Is the unified contribution for the new judgments introduced with the forms of the simplified cognition procedure full or halved? The clarification comes with the Circular 17 March 2023 (text at the bottom) of the Ministry of Justice Department of Justice AffairsGeneral Directorate of Internal Affairs, distributed to the Presidents of the Court, the Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation.
The doubts about the tax treatment of the new simplified process arise from the comparison with the summary rite of cognition expected by artt. 702 bis ss. c.p.c. which benefits from the preferential treatment provided for by art. 13 paragraph 3 of the Consolidated law on justice expenses, with payment of a unified contribution halved.
The introduction following the form Cartabia of the simplified cognition rite (Art. 281 million and following of the code), has given rise to the belief in many operators that they can apply the same treatment to this rite as well, admitting the payment of the contribution halved.
Numerous questions have been forwarded to the Ministry by the judicial offices throughout Italy, and on 17 March the General Directorate of Internal Affairs at the Department of Justice Affairs issued a circular to give uniform indications and avoid possible tax damages.
To clarify the matter, the Ministry offices depart from systematic placement of the two rites within the code of civil procedure.
Il summary rite of cognition lies between the special procedures provided for in book IV title I of the code of civil procedure, expressly referred to byart. 13 paragraph 3 of the consolidated law costs of justicein relation to favorable treatment, as clarified at the time by the circular of 08.04.2009 issued by the Directorate General of Civil Justice.
The new simplified process of cognition, on the other hand, takes its place within the process of cognition and not special procedures. It is, writes via Arenula, one “precise legislative choice that cannot fail to have repercussions also in terms of tax treatment”.
The same explanatory report to the Reform reiterates that the simplified procedure has “nature of judgment with full knowledge”, and is a fully alternative tool to the ordinary ritual of cognition.
| The civil trial after the Cartabia reform, by Didone Antonio, De Santis Francesco, Ed. CEDAM. Legislative Decree 10 October 2022, n. 149 updated to the changes introduced by the Budget Law (Law No. 197 of 29 December 2022). Consult the volume sheet |
Due to its more streamlined characteristics, the new instrument has been designed to be used in most cases in which the Court judges in monocratic composition (regardless of the subjective or objective complexity of the dispute) and in many cases intended to the College (when the facts of the case are not controversial, when the request is based on documentary evidence or ready solution, and when a complex instruction is not required).
The simplified procedure of cognition then represents “the rule” in cases before the justice of the peace (art. 316 c.p.c.).
The assimilation to the process of full cognition can also be deduced from the discipline of the decision-making phase of the rite which always ends with judgmentsubject to common means of burden.
Coming to the tax rules, the Circular of 17 March recalls that the unified contribution represents to all intents and purposes a tax revenue due, as a rule, in full, on the basis of the value of the dispute.
Only in the event of an explicit exceptional rule, can it be halved, as happens for the summary procedure of cognition, by virtue of the third paragraph of theart. 13 d.P.R. 115/2002.
However, the latter rule, by introducing a tax relief, is the rule of “strict interpretation”, writes the Ministry, and its extensive or analogical application to cases other than those expressly mentioned is not permitted.
In conclusion, the Directorate General clarifies that the simplified cognition procedures are subject to the whole unified contribution, determined on the basis of the value brackets established in the first paragraph of art. 13 TUSG, with the exclusion of the halving.
Similarly, the proceedings attributed to specialized sections on immigration, international protection and free movement of EU citizens (in particular, these are the judgments governed by articles 16-17-19bis-19 ter of Legislative Decree 150/2011) are subject to payment of the unified contribution in full, with the exclusion of halving.
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Ministry of Justice, Circular 17 March 2023