Form of agricultural contract – written contract

For the purposes of the Agricultural Legislation, Act no. 203/1982, private agreements made and duly signed between the parties are valid.

If the parties intend to put in place a contract with a duration of less than the 15 years stipulated in the industry regulations, they will necessarily have to enter into the contracts with the Assistance of the Trade Organizations: “Covenant in Derogation” under Article 45 of the Agricultural Law.

The written contract, as well as the verbal one, allows the farmer to access both the granting of public PAC – PSR subsidies and the possibility of purchasing, at subsidized prices, fuel for agricultural means

It should be kept in mind that the lease and concession of public property is recognized only in the written form in particular:

• As for renting from public entities, it is necessary to produce the deliberative act confirming the concession, the regular contract signed by the legal representative of the entity and the tenant;
• As for State-owned concessions, it is necessary to produce the concession deed with the relevant consents, the regular contract signed by the parties, and the relevant cadastral plan showing the area under lease.

The contract should, in any case, be registered in accordance with Art. 21 of Law no. 449 of 1997 and Article 7 of Law no. 448 of 1998. The registration tax is calculated in proportion to the agreed fee by applying the proportional rate of 0.50 percent to the annual fee multiplied by the number of annuities. If the tax turns out to be less than the minimum tax you will, however, have to pay a tax equal to the fixed tax.

Moreover, the aforementioned Article 7 provided for the possibility of discharging the obligation of registration of leases, whether written or verbal, by submitting, by one of the contracting parties, in duplicate originals, an annual summary report of the leases outstanding during one year, by February of the following year.

Upon the expiration of the deadline, Feb. 28, it will be up to the Finance Administration to proceed to sanction any defaults by those who failed to register by the prescribed deadline.

It is important to consider that in the case of entering into a written contract the law provides for only one registration the obligation to register must be fulfilled within 30 days of entering into the contract.

In addition to the rental agreement, another case that integrates a written contract is that which can be found in the case of a loan agreement.

The commodate contract is the main instrument for being able to use a movable or immovable property free of charge The notion of commodate is contained in Article 1803, Civil Code, which, in Paragraph 1, states: “commodate is the contract by which one party delivers to the other a movable or immovable thing for use for a specified time or use, with the obligation to return the same thing received. The commodity loan is essentially free of charge“.

(Substantial) gratuitousness distinguishes the commodate from the lease; in fact, if a consideration is provided for the use of another person’s thing, movable or immovable, the contract that is configured is the lease.

The Civil Code, which regulates this type of contract from Article 1803 to Article 1812, does not prescribe any constraints on either substantive or evidentiary form; however, it is common practice to prefer the written form in order to make it easier to resolve any disputes between the parties and to avoid the presumption of assignment and purchase for consideration for tax purposes.

Attorney Chiara Roncarolo

Attorney Maurizio Randazzo