La prova della deducibilità fiscale dei costi d'impresa nel processo tributario

The tax authority has to provide proof, in the tax trial, of the facts that prevent tax recognition of the cost. Indeed, in the administrative phase of exercising the power of taxation, the tax authority has to acquire the evidence on which, if necessary, base the assesment of business income as a “complex” economic fact, formed by positive and negative income elements. Therefore, the adjustment of the deductibility of a cost, like the assessment of an higher income, is a constituent element of the tax authority’s claim. Consequently, the tax authority can legitimately issue the tax assesment notice by which disallows the deductibility of a cost only if it has acquired, in the tax proceedings, evidence of the facts that prevent tax recognition of the cost, which tax authority has the burden of producing in the subsequent and eventual tax trial.