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C. Lollio: Some thOllghts shared 011 tlle lle11/ provisions on co-ordinated ...
The tax definition of co-ordinated and continuous collaboration contracts
contained in artide 49 of the Consolidated Tax Law, if one is in
agreement with the case law on the extent of article 409 c.p.c., is the on­
Iy substantial definition given by Italian legislation.
Such a definition has been introduced as a result of the proliferation
of non-subordinated employment contracts and, in the opinion of this author,
is further confirrnation of the fact that this type of contract cannot
be assimilated lO the traditional categories provided for in the ltalian civil
code.
The growth in "non-subordinated" employment contracts is not limited
to the typical examples of the contracts which are most frequently
encountered in practice and which have already been identified in tax legislation.
It is as a result of this situation that the necessity for a substantial
definition of such contracts has arisen, in order to identify ali those
work contracts which present characteristics which are altogether peculiar
and different from those found in free lance work and subordinated
employment contracts.
Although the new version of article 49 resolves certain doubts, it stili
reaffirrns the division between typical and atypical work contracts, which
used to be based on wording "and similar types of contracts"cleared latero
The aforementioned provision of law sets out an indicative list of the
most frequently practised forrns of co-ordinated and continuous collaboration
contracts (42) and defines the characteristic features of sue h nonsubordinated
employment contacts, within whose ambit several types of
interpretation, which is contained in the instructions annexed to the model tax return
for free lance work and evidences even more clearly the factors that make up such types
of contracts, in line \vith to the reasoning behind the aforementioned provisions of law.
The latter does not aim at protecting the contractually weaker parties, as does article
409 c.p.c .... nor does it aim at lightening the ta"\: burden, but rather has the sole objective
of simplifying the procedure for detennining incorne deriving from free lance
work which, on account of the fact that it is carried out pursuant to employrnent contracts
for a certain peri od, with a fixed periodic remuneration and without the use of
other t)'}Jes of business organisations, 1S not conducive to the use of the anal)1ic deduction
rnethod of the related expenses, based on the keeping of company accounts".
(42) Cfr. M.G. Cocco, at the heading "Co-ordinated and continuous collaboration
contracts (tax implications), Milan 1988, Law Encyclopedia, cfr. VI; Merlino R., Income
Taxes, already cited, p. 53; F. D'Ayala Valva, Incorne from free lance work in the
Consolidated Tax Law no. 917 dated 22.12.1986, in Rass. trib. 1989, I, p. 342:
The distinction, in adrninistrative practice, has been set out in the circular of the
director generai no. 77/430400 dated 24.12.1994; rninisterial resolution no. 130/E/5-
935 dated 2 lune 1995, in A. Casotti, M.R. Gheido, Co-ordinated and continuous collaboration
contracts, already cited, at p. 80.
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