Late registration of rental contracts in Italy: how the penalties are calculated

Gtres

17 September 2020, 12:38

In Italy, it is necessary to register a rental contract, something which could incur a penalty in the case of late registration, along with the other costs that need to be covered, according to a recent statement from CTR Lombardia (the Lombardy Regional Tax Commission).

A recent ruling by CTR Lombardia has established that if the registration of multi-year rentals is paid late, the penalty will be calculated for the first year. In the case in question, as pointed out by the Italian newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore, "a sanction had been applied for the entire duration of the contract and not only for the first year, paid by the taxpayer (1/10 of the minimum)". However, with the sentence 1797/2020 on 25th August 2020, CTR Lombardia ruled in favour of the taxpayer in this case, in what some are calling a "soft" punishment.

In expressing its judgement that the penalty would only apply to the first year, CTR Lombardia first of all highlighted the speciality of article 17 of the Consolidated Law instead of article 43. The Commission then invoked "the recent revision of the sanction system inspired by the principles of effectiveness, proportionality and certainty of the sanctioning response of the system, as well as the graduation of the amount of the same sanctions, according to a scale of the actual seriousness of the infringements committed by the taxpayer".