Changes in real estate deeds

In the Labor Bill comes a rule that changes home sales contracts, it will no longer be compulsory to indicate how much was paid to the real estate agent.
The novelty was included in the Labor Bill as soon as it reached the Senate, after passage in the Chamber. And it essentially makes a clean sweep of a rule included in one of the liberalization sheets of the then Minister of Economic Development, Pier Luigi Bersani: Legislative Decree no. 223/2006. After several attempts (the change had been rejected several times in recent years), we are one step away from this rather significant change when purchasing a property.
To understand what has changed, it must be remembered that the law currently still in force provides that, at the time of sale, the parties declare whether they have made use of a mediator, identifying him by tax code or VAT number, and reporting his registration number to the role of business agents in mediation and of the Chamber of Commerce. This part has not been modified, unlike the last requirement, according to which today it is necessary to declare the amount of the expense incurred by both parties as a commission for the mediator and "the analytical methods of payment of the same". On this expense, moreover, those who buy are entitled to a 19% deduction on a maximum amount of one thousand euros. In this way, buyer and seller, after having negotiated separately on the amount to be paid to the real estate agent, reveal the documents at the time of the deed and explicitly declare how much they have paid. This is a fulfillment thought at the time, clearly, in an anti-tax evasion perspective. Now, however, things are about to change, because the new rule provides that the deed can indicate "the amount of expenditure incurred for this activity or, alternatively, the number of the invoice issued by the mediator and the correspondence between the amount turnover and the expenditure actually incurred". Furthermore, it will always be necessary to specify "the detailed payment methods". In essence, it becomes sufficient to indicate a reference to the invoice, without necessarily reporting the amount paid to the agent.

Because real estate agents' commissions come from deeds.
Gian Battista Baccarini, national president of Fiaip (Italian Federation of Professional Real Estate Agents), explains the meaning of the innovation: «This change, which we have been proposing for some time now, has the aim of protecting privacy and confidentiality regarding the economic aspects of the mediation service , but also to safeguard free negotiation between citizens and professionals. Since there is a totally free negotiation regarding the mediation amounts to be paid, it makes no sense to let the other party know what has been agreed, often creating unpleasant situations".
Finally, as regards the doubts about the risks linked to tax evasion, Baccarini explains that «the spread of the electronic invoicing obligation has eliminated the reservations that existed in the past; now the reference to the invoice is sufficient to reconstruct the entire payment chain. Furthermore, it should be remembered that none of the other professionals involved in a sale explicitly indicate their compensation."