Observatory › Direct taxes › IRAP and professional partnerships: the tax is not automatic

IRAP and professional partnerships: the tax is not automatic

The Italian Constitutional Court sets aside the automatic link with legal form: in professional associations IRAP is due only where the service has genuinely been depersonalised.

In judgment no. 153 of 2026 the Constitutional Court holds that an association between professionals does not in itself create an autonomous organisation: what matters is how the activity is actually carried on.

What the Constitutional Court decided

The question was referred by the Corte di giustizia tributaria di primo grado (Italian first-instance tax court) of Florence by order of 17 November 2025, in proceedings concerning the refusal to refund IRAP (Italian regional tax on productive activities) paid for 2022 by an associated notarial practice. In judgment no. 153, filed on 24 July 2026, the Constitutional Court held that the assimilation of professional associations to società semplici (Italian simple partnerships), laid down in Article 5(3)(c) of the TUIR (Italian consolidated income tax act) and applied for IRAP purposes by Article 3(2)(c) of Legislative Decree no. 446 of 15 December 1997, does not follow from the legal form chosen, but from the profession actually being practised jointly.

The depersonalisation test

The taxable event arises where the service loses its personal character and becomes attributable to the structure: it is this depersonalisation that justifies the levy. By contrast, the purely organisational features expressly listed by the Court are not sufficient on their own: sharing costs and fees, jointly leasing the office, jointly purchasing capital assets and managing support staff. Where each associate retains a personal relationship of trust with the client and is personally answerable for the service, the tax is not due.

What to do now

The ruling directly concerns an association of notaries, but the principle is bound to affect every associated practice in which the activity remains substantially individual. It is worth documenting the real set-up now: engagements in the name of the individual professional, autonomy in managing the client, and the absence of a structure replacing the personal contribution. For years already paid, a refund claim must be filed within forty-eight months of payment under Article 38 of Presidential Decree no. 602 of 29 September 1973; in pending proceedings the judgment provides an argument that can be relied on immediately.

• Constitutional Court, judgment no. 153 of 2026, filed on 24 July 2026.
• Legislative Decree no. 446 of 15 December 1997 – Articles 2 and 3(2)(c).
• TUIR – Article 5(3)(c); Presidential Decree no. 602 of 29 September 1973 – Article 38.