The Bench Court of Trieste has been requested to rule on the appeal filed by the Customs Authority against the injunction ordering the release of the amounts provided as a guarantee by the customs broker. The Court once again confirmed that, in the event of customs warehousing for VAT purposes, the customs broker is not accountable for the non-payment of the tax. In the case brought to the attention of the Court, the bank guarantee provided by the customs broker had been placed on hold by the Customs Authority while awaiting to ascertain the overall legitimacy of the import of goods through the mechanism of the VAT warehouse.
The Court has linked the release of the guarantee provided by the customs broker to the tax quantification procedure which takes place by submitting the documents required by the specific regulations to the Customs Authority. Indeed, the Court stated that if the release of the guarantee occurred only after the legitimacy of the operation was established, it would result in an abnormal dilation of the guarantee, which would seriously damage the guarantor himself, also from an economic point of view.
Therefore, the Bench Court has confirmed the principles already expressed by the Single Judge within the urgent injunction procedure established to obtain the release of the guarantee.
(Trieste Office– Federica Fantuzzi – 0039(0)407600281)
