Yes, that is smart, also because Avgas will be 3 Euros or even slightly higher, even though, in theory, it should be possible to get duty and tax free fuel if departing towards Croatia. In that case, the cost might drop well below 2 Euros. Unfortunately, this regime is not applied uniformly in Italy. But as you have a handling agent that you will be paing, I would, if I were you, send them another email and have them find out the exact price per litre that would apply if you "exported" it to Croatia, i.e. non-EU.
Would you ask them that additional question as I am very interested?
From here
Not sure what is going on in Italy at the moment, but the latest issue of Pilot und Flugzeug reports that Italy may have just gotten another financial bombshell on GA:
- Several people in recent times have been billed massively for “luxury passenger tax” after visiting places like Venice Lido. According to the article, flights of above 50 km of range will be billed € 100 per passenger and per movement (that means twice for take off and landing).
- The bills sent out included a punitive damage fee of € 300.- as well.
It appears from the article, that the tax which is known for flights operated under AOC is being applied to private flights as well.
The currently known airplanes to have been billed were all above 2 tons and billed to a company owning the plane, despite the flight being declared as private. There are currently no known cases where a private person on a <2T GA plane have been billed, SO FAR.
Maybe @boscomantico knows more about this. Currently it is unclear if they are indeed targeting “only” larger airplanes owned by companies or whether they simply have not gotten around billing anyone else yet.
It is not unknown that Italy has been targeting “luxury” in any form for a few years, there has been a scare about a luxury tax on GA movements before which eventually got resolved, but it appears to me that their financial police quite often will resort to questionable methods to cash in on unsuspecting people. Switzerland has had it’s experience with their agents who illegally operated on Swiss territory in the past to catch out Italians in perceived violation. So the conclusion of the article is that unless you have pressing reasons to go to Italy, to avoid it for the time being and if you have to go, have the bills issued to private persons only and paid in cash.
Post moved to existing thread…
The “Italian luxury tax” thing came up years ago. See posts above, and I wrote about it e.g. here (search for “luxury”). Almost 10 years ago.
Then, after scaring everybody, it went away. Perhaps somebody got sacked or got paid off, because a load of yacht owners (i.e. the real money) just moved their yachts down the road to Croatia. They don’t care where their boats are because they mostly don’t actually sail on them. Mostly they just sleep and booze on them, while enjoying the “scenery” provided as a part of the package 
And Berlusconi had half the country in his pocket anyway, and vice versa… It’s not clear whether that tax was ever implemented.
When P&F reports “Several people in recent times have been billed massively for “luxury passenger tax” after visiting places like Venice Lido” can they come up with first hand reports? Date, aircraft type, reg, how much paid, etc.
Peter wrote:
When P&F reports “Several people in recent times have been billed massively for “luxury passenger tax” after visiting places like Venice Lido” can they come up with first hand reports? Date, aircraft type, reg, how much paid, etc.
They would not report it if they could not. If there is one aviation journalist whom I trust totally in the GA field, it is Jan Brill.
“Of course” I know something about it and have been involved in the making of that short article.
Unfortunately, so far, AOPA Italy has really let us down here After PuF received several messages from “affected” aircraft owners/operators, we enquired with AOPA Italy about their knowledge about the issue and any recommendations. They said they know about the issue and that they would come back to us but that was almost a month ago. The problems with Italians is that when something like this happens, they deploy a hoard of lawyers and tax advsiors, have them write endless “relazioni” and “missive”, but that really pushes everything into the long grass. No “intermediate” response either.
So, for now, we weren’t able write much other than to avoid flying to Italy if one really wants to be 100% sure to not be hit by such tax claims. Or at least to avoid putting company names into any forms filled out for landing fee invoicing purposes…
Nothing really “went away”. The luxury tax (the one for air taxi flights) has existed for 10 years now. But until recently, it was either not enforced at all, or only for “real” AOC flights (as intended by the law).
boscomantico wrote:
Nothing really “went away”. The luxury tax (the one for air taxi flights) has existed for 10 years now. But until recently, it was either not enforced at all, or only for “real” AOC flights (as intended by the law).
If I remember right, the original luxury tax was a different tax however based on the airframe. This now looks like they have “invented” a passenger fee, which I was not aware of existed in the original tax?
As most of the complaints appear to come from people who have visited Venice Lido, I still think it is quite vital information for all of us until it can be clarified what it is based on and if there are ways to avoid it. Lido is a very popular airport, if not the most popular for tourists in all of Italy.
Your and PnF’s dedication to inform about this is highly appreciated! I just thought it may be a good idea to make the information available here as well.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
If I remember right, the original luxury tax was a different tax however based on the airframe. This now looks like they have “invented” a passenger fee, which I was not aware of existed in the original tax?
No. Both have been part of the “Salva Italia” package of PM Mario Monti of 2011. As I said, both have existed since that time, at least on paper.
As most of the complaints appear to come from people who have visited Venice Lido, I still think it is quite vital information for all of us until it can be clarified what it is based on and if there are ways to avoid it. Lido is a very popular airport, if not the most popular for tourists in all of Italy.
There are also a few reports from other airports. But again, so far – as far as we know – only aircraft with MTOW >2 tons and only where the operator put a company name in as the operator details when paying landing fees (which obviously does not mean that the flight is an air taxi flight).
Your and PnF’s dedication to inform about this is highly appreciated! I just thought it may be a good idea to make the information available here as well.
All good. Again, the overall info is still too sarce to write much more.
The typical N reg will be with a Trustee, does this preclude using a person as operator?
No; you can give them Vlad the Impaler as the owner 
The trap I see here is this: a lot of owners own their planes through a limited company. This may have been done to
Now, if you turn up on say Elba and tell them you are PA28 Aviation Ltd, they might sting you. Whereas if you just gave them your name (which is also 100% legit; you do have all the ID docs for that) they might not.
It’s something to be aware of.
There is really no point, anywhere in Europe (except possibly Belgrade LYBE?? – cheap fuel) in trying to use a company name at airports even if your plane is actually owned by a company.
We are discussing stuff which is little more than rumours which somebody spread and then washed their hands of clarifying when requested (sooo often the case in GA, especially when somebody tells me they had problems with such and such, I post it, and then I get beaten up because the person refuses to let me post important detail, to preserve his dealer relationship ) but there may be something in this, and perhaps not offering a company name is a good idea. Any fuel invoices can still be used for company trips; you just put them in your expenses in the usual way. If the invoice has a VAT # on it, your company (if VAT registered) can still reclaim that VAT even if the invoice is made out to your name.
Peter wrote:
(Spain was known for that, IIRC, even if anybody with more than 2 braincells would have known that private individuals don’t have VAT numbers)
Actually private indiividuals can have VAT numbers if they personally run a business. According to Wikipedia this is called “Sole proprietorship”. It may not be available in all jurisdictions, but (again according to Wikipedia) it is available in the UK.
