On of June 7, 2022, through Resolution No. 25/E, the Revenue Agency (Agenzia delle entrate) provided clarification mentioning the Italian law that governs the right of unidentified minors living in the country to make use of the national health system.
To whom exactly is the resolution addressed?
The resolution concerns the obtainment of the tax code in Italy that will be assigned to undocumented foreign minors and unaccompanied foreign minors, so that they can avail of the health assistance.
Italian legislation on the right of national health assistance
Article 63 of the Prime Minister’s Decree of January 12, 2017 (Definition and updating of essential levels, referred to in Article 1, paragraph 7, of Legislative Decree No. 502 of December 30, 1992) in paragraph 4 provided that
“Foreign minors present in the national territory, who are not in compliance with the rules on entry and residence, shall be enrolled in the National Health Service and shall benefit from health care on equal terms with Italian citizens.”
In addition, Article 14 of Law No. 47 of April 7, 2017 (Provisions on Measures for the Protection of Unaccompanied Foreign Minors) determined the mandatory and free registration with the National Health Service of
“unaccompanied foreign minors, even while awaiting the issuance of a residence permit, following legal reports after they are found in the national territory.”
On the basis of these regulatory provisions for the protection of foreign minors, due to their condition of greater vulnerability, and considering that, at present, the tax code is the identification code considered mandatory for registration with the national health system by the local health offices, it is necessary to assign the tax code to this category of foreign minors, even if they do not have a regular residence permit.
Procedure to assign the Italian Tax Code to undocumented minors
With the aim to standardize the behavior of the Offices of the Revenue Agency throughout the national territory, the following operational guidelines are therefore provided if the minor has not already been assigned a tax code.
Where to submit the application for the Italian Tax Code
The requests for the attribution of the tax code relating to foreign minors must be submitted to the offices of the Revenue Agency by the local health office responsible for registering the foreign nationals in object within the national health system. The local health office requests the tax code as a third party obliged to indicate the tax code of other subjects pursuant to Article 6, paragraph 2, of Presidential Decree No. 605/1973 (Provisions relating to the tax registry and taxpayers’ tax code).
How to submit the application
Such applications must be submitted by the competent health office through the registry form AA4/8 – Application for allocation of tax code, communication of data change and request for health card/duplicate health card (natural persons) as a request for third party, indicating as the requesting type the code 17 – Subjects required to the obligations of indicating the tax code of third party, such as social security institutions, banks, sports associations, etc. (art.6, paragraph 2, Presidential Decree No. 605/1973) or, if relating to more than one child, by means of a single application containing all the information required by the aforementioned model for each child.
A statement from the requesting health office must be attached, certifying the reason for the request for the tax code and the correspondence between the personal data indicated on it and the personal information deriving from the family acts on the basis of which the enrollment into the health system is performed.
The Revenue Agency office that receives the application must acquire any documentation produced by the ASL facility from the records and carry out a prior search of the person in the Tax Registry archives, even for partial personal data; this is to verify that the minor is not already holder of a tax code, registered on the basis of personal data that differ from those declared by the ASL facility.
Generation and issuance of the Tax Code
Once the tax code has been generated, the Office communicates it to the requesting ASL: it will be the responsibility of that facility to communicate the tax code to the person who has parental responsibility or to the person in charge of the first reception facility.