If you’re a tax payer in Italy then you’ll be used to hearing many Italian accountancy terms used by your commercialista. Some of these unknown expressions can be confusing to a non-Italian and you may not always want to ask, so we’ve written a series of articles to help you.
Let’s begin with the mysterious-sounding cassetto fiscale. Just what is it?
A literal translation of cassetto fiscale is “tax drawer”. However, it doesn’t mean that your tax declaration has been shoved inside a metal cabinet in the Italian Tax Office! Far from it.
In fact, the cassetto fiscale is a recent and highly successful innovation from the Italian Inland Revenue. Basically, if you’re a tax payer in Italy, you’re allocated your own virtual file or cassetto. Whenever a tax document is registered on your behalf it automatically goes into the relevant file. This is really convenient because everything is in one place. All your yearly tax returns, VAT (iva) returns and withholding certificates are all available for inspection, together with records of all payments (and reimbursements!) of tax you’ve made or received during the period.
In short, the arrival of the cassetto fiscale means the personal and comprehensive tax history of every Italian tax payer, both individuals and companies, is accessible on-line. It covers all taxes too, except for Italian Council Tax. Isn’t that wonderful? (Sorry - we Italian accountants get very excited by things like this!)
Take a Look in Your Own “Tax Drawer”!
As a tax payer in Italy you have the right to view your own cassetto and you can authorize your commercialista to have access as well. This not only gives your accountant (and you)an instant photograph of your tax situation, it also makes it far easier to see if returns have been missed or if there’s some other issue which needs to be dealt with.
Another great advantage of this on-line system is that it’s far easier to change commercialista. You don’t have to continue using someone you’re not happy with through fear of your records getting lost in a handover. Now you can simply authorize your new commercialista to access your cassetto fiscale and they’ll instantly have a record of all the tax documentation filed on your behalf.
To register so that you can inspect your cassetto fiscale, go on-line to the Agenzia delle Entrate and follow the instructions to apply for your PIN: http://telematici.agenziaentrate.gov.it/Main/Cassetto.jsp
And if you want to switch to an Italian accountant who really speaks your language, BEV now has a Service Centre where you can contact a list of accountants with just one click of the mouse.