The 2026 Budget Law amended the VAT code: in the case of barter transactions, the taxable amount is determined by the value of the goods and services involved in each transaction
by Berardo Lanci
The 2026 Budget Law amended the VAT regime applicable to trade-ins of goods and services.
Specifically, to resolve a conflict between national legislation and Article 80 of the VAT Directive, it was necessary to amend Article 13 of the VAT Code under Presidential Decree No. 633/1972. This provision, for invoicing a good or service exchanged, used the normal value of the goods or services in exchange as the taxable base for VAT. In fact, the aforementioned Article 80 does not include trade-ins among the exhaustively listed cases where VAT is calculated on a taxable amount based on the normal value.
Given the importance of the matter – including, but not limited to, the penalties for tax infringements – it would be helpful if the Revenue Agency provided clarification on what is meant by costs relating to the boat traded in, for the purposes of determining the tax base.
For this reason, the 2026 Budget Law amended letter d) of paragraph 2 of Article 13 of the VAT Code, which in its new version provides that in cases of trade-in, the taxable base is represented by the value of the goods and services that are the subject of each trade-in, “determined by the total amount of all costs relating to such supplies or services”.
Regarding this matter, it should also be briefly noted that, under Article 11 of the aforementioned VAT Code, trade-ins are regarded as the supply of goods and services in exchange for other supplies of goods or services and are subject to VAT independently of those they are exchanged for.
The entity that trades in its boat is required to track all costs incurred in relation to its trade-in yacht in order to determine the VAT taxable base.
The legislative amendment is clearly also of great importance in the sale and purchase of yachts, where it is well known that the purchase of a new boat often involves the trade-in of another, usually of lesser value. As is well known, in trade-in transactions between two VAT-registered parties in so-called B2B transactions, each party is required to issue an invoice for the sale it has made, and the party selling its boat in exchange for full or partial coverage of the price to be paid uses an invoice with a taxable amount equal to the normal value of its boat.
As the relevant legislation has changed, the same party must determine the taxable amount to be indicated on the invoice on the basis of the total amount of the costs incurred by them for that boat, meaning not only the amount paid for the original purchase of the boat but also the costs relating to the purchase of other related goods and services, such as maintenance or other work on the boat. Moreover, in light of EU principles on the application of VAT (case C-207/23), this taxable amount should also include the cost components that are not relevant for VAT purposes, such as financial charges incurred for any loan taken out to purchase the boat.
The 2026 Budget Law amends the VAT regime for trade-ins of goods and services, notably affecting the sale and purchase of yachts.
As a result of this new regulation, every VAT-registered entity that trades in a boat is required to recalculate its total cost, including all related expenses. This requirement will likely mean that the parties involved will have to adopt a specific accounting system that tracks all costs related to the boat, rather than, as is usually the case, only the directly attributable ancillary costs, which are added to the asset’s book value.
The new legislation obviously also applies to trade-ins between a VAT-registered entity and a private individual, in so-called B2C transactions. In this case, obviously, only the sale made by the VAT-registered entity will be subject to VAT, with the effects mentioned above, and not the sale made by the private individual
(VAT on trade-ins – Barchemagazine.com – Excerpted from Barche, April 2026)
