The senator Francesco Bruzzone sent the following note to the Ministry of Economy:
Given that:
several farms have for some time complained of discordant interpretations by public offices and commercial studies regarding the correct application of the VAT rate to the sale of game by breeders;
game farmers, when they sell their live animals for hunting purposes, intended for human consumption, are sometimes considered to be subject to the ordinary tax rate of 22 per cent;
however, the operations for the sale of products intended for human consumption are subject to a preferential rate of 10 per cent, as reported in table A, part III, of the decree of the President of the Republic no. 633 of 1972, even if the latter creates various perplexities, as the interpretation is not univocal for the various products of game;
whereas:
with the opinion of the Revenue Agency n. 954-39 / 2009, it is believed that the sales of fish, carried out by aquaculture entrepreneurs and destined for structures in which the user pays a fee for entry without having to pay for the fish caught which in any case retains and allocates to his own food, can be subject to VAT at a reduced rate of 10 percent; on the other hand, for the sale of fish, intended for "carpodoni", given that the fish is released in the same pond from which it was caught and not retained for food purposes, the reduced VAT rate of 10 percent is not considered applicable;
it therefore appears to the questioner that, by analogy, the same interpretation can be applied to game products intended for human consumption, especially since the activity carried out by territorial hunting areas (so-called ATC) and by hunting companies is aimed at carrying out the hunting activity and then allocating the game to the food market;
in fact, Regulation (EC) no. 852/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004, on the hygiene of foodstuffs, indicates as primary products “the products of primary production including products from the land, livestock, hunting and fishing”;
in addition, the ministerial resolution no. 362304 of 30 June 1986 of the Directorate General for Taxes of the Ministry of Finance confirms, for breeding animals, their destination for human nutrition, which exists even if not immediately, since, in any case, this destination represents the normal conclusion of their short life cycle;
taking into account that, in the rest of the European Union countries, game breeders are subject to a reduced VAT rate of 4 percent or 10 percent;
this situation creates an unequal treatment between Italy and the rest of the countries of the European Union, putting our country at a disadvantage in the European market,
he asks to know if the Minister in address is aware of the facts set out and what measures he intends to put in place in order to clarify the correct application of the reduced VAT rate for game breeders, in order to standardize its application on entire national territory, also in order to eliminate the disadvantage of Italy compared to the rest of the countries of the European Union.