News · Accounting · – 29 July 2026

Patto di famiglia: the accountancy profession takes stock twenty years on

TOPIC
CNDCEC and Fondazione Nazionale dei Commercialisti paper of 27 July 2026 on business succession.

On 27 July 2026 the Italian national council of chartered accountants (CNDCEC) and its research foundation published a paper on the patto di famiglia (Italian family business succession agreement), twenty years after the institution was introduced into the civil code. The work traces how interpretation has developed on the most contested issues: the nature of the contract, the position of forced heirs who receive nothing, the settlement of their shares, and the direct and indirect tax treatment of the transaction.

For advisers to family businesses the significance is mainly practical. The patto di famiglia remains the instrument that allows the transfer of a business or of shareholdings to be brought forward while stabilising ownership, but it holds up only if the valuation of the business is defensible, the sums due to forced heirs are correctly quantified, and the agreement is coordinated with the other planning tools. The review comes at a point when generational transfer is a question of business continuity before it is one of succession.

IN PRACTICE
In transactions under way it is worth recording the valuation criteria in writing and keeping the supporting documents: this is where both disputes among heirs and indirect tax audits concentrate. The requirements for the favourable inheritance and gift tax regime should also be checked, since it assumes that the business is continued or control retained for the prescribed period.

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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