Italian Value-Added Tax Amnesty Broke EU Law, ECJ Adviser Says

Italy breached EU law by allowing taxpayers to wipe out up to 95% of assessed value-added tax, plus penalties and interest, under a 2023 one‑off scheme for settling tax disputes, according to an adviser to the European Court of Justice.

The stated aim of the scheme, which covered domestic and intra‑EU VAT but not import VAT, was to reduce the backlog of court disputes and ensure proceedings were concluded within a reasonable time.

But Italy went beyond the discretion it has under EU law and undermined the collection of VAT in full and, by extension, VAT‑based resources of ...