BETTING TAX ANTE 2011: AFTER THE JUDGMENT OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT, THE STANLEY BETTING SHOPS PREVAIL ON ITALIAN AUTHORITY IN ALL JUDICIAL OFFICES.

Liverpool, 10.05.2018 – The provincial and regional commissions accept the appeals of Stanleybet and its affiliated centers, defended by lawyers Daniela Agnello and Vittoria Varzi, on the subject of the Betting Tax.

Therefore around 750 notices of assessment are being canceled, which ADM – the Italian Authority – persists to avoid canceling by the application of self-protection.

Whenever the judgments regard the Stanley betting shops and the Betting tax for the tax year previous 2011, the judges currently conform to the judgment of the Constitutional Court and cancel the assessment notices challenged by Stanleybet and its affiliated betting shops.

Therefore, the Tax Commissions also began to sentence the Authority to repay the judgment costs.

As an example:

The Provincial Tax Commission of Bari has annulled the ADM assessment notice for the tax year 2010 accepting the appeal initiated by Stanleybet Malta, as a co-obligor in agreement with a betting shop landed in Bari.

The Provincial Tax Commission of Rome has annulled the ADM assessment notice for the tax year 2010 and has sentenced the Authority to pay court costs.

The Lazio Regional Tax Commission, fully compliant to the sentence of the Constitutional Court, canceled the assessment notice with reference to the 2007 tax year.

For the tax years after 2011, the sentences of the Commissions are sometimes favorable to Stanley, sometimes favorable to the Authority. But it is a fact that the tax courts are showing great interest in the way the lawyers who represent Stanleybet and/or their betting shops are debating during the judicial hearings. It is taken for granted that the subject will be referred to the European Court of Justice. In fact, the rule pertaining to the Betting Tax that applies to the betting shops, ratified by the 2011 Financial Budget, aimed to deter the opening of unlicensed betting shops. In fact, this is a more than legitimate regulation, if ruled against a generic illegal operator. But why should Stanley betting shop, an operator already legally bound by the judgments of the Court of Justice and already paying the tax on billing to the Maltese Authorities, had to be discouraged by the Italian Government? Is it not this same Government that has prevented Stanley, in violation of Union law (Gambelli, Placanica, Costa Cifone and Laezza sentences), to obtain a regular license for Retail?

It is clear that the 2011 Financial Budget represented a further form of ‘fiscal discrimination’ for Stanley, towards the Company and the betting shops in agreement. From this perspective, ADM officials were allegedly instrumental in the infringement of EU law, and this is the reason why Stanley has always been committed to prior and fully warn ADM and its officials.

In this context, Tax Courts are increasingly agreeing with the sentences of the ECJ. Therefore, their sentence is in favor of Stanley and their betting shops also for years after 2011, without the need for any new appeal to the Court of Justice.

Referring to this, the Tax Commission of Bologna – with a recent ruling dated 12.04.2018 – accepted the appeals lodged by Stanley and the affiliated betting shops represented by the lawyers Daniela Agnello and Vittoria Varzi. The sentence was based on the motivation that the claim to impose a double tax on an economic operation is not admissible only because it had (partial) performance in the Italian territory, because the same operation has been taxed in another country (Malta in that particular case). Moreover, the Judges wrote in the sentence that does not seem to be acceptable the opinion expressed by the opposing Authority that the betting shop manager would be a taxable subject, as a betting manager. Besides, the Judges also stated that the party that actually manages the bet, as well as the bettor, is not the betting shop (manager), but the foreign operator that appears the actual interested in the result of the game (see the Court of Justice of the EU, case C-89/05 13.07.2006, Criminal Casing sentence 26728/2015 and Council of State sentence 1992/2015).

The Tax Commission of Bologna, therefore, canceled the ADM assessment notices.

 

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