Current rules, penalties and controls on current accounts, cash, passbooks and 2019 changes

Current accounts, cash, transactions and postal books with the rules currently modified and what will happen next year

In recent years, through a series of interventions including: confidentiality, database cross-referencing, communication of all transactions exceeding a certain amount, purchase of valuable products, badysis of current accounts Tax authorities can badyze and verify a lot of information. But what are the limits? What can not you check?

Rules on current account transactions

What are the activities in which the tax administration is authorized to fight tax evasion? Current accounts, counted, purchases … let's see what he can and can not do.

It should be remembered that the Inland Revenue can now badyze banking transactions through the current account register. The rule of reversal of the burden of proof is valid: it means that it is incumbent on the account holder to prove that the sums paid are "clean" or result from activities on which the tax has been paid regularly. And there is one aspect that deserves to be emphasized: on examination, it is not only the economic activity of companies, especially large ones, but also that of the professionals as shown by the most recent data on the percentage of controls. Financial investigations can be conducted against all natural persons.

If the account holder pays more than his or her monthly salary, the tax authority may initiate an investigation or, in any case, a request for clarification. It is up to the same taxpayer to explain the origin of this figure. Under current tax rules, all current account payments are considered taxable income. Of course, there may be valid reasons, such as

1. a win at the game
2. the fruit of a donation

but it is still up to the person concerned to prove it. The solution is always to indicate the reason for payment on the current account in cash. Pay attention to timing: the Revenue Agency may knock on the door and seek advice on the origin of the money until December 31 of the fifth year following the submission of the declaration of income. Red light also for cash payments: they can not exceed the threshold of 3,000 euros. The alternative is to use traceable instruments such as non-transferable checks, ATMs, bank transfers, postal transfers, credit cards.

The checks

It is understood that all bank, postal and circular checks of an amount equal to or greater than 1 000 euros must include the name of the beneficiary or the name of the company as well as the non-transferability clause. Bank and postal checks, issued against them, can only be withdrawn in a bank or at the Italian post office, whatever the amount. Banks issue checks with the no transfer clause. However, the client may request in writing the free release of bank drafts and bank check forms, with a maximum value of € 1,000, except for the cases in which the beneficiaries of the securities are the banks. or the Post Office. In the case of a request for free form checks, the applicant must pay 1.50 euro for each check in the form of stamp duty.

And again: the balance of the bank book bearer must be less than 1 000 euros. In case of transfer of the booklets to the bearer, whatever the balance, the seller is required to communicate within 30 days to the issuing bank the identification data of the badignee, the acceptance and the date of the transfer. In summary:

1. transfers in cash or booklets of bearer's books, in pounds or in foreign currency, made for any reason between different subjects, when the value transferred is in total equal to or greater than 3,000 euros;
2. bank and postal checks issued for an amount equal to or greater than EUR 1 000 must indicate the beneficiary's name or business name and the non-transferability clause;
3. the balance of the bank book bearer or post office can not be greater than or equal to 1 000 euros.

Cash limits

To risk more during the withdrawal and payment phase of the current account, entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs before retirement, employees, self-employed workers and professionals. In accordance with the regulations in force, the transfer of cash or bank or postal deposit books to bearer or bearer securities in euros or foreign currencies, made for any reason between different subjects when the value the transfer is equal to or greater than 3,000 euros. The transfer is also prohibited when it is done with more payments below the threshold that appear split up.

This means that in case of withdrawal, a non-entrepreneur citizen can transfer them to another person if the sum does not reach the ceiling of 3,000 euros. The case is different for entrepreneurs for whom cash withdrawals of more than € 1,000 per day and € 5,000 per month are justified. The reason? He could pay black workers, to name only one. Try to give some examples

1. if a private person has to pay 5,000 euros to the maid and wants to pay in cash, the rules are violated;
2. if an invoice of 5,000 euros is paid in cash on the invoice date, the rules are broken;
3. if, on the current account statement, there is a cash payment of 4 000 euros, the trader is not required to make a declaration due to the intervention of a financial intermediary, but provided that this does not occur do not repeat several times.

There are two important clarifications from the Revenue Agency. The first concerns the question of whether it is fair to badume that the new provisions on quantitative limits of € 1,000 per day and in any case € 5,000 per month of withdrawal do not have retroactive effect. as they relate to the activity of the preliminary investigation and not that of the evaluation. On September XX, the Agency recalls how the new rules introduced a limit on the amounts of withdrawals or amounts received, placed as income on the basis of adjustments and contributions. The presumption concerning company withdrawals is applied to amounts greater than 1,000 euros per day and 5,000 euros per month, while it is inapplicable to operators of the arts and professions. As a result, withdrawals or amounts collected within the limits set by the new provision are considered income.

The other aspect on which the tax authorities have intervened to clarify the legislation concerns the non-applicability of payments. The doubt is whether the changes concern only withdrawals or even payments because they seem to indicate parliamentary work? Indeed, the article in question states that "if the taxpayer does not indicate the beneficiary and if they do not result from the accounting entries, the withdrawals or the amounts collected within the framework of the transactions or transactions mentioned above are based on the adjustments and the contributions for amounts exceeding € 1,000 per day and, in any event, € 5,000 per month ". Therefore, it seems clear that the letter of the law only deals with unjustified withdrawals and not with payments, for which the rule constituting a presumption of income remains in force if they are not justified.

Controls and verifications including current accounts

It is now easier to get hold of the current accounts of the tax administration. It was created by the V civil chamber of the Court of Cbadation, condemned to a sentence of conviction by a professional and favorable to the Revenue Agency, intended to make jurisprudence with a significant weight for taxpayers. Essentially, serious tax evasion is seriously evaporating and the Via XX Settembre Agency can now proceed with the bank checks of the suspect's current account with greater freedom. More: The tax authorities are not obliged to motivate in connection with the investigations conducted by the yellow flames on suspicious movements. The sentence is number 8266 of 2018.

The judges of the Tax Courts of the Court of Cbadation then placed an important point in the relationship between tax authorities and taxpayers. From now on, the Revenue Agency can investigate bank accounts or postal accounts without explanation and without the presence of any serious evidence of alleged tax evasion. And, as stated, the men of the Guardia di Finanza may not be involved. The problem of taxpayers is also and above all another: the indispensable nature of the evidence in support of its defense. This is the so-called reversal of the burden of proof, according to which the tax authorities carry out the checks, and then the citizens to prove that they were wrong. Although it takes years and even though, in the meantime, he has paid fines.

And entering the story for being the first to succumb was a professional sanctioned for making payments and withdrawals deemed non-compliant by the Revenue Agency with respect to reported income. And the sentence of conviction came at the end of the photo, considering that the man was considered to be right both in first instance and on appeal and then succumbing to the Supreme Court.

According to the decision on fixing the income tax, the use of powers provided for in Article 18 of Law 413 of 1991, also with respect to annuities prior to its entry in force, does not constitute a retroactive application of this provision, insofar as it does not entail a substantial change in the taxpayer's subjective position, the obligations of which remain with the tax authorities separately. by the laws in force at the time of the declaration.

And check for next year 2019

But other changes will also be made to current accounts, postal savings books and financial instruments, as well as cash management, next year, in 2019. have spoken in detail in this article.