If so, the rules regarding the taxation of agricultural land seem rather variable from one country to the next, more in direct tax, than indirect tax. In VAT, in fact, agricultural taxation is more harmonized, tanks to VAT Directive that at Articles 295-305 directly introduces the possibility to create some flat-rate schemes for farmers. In accordance to that, the generality of European member States have transposed in their domestic legislations a similar flat-rate scheme, which appears greatly harmonized, even if there are some States – included Italy – that have introduced (also) other special regimes for some agri-food products and some differences on determining their rates that have weakened this harmonization. For income purpose, instead, the taxation is very different from one country to the other5. From the above, it is clear that in the concrete implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), provided for in the European framework, the member States’s decisions have taken (and still take) more and more relevance. In practical terms, therefore, there is no complete harmonization of indirect agricultural taxation, nor any real approximation of direct taxation, either in EU or national legislation. Consequently, even in the specific sector of gastronomy, it is not possible to find a uniform tax regime. In gastronomy, in fact, taxation has focused on (and adapted to the needs of) each agri-food product, with favorable measures (both in direct and in indirect tax) being put in place from time to time by each single member State to stimulate a single reference market. Italy is an emblematic case of that, where there are a lot of different tax regimes often in conflict one to the other. Starting from the more important Italian agri-food products (i.e. truffles, olive oil and mushrooms) – for whom the legislation has recognized some exceptions on the ordinary taxation –, in this essay it will be analyzed their Italian tax regime. II. THE ORDINARY TAX-REGIME AND THE RELEVANCE OF EACH AGRI-FOOD PRODUCTS According to the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies «Taxation is one of the main mechanisms used by the state to regulate the market and economic activities related to the sale of a particular good or service. In practice, if a 5 For a more detailed analysis see OECD, Taxation in Agriculture, Paris, France, 2020; G. Sainteny, L. Dupuis, Taxation of agricultural land in Europe: a comparative approach, Fondation puor la recherche sur la biodiversité, 2023; A. Jeczmyk, R. Rys-Jurek, Taxation of Farms in the European Union and Its Sensitivity to Economic Indicators: Evidence from Poland (2004-2022), in Sustainability, 2025, 17, 8747. 525 THE TAX REGIME OF GASTRONOMY
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