ORDER NO. 8
YEAR 2026
ITALIAN REPUBLIC
IN THE NAME OF THE ITALIAN PEOPLE
THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT
composed of:
President: Giovanni AMOROSO;
Judges: Francesco VIGANÒ, Luca ANTONINI, Stefano PETITTI, Angelo BUSCEMA, Emanuela NAVARRETTA, Maria Rosaria SAN GIORGIO, Filippo PATRONI GRIFFI, Marco D’ALBERTI, Giovanni PITRUZZELLA, Antonella SCIARRONE ALIBRANDI, Massimo LUCIANI, Maria Alessandra SANDULLI, Roberto Nicola CASSINELLI, Francesco Saverio MARINI,
has issued the following
ORDER
in the constitutional legitimacy review proceedings concerning Article 3, paragraph 14-septies, of Law Decree of December 27, 2024, no. 202 (Urgent provisions on normative deadlines), converted, with amendments, into Law of February 21, 2025, no. 15, brought by the Provincial Tax Court of First Instance of Naples, in single-judge composition, Sections 29 and 1, by orders of June 18, 2025, and June 13, 2025, respectively registered under numbers 191 and 192 of the register of orders for 2025 and published in the Official Gazette of the Republic no. 42, first special series, of 2025.
Having seen the submissions of intervention by Municipia spa and F. L., as well as the submissions of intervention by the Municipality of Naples;
Having seen the requests for scheduling the advisory hearing for the decision on the admissibility of interventions, filed by the Municipality of Naples;
Having heard in the advisory hearing of January 12, 2026, the Reporting Judge Luca Antonini;
Deliberated in the advisory hearing of January 12, 2026.
Whereas the Provincial Tax Court of First Instance of Naples, in single-judge composition, Section 29, by order of June 18, 2025, registered under no. 191 of the register of orders for 2025, raised questions of constitutional legitimacy concerning Article 3, paragraph 14-septies, of Law Decree of December 27, 2024, no. 202 (Urgent provisions on normative deadlines), converted, with amendments, into Law of February 21, 2025, no. 15, with reference to Articles 3, 77, 101, 102, 111 and 117, first paragraph, in relation to Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and second paragraph, of the Constitution;
Whereas, in the course of a separate proceeding, before another single judge, Section 1 of the same Provincial Tax Court of First Instance of Naples, by order of June 13, 2025, registered under no. 192 of the register of orders for 2025, raised questions of constitutional legitimacy regarding the aforementioned Article 3, paragraph 14-septies, with reference to Articles 3, 25, 41, the latter in relation to Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, as well as Articles 76, 97, 111, the latter in relation to Article 6 ECHR, and 117, second paragraph, letter e), of the Constitution;
Whereas, in both proceedings, the Municipality of Naples intervened with an identical filing on October 16, 2025, also requesting, with separate applications filed on the same date, the early scheduling of the advisory hearing on the admissibility of interventions, pursuant to Article 5, paragraph 1, of the Supplementary Rules for proceedings before the Constitutional Court;
Whereas the plaintiffs in the main proceedings contest the validity of assessment deeds for municipal taxes, as they were issued by a subject, Napoli obiettivo valore srl, not registered in the register for the assessment and collection of local authority revenues, pursuant to Article 53 of Legislative Decree of December 15, 1997, no. 446 (Establishment of the regional tax on productive activities, revision of the brackets, rates and deductions for personal income tax, and establishment of a regional surtax on such tax, as well as reorganization of the discipline of local taxes);
Whereas the Municipality of Naples, following a tender procedure conducted under the project financing procedure, awarded the management of its tax and non-tax revenues to Municipia spa, which subsequently established Napoli obiettivo valore srl, as a "project company" pursuant to Article 184 of Legislative Decree of April 18, 2016, no. 50 (Public Contracts Code) and the specific provision of the tender specifications;
Whereas, in the opinion of the referring judges, the resolution of the case necessarily requires the application of the challenged Article 3, paragraph 14-septies, a provision which, by laying down rules of authentic interpretation of the aforementioned Article 53 of Legislative Decree no. 446 of 1997, conflicts with the invoked parameters on several grounds;
Whereas, in support of the admissibility of its intervention, the Municipality of Naples asserts the consequence of the possible declaration of unconstitutionality of the challenged provision, which would consist of a definitive and irrecoverable loss of revenue, considering the tax period to which the taxes contested in the main proceedings refer;
Whereas, therefore, the entity holds a qualified, concrete, and current interest in the preservation of specific tax claims, whose existence would depend directly and immediately on the continued validity of the challenged provision.
Considering that the proceedings concerning the admissibility of the interventions by the Municipality of Naples can be joined, since the arguments of the intervening party are identical in both constitutional legitimacy review proceedings registered under numbers 191 and 192 of the register of orders for 2025, which concern, moreover, the same provision;
Whereas the Municipality of Naples is not a party to the main proceedings;
Whereas, pursuant to Article 4, paragraph 3, of the Supplementary Rules, in the incidental constitutional legitimacy review proceedings, "[t]hose holding a qualified interest, directly and immediately related to the relationship forming the subject of the primary proceeding, may intervene" (lastly, Order no. 60 of 2025); this relationship being understood as "that which is the subject of the judgment of the court a quo" (lastly, Order no. 60 of 2025);
Whereas the interventions in question are admissible;
Whereas the intervening party is the local authority holding the tax revenues, awarded in management through a concession to a private entity, assessed by the deeds under dispute in the main proceedings (for a similar case, Sentence no. 156 of 2025, point 2 of the Grounds for Consideration);
Whereas, therefore, it is interested in the application of the challenged provision in said proceedings, concerning the requirements that subjects authorized to carry out the activities of settlement and assessment of taxes and the collection of taxes and other revenues of provinces and municipalities must possess;
Whereas the potential declaration of unconstitutionality of the challenged provision would deprive the deeds that are the subject of the judgments a quibus of their legal basis, without any possibility remaining for the local authority to adopt new ones for the same tax periods, given the time elapsed;
Whereas, therefore, the intervening party has a qualified interest, directly and immediately related to the relationships forming the subject of the proceedings, which legitimizes its intervention, as "a potential decision upholding the constitutional legitimacy questions would produce an immediate impact on its subjective position" (Sentence no. 98 of 2019 and Order no. 85 of 2025; in the same sense, Sentence no. 159 of 2019, point 2 of the Grounds for Consideration, and Order no. 111 of 2020).
Having seen Articles 4 and 5 of the Supplementary Rules for proceedings before the Constitutional Court.
FOR THESE REASONS
THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT
having joined the proceedings,
1) declares admissible the interventions made by the Municipality of Naples;
2) authorizes the intervening party to inspect and copy the procedural documents of these proceedings.
So decided in Rome, at the seat of the Constitutional Court, Palazzo della Consulta, on January 12, 2026.
Signed:
Giovanni AMOROSO, President
Luca ANTONINI, Rapporteur
Roberto MILANA, Chancellor Director
Filed in the Chancellery on January 26, 2026
The anonymized version conforms, in text, to the original