New tax crimes that may trigger corporate liability have been introduced by the Italian budget law, namely by section 39 of law decree no. 124 of 2019 relating to fiscal measures (decreto fiscale).

The new section “25-quinquiesdecies” (sic!) applies to crimes of fraudulent tax statements through invoices or other inexistent transactions, invoicing inexistent transactions, fraudulent avoidance of tax payment and destruction of accounting documents.

As a result, companies that commit such fraudulent tax crimes are not only subject to tax liability, but also to “231” liability and punished with a monetary sanction up to 774,500 Euros. Such “231” liability may be in addition to the personal criminal liability of their directors. Additionally, in many cases the confiscation of money, goods or other benefits resulting from the tax crime also applies.

The new crimes will be in force starting from the publication on the Official Gazette of the law converting the above mentioned law decree, which must be converted by the Italian Parliament before Christmas Day.

Companies must therefore act in order to ensure that their 231 organizational models include sufficient provisions aimed at preventing such crimes, such as controls on the veracity of transactions, on the keeping of accounting documents and on the contractual counterparty indicated by the company’s tax documentation. Of course, we at Gitti and Partners can help!