Federcaccia wins the appeal regarding hunting licenses; in particular, it is clear that it is possible to renew the government concession fees before the firearms license expires.
This was established by the Province of Perugia, accepting the appeal presented by Federcaccia, in the person of the lawyer Simone Moriconi of the Perugia Bar. The facts date back to last November, when a hunter from Gualdo Cattaneo was sanctioned by the State Forestry Corps for having exhibited payment slips dated September 2011, while the firearms license was dated October. Therefore, according to public officials, the bulletins exhibited would expire the following month, and were therefore not to be considered valid for the rest of the 2011-12 season.
In simple terms, in the absence of adequate jurisprudence in one sense or another, the validity of the payment slips for government concession fees - regional and provincial - can last for one calendar year or, depending on the interpretations, up to the date of issue of the firearms license.
This means, especially for licenses issued in open hunting periods, that sometimes the dates of the bulletins can overlap with that of the issue, creating possible misunderstandings with particularly zealous public officials, who ask to prove the temporal validity of the payments paid.
In the case of the hunter from Gualdo Cattaneo, the Forestry Corps agents had imposed a fine of over 600 euros on him, claiming that his payments - dated September 2011 - were not sufficient to cover the entire season until the following September, but were valid. only until the date of the firearms license, which falls in the month of October. In addition to the fine, the hunter had suffered the administrative seizure of his rifle, which remained in his custody after being sealed by public officials.
Federcaccia Umbra, entrusted the case to the lawyer Moriconi, challenged the minutes of the Forestry Corps, claiming the annual validity of the paid bulletins. Moreover, the hunter in question had regularly paid government taxes for the previous season as well, as shown by the research conducted by the Province of Perugia. which, in fully accepting the appeal, canceled the heavy fine and ordered the release from seizure of the weapon.
The point, from the legal point of view, is that there is no law that prohibits paying taxes in advance. therefore, as also stated in an old ministerial circular produced by the applicant, government concessions can be paid even before the date of issue written on the firearms permit, provided that the reference period is indicated on the reason for payment. Further advice to be given to hunters is to bring with them the bulletins relating to the previous season, so as to dispel any doubts even among the most meticulous controllers.
Obviously the Umbrian and Provincial Federcaccia are satisfied, for what can be defined as a real legal victory that puts a stop to numerous reports imposed every year by those in charge of control over the hunting activity.
Better still it would be, to avoid the repetition of similar misunderstandings, that the local institutions issue a circular to the bodies in charge of control with a precise guideline on the subject of "government concessions".
Hunting Federation