Zunarelli’s Trieste office has obtained an ex parte measure from the Court of Trieste, authorizing the attachment of commodities and of any moveable and immovable good and any credit of a foreign company which stored commodities, under excise duty suspension regime, at the tax warehouse of an Italian company. Pursuant to the Italian tax excise law there is a joint liability of the owner of the tax warehouse with, among others, the person who releases the product for consumption for the payment of the excise duty.
The precautionary requirement which has determined the urgent application to the Court arose from the request made by Agenzia delle Dogane (the Italian Customs Authority) to the Italian company to pay the (very high) excise duty on the fuel released for consumption by the foreign company.
In light of the provisions of the Italian tax excise law, the Customs Authority addressed the request, as a whole, to the Italian company, which in any case, according to the law, has right of recourse against the foreign importing company. Therefore, the need to apply for a precautionary measure arose given the fear of losing the guarantee of the debt owed by the foreign importer to the Italian Company.
The Court granted the measure recognizing the foreign company who released the fuel for consumption as the actual person liable for the payment of the tax. The Court also considered the existence of the requirement of the periculum in mora (danger in delay), deriving from the circumstance that the commodities for which the attachment was being asked are the only commodities which the debtor has in Italy.
(Trieste Office – Massimo Campailla, Federica Fantuzzi – 0039 (0)40 7600281)
