Extension of the special voluntary disclosure and reopening of the deadlines

The special voluntary disclosure was introduced, exceptionally, by the 2023 Budget Law and allowed the taxpayer to rectify and regularize certain tax violations in tax returns, benefiting from a reduction in penalties to 1/18 of the minimum statutory, and also allowing installment payments.

The rectification of the violation and the payment of the amounts (or the first installment) were required to take place no later than September 30, 2023, and had to concern violations committed up to December 31, 2021.

Extension of the special voluntary disclosure

Subsequently, Article 3, paragraph 12-undecies of the DL of December 30, 2023, no. 215, the so-called “Milleproroghe Decree,” extended the possibility of benefiting from the special voluntary disclosure exclusively regarding violations of tax returns validly submitted in 2023, relating to the tax period ending on December 31, 2022.

In this case, the payment to rectify the irregularities and settle the violation had to be made either in a single installment by March 31, 2024, or in four installments of equal amounts, with the first installment always being paid by March 31, 2024.

The Council of Ministers approves the draft decree-law

On March 26, 2024, the Council of Ministers approved the draft decree-law containing urgent measures on tax benefits, which provides:

• the possibility of accessing the special voluntary disclosure for the tax years 2021 and earlier;
• The extension of the deadline from March 31, as provided for the analogous regularization concerning declarative inaccuracies relating to the tax year 2022 (autonomously regulated by Article 3, paragraph 12-undecies, of DL 215/2023), to May 31, 2024.

Which violations can be rectified with the special voluntary disclosure

Violations that can be rectified include:

• all those included in the ordinary voluntary disclosure (Article 13 Legislative Decree no. 472/1997), provided that the declaration for the relevant tax period has been validly submitted;
• irregularities relating to income from foreign sources, the tax on the value of foreign financial assets (IVAFE), and the tax on the value of real estate located abroad (IVIE) that cannot be identified through automated checks pursuant to Article 36-bis of Presidential Decree no. 600 of 1973, despite the violation of monitoring obligations, as specified in Article 21, paragraph 1, letter b) of DL no. 34/2023.