Transfer of Assets between Trusts: Clarifications from the Revenue Agency

With Response No. 170/2025 of 24 June 2025, the Revenue Agency provided important guidance on inheritance and gift tax, relating to the transfer of assets from a trust (the original trust) to other trusts (subsequent trusts), qualified as beneficiaries.

The case in question concerns a trust established in Italy in 2014 by three brothers (the Settlors) with the aim of maintaining the ownership of a corporate group and additional family assets together. The trust, with a duration of 20 years, was endowed with shares in companies (including 765,000 shares of the Alfa company and 23,640 of the Beta company) and real estate, with the final beneficiaries being the direct descendants of the Settlors.

The trust regulations expressly provided for the obligation for the trustee, until the beneficiaries had reached the age of 30, to declare a separate trust established, each aimed at responding to the daily needs, requirements and economic security of the families of the beneficiaries, maintaining the unity of the trust management but fragmenting the original assets.

In compliance with this provision, the trustee established three subsequent trusts (Trust 1, 2 and 3) for the families of the three brothers, with the intention of assigning to each one a third of the shares and real estate present in the assets of the original trust.

The Agency, referring to Legislative Decree 139/2024 (in force from 1 January 2025), clarified that the taxable basis for the inheritance and gift tax occurs whenever there is a transfer in favor of beneficiaries, even if these are in turn trusts.

In the case in question, the three subsequent trusts can be classified as beneficiaries of the original trust. This is confirmed both by the regulatory structure and by the fact that:

the division of assets (in shares of 1/3) breaks the unity of the original assets,
the fiduciary segregation of the original trust ceases,
the original purpose appears to have been achieved, and a new one begins, different and specific for each family branch.
According to the Agency, this transformation highlights the attribution of the assets to legally autonomous subjects and actual recipients of the assets, thus realizing the actual taxable basis.

Tax consequences

The Agency therefore concludes that transfers from the original trust to subsequent trusts are subject to gift tax, as well as to mortgage and land registry taxes in proportion with regard to real estate.

The applicable rate is 8%, pursuant to art. 7, paragraph 1, letter. d), of Legislative Decree 346/1990, since there is no direct family relationship between the Settlors of the original trust and the subsequent trusts (beneficiaries of the attribution).

The taxable base must be determined in relation to the value of the assets at the time of transfer, taking into account any exemptions or concessions applicable to the specific case.

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