According to the Italian Supreme Court, the tax penalties resulting from the violation of tax rules are of an afflictive nature and, therefore, are not inherited by the heirs.
In particular, the deceased owner of a plot of land did not consider it to be qualified as building land, despite the fact that it was identified as so in the general Town Plans of the residential areas. In fact, the Italian Law applies the IMU tax (Imposta Municipale Unica) to owners of properties, land and built areas, included in specific cadastral categories.
Nevertheless, the appeal was rejected and the plaintiff died during the proceedings.
The heirs, therefore, complained about the application of tax penalties against them. On this point, the Supreme Court stated that financial penalties in violation of tax rules are due to their afflictive nature, being calculated also with the personality of the offender.
Therefore, according to the Italian Supreme Court, the general principle is that tax penalties are not inherited by the heirs.