Rome, January 28, 2022 – Foreign plates of cars, motorcycles and trailers, if change. In new highway code, to adapt to Europe, from February 1st a new article, 93 bis, with the law 238 of 23 December 2021, published on January 17 in the Official Gazette. The rules for cars, motorcycles and trailers will be in force from 18 March (“provisions for the fulfillment of the obligations deriving from Italy’s membership of the European Union, European Law 2019-2020”).
Summary
Explains Antonio D’Agostino, vice president of the association Local police command of Lazio: “From 1 February all vehicles with foreign plates owned by natural or legal persons resident in Italy will be able to circulate (regardless of who drives them) no later than three months since the owner established his residence in our country “. From 18 March, if the driver is not the owner of the vehicle but has been resident in Italy for at least three months, he must exhibit a document that demonstrates for what reason he has been using it, for how long (certain date) and for how long “. D’Agostino observes:” In many cases it is difficult to establish whether this driver has actually had the vehicle available for 30 days, or 20 , or for 2, or for 5 minutes “.
On the other hand, it can circulate to the maximum for one year the vehicle with a foreign license plate driven by a citizen not resident in Italy. The vice-president of the association, however, who works in the local police of Rome capital, once again makes the counterpoint and observes: “There is no national archive of sanctions. So how can we check the times?”.
Among so many doubts one certainty, the fines. Sanctions from 400 to 1,600 euros for those who do not register the vehicle on time. The same figure is provided for “subordinate or self-employed workers who carry out a professional activity in the territory of a neighboring or neighboring State and who travel with their own vehicles registered there”. “The investigating body – establishes the law – withdraws the vehicle registration document and orders the owner to register the vehicle”.
Administrative sanction from 250 to one thousand euros if by car the document is missing “Signed with a certain date by the holder, showing the title and duration of the vehicle’s availability” when the driver is resident in Italy but is not the holder of the vehicle itself. This rule is triggered from 18 March. In the end fines up to € 3,558 for those who “drive with a vehicle for which they have not registered or have not communicated subsequent changes in availability or the transfer of residence or headquarters”.
The new rules, the law clarifies, do not apply to citizens residing in the municipality of Champion of Italy; to the staff civil and military employed by public administrations serving abroad, to the staff of farmed and police forces serving abroad at international organizations or military bases and their cohabiting family members; if the owner of the vehicle, resident abroad, is present on board. Also exemption for registered vehicles San Marino.
The foreign plates, before the close of 2018 – the Salvini decree – in the past years have also been used for escape the taxes: stamp and Pra, fines and dear insurance but also asset checks. The phenomenon is known as tax inversion. D’Agostino explains: “Until 2018 this practice allowed, without major problems, drivers of vehicles circulating in Italy to be registered with a foreign license plate”. “Of the free movement of workers”, D’Agostino clarifies, in fact “the reform of 2018 is canceled” and “the subject to refer to is moved, which was previously the vehicle, whether with a foreign license plate or not, and now becomes the driver, if resident in Italy or no”.
Exist two highway codes, D’Agostino remarks, “the theoretical one and the one written by circulars and judgments. No uninsured vehicle can circulate, as stated in Article 193, paragraph 2. The vehicle is subjected to a sanction, is seized and then returns to the owner’s availability if the coverage is reactivated for at least six months. If he doesn’t do it within a month, that car is no longer his. “But, the agent remembers, “a circular never revoked of the Ministry of the Interior, accepting the European directives, establishes the free movement of foreign vehicles in the European territory. So, if I managed to get in without anyone complaining about the insurance, on a principle of silence-assent you can’t ask me if i have valid insurance or not. And this seems to me to represent a great risk “.
The umpteenth mini reform of the highway code “was made to respond to requests from Europe. Yet the main relief raised by the Justice Court (the temporary use of vehicles registered in one European country and circulating in another is to be considered as a movement of capital, and is therefore protected by the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union, and therefore not punishable) “. In the meantime, however, the code of the street “is stuffed with incomprehensible commi quater, sexies and even decies.” But what does the citizen understand?
© All rights reserved