News · Business taxation · – 23 October 2026

Notice collected late from the post office: the sixty days run from the tenth day after the CAD is sent

TOPIC
Late collection of an item held at the post office raises a rebuttable presumption that the CAD (comunicazione di avvenuto deposito, the registered letter informing the addressee of the deposit) was received and cures the irregularity in its acknowledgment of receipt, but service remains complete on the tenth day after the registered letter giving notice of the deposit is sent.

Late collection of an item deposited at the post office does not postpone the time limit to appeal against a notice of assessment (avviso di accertamento). Service is deemed to have been effected ten days after the dispatch of the communication of deposit (comunicazione di avvenuto deposito, CAD), and the sixty days run from that moment. This was held by the Tax Division (Fifth Civil Division) of the Corte di cassazione (Italian Court of Cassation) in judgment no. 27642, filed on 23 October 2026. The case concerned a notice for 2008 served on a taxpayer who was temporarily absent: the CAD had been sent on 29 April 2013, the item was collected on 24 May and the appeal was served on 13 July, out of time under Article 21, paragraph 1, of Legislative Decree 546/1992 and in time only if the sixty days were counted from collection. On the acknowledgment of receipt of the CAD, the boxes for delivery to the letterbox and for the posting of the notice had not been ticked. The Court held that the defect was cured because the act had achieved its purpose, under Article 156, paragraph 3, of the Code of Civil Procedure: a person who collects the item must have had the CAD or the notice, because without those details the item could not be handed over. Once the irregularity is cured, Article 8, paragraph 4, of Law 890/1982 applies in full again: service is in any event deemed to have been effected ten days after the registered letter giving notice of the deposit is sent.

The ruling comes on ground made uncertain by interlocutory order no. 24164/2025, which had referred the case to a public hearing, doubting whether the defect in the acknowledgment of receipt of the CAD allowed time to start running, also in the light of Cassation no. 5178/2025, according to which actual knowledge is no substitute for proper service. The judgment describes that precedent as isolated and refers to Cassation no. 17183/2026, which expressly departed from it. The passage of greatest interest lies elsewhere, however: in the case decided the Court does not rely on actual knowledge as an alternative to legal knowledge, but finds that collection shows that the service procedure was successfully completed, so that completion of service remains tied to the tenth day after the CAD is sent and not to the date of collection. The burden of proof remains the ordinary one: the appellant, if the Tax Office disputes that the appeal was brought in time, must prove the date of service of the contested notice, while the Tax Office, where service is void, must prove the moment of actual knowledge. Collection operates as a rebuttable presumption, and the taxpayer had not pleaded anything to the contrary. In our view the solution is consistent with the wording of Article 8, paragraph 4, but leaves open the case of a person who collects the item having learned of the deposit by other means, without ever having received the CAD: the judgment preserves proof to the contrary, which will have to be rigorously made out.

IN PRACTICE
Where the item was collected after the tenth day from the dispatch of the CAD, the taxpayer’s adviser must calculate the time limit to appeal from that tenth day and not from the date of collection at the counter, taking the date of dispatch from the CAD itself or from its acknowledgment of receipt and counting prudently, without waiting for the last available day. Where, on the other hand, collection took place before the ten days had elapsed, service is deemed to have been effected on the date of collection (Article 8, paragraph 5, of Law 890/1982) and the sixty days run from then. The envelope, the CAD and the collection receipt should be kept; if the date of dispatch is uncertain, it is advisable to ask the Tax Office for a copy of the acknowledgment of receipt before relying on a longer time limit. If the CAD never arrived, that fact must be pleaded and proved in the appeal. From 1 January 2027 the time limit will be governed by Article 67 of the consolidated Act on tax court proceedings (testo unico della giustizia tributaria), Legislative Decree 175/2024, which corresponds to Article 21 of Legislative Decree 546/1992.

Summary note by the CommercialistiAvvocati network, based on specialised legal and practice sources. The text does not reproduce original contributions and does not constitute professional advice.

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