Oleotourism is Law

The 2020 Budget Law introduced an important innovation for the olive growing world: Oleotourism!
It is recognized as a connected agricultural activity, equating it, in legislative aspects, with that of Enotourism already approved in the Budget Law of 2018.
To define what is meant by the term Oleotourism, the legislator takes care of specifying that these are all activities of knowledge of olive oil and which consist of:

• in visits to places of cultivation, production or display of tools useful for olive cultivation,
• in the tasting and marketing of olive oil farm products, also in combination with other foods,
• in educational and recreational initiatives within the areas of cultivation and production.

The quality requirements
The rules that introduce Oleotourism do not provide for the issuance of an implementing decree for which it is believed that the rules of the decree 12/03/2019, issued for wine tourism, must be applied. This decree provides for the minimum quality requirements for carrying out the activity; they are such, for example:

• the weekly or even seasonal opening of a minimum of 3 days;
• the use of visit booking tools, preferably computerized;
• the indication of the car parks in the company or nearby;
• the presence of competent and trained personnel, also in terms of knowledge of the characteristics of the territory.In addition to the quality standards provided for by the decree, the general rules of a sanitary nature must obviously also be respected.

Tax Discipline
The wine tourism discipline, now applicable to Oleotourism, was introduced by the Budget Law 205/2017 and provides, for tax purposes, a lump-sum determination system for taxable income and, under certain conditions, also a flat-rate VAT system.
In particular, with regard to direct taxes, the flat-rate regime involves the determination of taxable income by applying a profitability coefficient of 25% to the amount of revenues earned from the exercise of this activity, net of value added tax. However, this regime is precluded to the companies referred to in letters a) and b) of Article 73 of the TUIR, or to IRES subjects (joint stock companies).

For VAT purposes, on the other hand, the flat-rate regime consists in the application of a deduction percentage equal to 50% of the VAT applied to active operations. The flat-rate VAT replaces the VAT on purchases which, therefore, is not deductible. Also in this case there is an exception: the VAT regime applies only to agricultural producers who carry out the activity in the context of an agricultural, forestry or fish farm (pursuant to article 295 of Directive 2006/112 /There is). For active transactions, the VAT to be applied is 22%.

The flat-rate regime for determining income and deductible VAT is automatically applied for those who meet the requirements; however it is not a mandatory regime, in fact they can opt for the application of the ordinary regime with a communication in the VAT return: the option, binding for three years, is also valid for the purposes of income taxes.

In order to start the activity, a certified notification of the start of activity (Scia) must be sent to the competent Municipality.

From the article: Oleotourism, definition and fiscal discipline – OLIVE TREE AND OIL