rate system for farmers, differentiating it from the special scheme for small and medium-sized enterprises. This attempt to strike a balance between these two competing objectives is likely to lead to further issues of interpretation arising from the special scheme for agriculture.
Il lavoro analizza le ragioni politico-sistematiche che hanno indotto il legislatore europeo a introdurre un regime speciale iva per i produttori agricoli, ritenendo la tradizionale giustificazione della strutturale debolezza del settore agricolo troppo generica. Rifiutate le motivazioni “ambientalistiche” e quelle legate ad una supposta regressività dell’iva applicata ai prodotti agricoli, la ragione essenziale è individuata nella esigenza di semplificazione amministrativa che caratterizza l’attività agricola. La genesi normativa delle Direttive iva conferma questa conclusione, anche se nella prospettiva europea l’esigenza di semplificazione si pone in rapporto di tensione con l’esigenza di neutralità del tributo che, nell’applicazione dell’iva al settore agricolo è particolarmente forte. La tensione tra semplificazione e neutralità rappresenta quindi la cifra caratterizzante del sistema forfetario, lo differenzia dal regime fiscale per le piccole e medie imprese ed è destinata ad esser oggetto di ulteriori questioni interpretative relative al regime speciale.
Il regime speciale IVA per i produttori agricoli: genesi, evoluzione e ragioni politico-sistematiche.
giangiacomo d'angelo
2018
Abstract
This article analyses the political and systematic reasons leading the European legislator to introduce a special VAT scheme for agriculture. Moving beyond the traditional justification based on the structural weakness of agriculture, it is argued that this justification is too general. After reconsidering the environmental reasons and the reasons connected with the regressive nature of VAT on agricultural foodstuffs, it is argued that the essential justification is the need for administrative simplification for farmers. The genesis of the VAT Directives provides evidence for this conclusion, though in the European perspective there is a need to strike a balance between the objective of simplification and the neutrality which is of particular importance for VAT. This balance between simplification and neutrality represents the key feature of the flat-rate system for farmers, differentiating it from the special scheme for small and medium-sized enterprises. This attempt to strike a balance between these two competing objectives is likely to lead to further issues of interpretation arising from the special scheme for agriculture.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
