Italian Constitutional Court clarifies Irap tax rules for professionals

The Italian Constitutional Court has issued ruling no. 153/2026, clarifying the criteria for the application of the Regional Tax on Productive Activities (Irap) to professionals working in associated offices.

The ruling addresses whether professionals, such as notaries, are automatically subject to Irap when they share office spaces and management costs with colleagues. The Court determined that the tax does not apply automatically simply because of an organizational structure. Instead, the key factor is whether the professional activity remains personal or becomes “depersonalized” to the point of being attributable to a collective entity.

This decision challenges previous interpretations by the Italian Revenue Agency, specifically Circular 4/E/2022, which equated professional associations to companies and thus subjected them to the tax. The Court emphasized that the substance of the activity—whether it is performed autonomously by a natural person—must take precedence over the legal form of the collaboration to protect the principle of equality among taxpayers and the freedom of economic initiative.