This provision therefore introduced a new type of “exemption” from tax payment for VAT holders. 3.2. (Follow) Professional harvester In the case the fees received exceed the threshold of €7,000, the harvester of truffles or mushrooms, at least for the purposes of applying the substitute tax (paragraph 694 of Article 1 of the 2019 Budget Law is dedicated solely to the “application of the substitute tax” and does not have general scope), is no longer an occasional harvester but becomes a professional harvester. The activity of this person – without prejudice to the non-application of the substitute regime (payment of the substitute tax of €100) due to exceeding the threshold of €7,000 – will be taxable according to the rules governing income tax. To this end, a further step must be taken, as it is not possible to ignore the analysis of “occasionality (also) in terms of quality”. It may well be the case that a truffle or mushroom gatherer receives more than €7,000 in a year in consideration for the sale of these products, but nevertheless “does not carry out this activity as a habitual, albeit not exclusive, profession” (Article 55 of the TUIR). A distinction must be made between: • habitual professional harvester, for whom the habitual nature of the activity carried out makes the criteria for determining business income applicable (Article 55 of the TUIR)17. This category includes, for example, collectors who are restaurateurs, traders or wholesalers who use or sell the truffles collected as part of their business activity; • non-habitual professional harvester, who will continue to be subject to the withholding tax referred to in Article 25-quater, Presidential Decree No. 600 of 29 September 197318. This category includes, for example, public employees who, in possession of a truffle harvesting licence, request unpaid leave from work to devote themselves to this activity (after which they will return to their main job). For VAT purposes, the exceeding the aforementioned limit of €7,000 entails the application of VAT according to the ordinary rules (as Article 34-ter of the 17 If not even the flat-rate scheme referred to in Article 1, paragraphs 54 to 75, of Law No. 190 of 23 December 2014, which would further constitute an additional exception to the ordinary taxation model (this, of course, in cases where the activities are not agricultural or related to agriculture, as expressly excluded from the regime by paragraph 57 of Article 1 cited above). 18 Introduced by Article 29, paragraph 2 of Law No. 122 of July 7, 2016. 532 PAOLA MILIOTO
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