Prepared by Francesco Pizzo, Andrea Casalini, Anna Tripodi
On December 15, 2023, the provisions contained in the Law Decree no 145/2023 (the so-called “Decreto Anticipi”), regarding measures on economic and fiscal matters, became definitive through the Law No.191/2023.
Among the new provisions introduced in Article 4-quater, the Italian Legislator amended the point no. 80) of Table A, Part III of Presidential Decree No. 633/72. The new version of the provision under discussion specifies that the products which fall under the definition of nutritional supplement provided by the Legislative Decree No. 169/2004, are subject to the reduced VAT rate equal to 10% , regardless of the form in which they are presented and marketed.
For the purposes of applying the more favorable VAT regime, the products must be classifiable under customs heading 2106 of the Combined Nomenclature, which is dedicated to food preparations not elsewhere specified or included.
In other words, where a nutritional supplement should classifiable under a different customs heading, the same could not benefit from the reduced rate.
In this respect, as clarified the Italian Tax Authorities with several guidelines and rulings, the allocation of a binding customs heading to a product, in Italy, can be provided only by the Italian Customs Authorities by the request of a “technical assessment”
Therefore, for the purposes of the application of the reduced VAT rate, the confirmation provided by the Italian Customs Authorities that a nutritional supplement falls under the customs heading 2106 must be deemed as crucial. In the absence of this latter, in fact, the beneficial VAT regime applied could be challenged.
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