Not everyone knows that there are Revenue Agency controls on home mortgages, but how can you avoid them? Be careful with these cases.
The recent order of the Court of Cassation has raised an important point of discussion regarding the taxation of real estate capital gains, in particular when the loan obtained for the purchase of a property exceeds the declared sales price.
Home loan, when the Revenue Agency checks are triggered – Istitutonervilentini.it
This scenario opens the door to possible requests from the Internal Revenue Service for increased taxes, based on a discrepancy that could indicate an underestimation of the value of the property for tax purposes.
Home mortgage, how to avoid tax checks
The Revenue Agency plays a crucial role in the fight against tax evasion, constantly trying to identify and combat false declarations. In Italy the principle of self-assessment prevails, which requires taxpayers to calculate and pay taxes based on legal parameters. However, the Agency has the power to carry out direct checks to re-determine the tax base, especially in cases where significant discrepancies emerge between the declared values and those considered realistic.
An emblematic case was the one analyzed by the Court of Cassation in order 25854 of 09/27/2024. The central issue concerned a real estate company whose sales prices for properties for the 2005 tax year had been disputed. The accusation arose from the comparison between the prices declared and the amounts of the loans granted to buyers, higher than these values and also than bank estimates. Faced with this evidence, the Revenue Agency proceeded with an inductive assessment to recover the taxes due based on the higher amounts.
Home mortgage, pay attention to these figures: when the Revenue Agency checks are triggered – Istitutonervilentini.it
The company involved had appealed the decision to the provincial tax commission without success; however, she managed to obtain a favorable outcome on appeal to the Regional Tax Commission. The intervention of the Court of Cassation was therefore decisive in providing a clear legal interpretation: it was confirmed that the elements used by the Agency (amount of the loan granted and bank estimates) are valid for the purposes of inductive assessment.
This ruling highlights how it is possible to use simple presumptions – as long as they are characterized by gravity, precision and consistency – to adjust business income or correct declarations relating to the value of properties sold. The decision therefore reiterates a principle already consolidated in jurisprudence (Cassation no. 4076/2020), i.e. that even just a difference between the declared price and the loan amount can be sufficiently indicative of the real value of the property for tax purposes.
This ruling represents a further step in the continuous effort of the Italian tax authorities to guarantee transparency and fairness in the real estate sector, paying particular attention to transactions that could hide attempts at tax evasion through the undervaluation of real estate assets.
