Key Points
- Where the trustee purchasing residential property with the fund's cash is an individual, the price-value option is available: the taxable base for registration tax is calculated on the cadastral value, not the agreed price.
- The Italian Revenue Agency (Agenzia delle Entrate) refuses it, citing the trust's asset segregation effect (Circular No. 34/E of 20 October 2022).
- Tax judges recognise it: the purchaser is an individual, and the trust — which has no independent legal status — remains outside the contract.
- The First-instance Tax Court (Corte di Giustizia Tributaria) of Treviso, in judgment No. 288/2025, confirms the approach already established by Italian Supreme Court (Corte di Cassazione) 3073/2021 and Bologna Tax Court (Corte di Giustizia Tributaria) 75/2025.
- Note: the option must be requested from the notary in the deed. If it is omitted there, it cannot be claimed later.
The difference is not marginal. The gap between the revalued cadastral income and market value is often substantial, and on a purchase of a certain size it can translate into tens of thousands of euros more or less in tax. This is the crux of the matter: can the trustee buying a house in trust use the price-value basis, which is reserved for individuals, or not?
On this point, the tax authorities and the case law take opposing positions. Let us examine why, and what this means in practice for settlors, trustees and professionals.
What price-value is and why it is worth requesting
The basis was introduced by Article 1, paragraph 497, of legge n. 266/2005 (Finance Act 2006). For transfers of residential properties and their appurtenances, it allows the cadastral value of the building — the cadastral income revalued and multiplied by the statutory coefficients (Article 52, paragraphs 4 and 5, d.P.R. n. 131/1986, TUR) — to be used as the taxable base for registration tax, irrespective of the consideration, which the parties must nevertheless declare in the deed.
Three requirements must be met for it to apply:
- the purchaser must be an individual, not acting in the course of a business, trade or profession;
- the property must be residential (including its appurtenances);
- the option must be expressly requested from the notary in the transfer deed.
The provision has a twofold rationale. On the one hand, it encourages disclosure of actual prices — if the taxable base no longer depends on the consideration, declaring a lower amount brings no benefit; on the other, it reduces litigation over value adjustments. In return for transparency, the purchaser obtains a certain taxable base, protection against value reassessment and a 30% reduction in notarial fees.
Why the Italian Revenue Agency (Agenzia delle Entrate) refuses it to trustees
Under administrative practice, however, the door closes where the purchaser is a trustee. The reasoning centres on the asset segregation effect: the property does not enter the personal estate of the signatory, but the trust's separate estate. The requirement for a purchase by an individual would therefore not be met.
On this basis — and citing Circular No. 34/E of 20 October 2022 — the tax office denies the trust both the reliefs intended for individuals and the price-value option. The practical result is registration tax charged proportionally on the declared price.
The Treviso case: the facts
The case began with a sale and purchase deed dated 9 November 2023. An individual, acting as trustee of a family trust, purchased the bare ownership of a residential building intended to become part of the fund. In the deed, the purchaser expressly requested price-value treatment, with the taxable base calculated on the revalued cadastral income rather than the consideration.
The Italian Revenue Agency (Agenzia delle Entrate) – Treviso Provincial Directorate disagreed: it attributed the purchase to the trust rather than to the individual signatory and served a notice of tax calculation, recalculating registration tax proportionally on the price. The trustee appealed.
The decision: the trust is not a party to the contract
In judgment No. 288 of 12 August 2025, the First-instance Tax Court (Corte di Giustizia Tributaria) of Treviso allowed the appeal and overturned the tax office's position, starting with the legal characterisation of the transaction.
The starting point is straightforward: the purchasing party is an individual, named in the notarial deed, who accepted the appointment and directly assumed the effects of the contract. Acting in the capacity of trustee does not change the identity of the party to the transaction or make the trust a contracting party.
Two decisive points follow.
- The allocation of the property to the fund takes place at a later stage, separate from the purchase: it cannot therefore retrospectively affect the characterisation of the purchaser's status in the sale and purchase.
- The trust is a separate estate, with formal title alone vested in the trustee for a purpose and for ultimate distribution to the beneficiaries. It has neither legal personality nor independent legal status, and therefore remains outside any contract.
This is not an isolated ruling
The judgment contradicts administrative practice, but it does not come out of nowhere. It follows Italian Supreme Court (Corte di Cassazione) judgment No. 3073 of 9 February 2021, according to which a purchase by a trustee is not a contribution to the trust but an ordinary sale and purchase, independent of the subsequent allocation of the property; any attribution to the trust is not sufficient to exclude price-value treatment, because the trust does not have general status as a taxable person.
This follows from a now-established principle: a trust is not a new legal person, but a set of relationships vested in the trustee, who alone has substantive and procedural standing in dealings with third parties. The case law of the lower courts also converges: a few months before Treviso, the First-instance Tax Court (Corte di Giustizia Tributaria) of Bologna, in judgment No. 75 of 3 February 2025, had already recognised an individual trustee's access to price-value treatment.
What to do in practice: three practical pointers
- Do not forgo the benefit out of caution. For residential purchases using the fund's cash, price-value brings the registration tax burden into line with that of any individual purchaser. Forgoing it in advance for fear of contrary administrative practice now entails a cost that is no longer justified.
- Always request the option in the notarial deed. The option must be expressly exercised in the transfer deed: an omitted request cannot be remedied later. Until the Italian Revenue Agency (Agenzia delle Entrate) brings its practice into line, it is realistic to anticipate a notice of tax calculation — but, with the Italian Supreme Court (Corte di Cassazione) and the lower courts now in agreement, the prospects of obtaining legal protection are sound.
- Choose the trustee with tax considerations in mind too. The provision reserves the benefit for individuals who are not acting in the course of a business, trade or profession. If the office of trustee is entrusted to a trust company or another legal person, access to price-value treatment remains barred or at least highly doubtful. For trusts that will operate in the residential property market, the choice between an individual trustee and a professional trustee becomes a factor to assess at the establishment stage.
