By the issuance of the Ruling no. 365/2023, recently published,
the Italian Revenue Agency (hereinafter also "the IRA")
released a new relevant opinion on the registration tax rate
applicable to the deed of transfer of the surface right on
agricultural land.
Opposite to the interpretation provided by the Italian Supreme
Court in Ruling no. 3461 of February 11th 2021, the IRA
has confirmed its previous opinion stated by the R.M. 22 June 2000,
no. 92 and by the circular dated May 29th 2013, no. 18,
i.e. the applicability of the registration tax with the rate of 15%
instead of 9%.
The IRA's approach is based on an extremely formal
interpretation of art. 1 of the Tariff, part I, attached to
Presidential Decree 131/86, which identifies the rates applicable
to "real estate transfer" deeds: according to the IRA,
the equivalence between "real estate transfers"
and "transfers or constitution of real estate
rights" has general validity and, therefore, it is not
limited
