With judgment no. 13742 deposited on May 18, 2023, the Court of Cassation expressed its opinion regarding the VAT exemption regime for investment gold sales.
The case in question concerns the sale of 15 kg of gold in sheets that, following investigations into criminal activities aimed at the clandestine export of precious metals, were seized at the Italian-Swiss border. According to Article 10, paragraph 1, No. 11 of Presidential Decree 633/72, which incorporates the provisions of Articles 344 and 346 of Directive No. 2006/112/EC, “sales of investment gold, including gold represented by certificates, even if not allocated, or traded on metal accounts” are exempt from VAT. According to Article 1 of Law No. 7/2000, the concept of “investment gold” includes gold in the form of bars or plates weighing more than 1 gram, accepted by the market and with a purity of 995 or higher, represented or not by certificates.
In this context, the Court reaffirms that the characteristics that identify investment gold, for transactions with financial nature, are anchored to the aforementioned parameters of weight, form, and purity. Otherwise, industrial gold is involved, and the taxable regime applies with the reverse charge mechanism under Article 17, paragraph 5 of Presidential Decree 633/72 (Cassation judgments no. 26760/2022 and 11927/2021).
In this regard, the VAT Committee also intervened with working paper no. 1000 of October 19, 2020, admitting the possibility of considering gold with forms other than bars or plates (i.e., oval, round, or irregular) as “investment gold” as long as the substantive requirements of purity and weight are met, provided that the asset is accepted by the relevant market.
Based on these considerations, the Court of Cassation considered the ruling in question unfounded, as it excluded that, in this case, the sale concerned “investment gold” without verifying its characteristics, as indicated above.
Source: eutekne.info
