With notice N.1/D of January 12,  2009, the Italian Customs Agency provides new indications concerning the monitoring and publication of the “rulings” issued by the relevant Regional Directions of the Agency. Such instructions will complement those already supplied with the Notices N. 25/D of 19 July 2001 and N. 24/D of 10 August 2007.

The tax “ruling” is a written declaration that taxpayers can require to the Tax or Customs Administration to know its opinion on a particular operation they intend to put into effect, in order to obtain a confirmation - before starting such operation - about its "compliance" with the tax legislation in force. This tool aims therefore to eliminate a situation of uncertainty arising from a doubtful application of a tax rule, through an express request submitted to the administration, in which the taxpayer asks a juridical assessment (and/or in the merit) on the correctness of his conduct, solution or interpretation of the above rules.

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The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”), in a ruling published last November 25, 2008, announced that the new “Importer Security Filing” program (better known as the “10+2 Rule”), should be entered into force on January 26, 2009.

The entry into force of such regulation has now been confirmed. Accordingly, starting from that date, for all goods shipped to the United States via vessel (even just transiting the US territory), American customs will require the transmission, at least 24 hours before the goods are loaded on board of the vessel and in addition to the electronic cargo manifest, of a new pre-arrival information containing 12 basic data elements. The responsibility for transmitting these data will be on the importers (or their customs agents) for 10 data elements, and on the carriers for 2 of them. For further details read: "The new American rule of "10+2", Il Doganalista, n. 10 (July/August 2008).

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