The final accounts: assets left over, VAT on cessation and the last returns

Anna closes her ceramics shop in Faenza at the end of 2026. On the shelves are pieces she paid suppliers €3,000 for, which she will take home, and in the yard stands the delivery van she will keep. Nobody buys them, yet for tax purposes the closure «sells» them: to Anna herself, with possible VAT and income consequences for the final year.

Assets that stay with the owner

Article 2 of the VAT decree lists transactions that count as supplies of goods even without a buyer. Point 5 covers goods applied to the personal or family use of the entrepreneur or professional, or to other purposes unrelated to the business.

The text adds a decisive phrase: even when this results from ceasing the activity. Closing down does not take the goods out of the VAT net. Stock, equipment, a car or a computer that the owner keeps after the cessation are treated as supplied to that same person.

The same rule sets a limit. Goods on which input VAT was not deducted at the time of purchase are excluded. The logic is straightforward: VAT on private use claws back a deduction already enjoyed; where there was no deduction, there is nothing to claw back.

Before closing, take an inventory. For each item ask two questions: did I deduct the VAT when I bought it? Am I selling it or keeping it? A sale to a third party before closing is an ordinary supply with an invoice; an item kept falls under point 5.

Selling before closing is often the easiest option. Stock sold to another trader or a customer follows the normal rules: an invoice, VAT on the agreed price, revenue in the final year's accounts. There is no value to reconstruct, because the taxable amount is simply the agreed consideration.

Giving things away is a third route, and it is regulated too. Point 4 of the same article treats free supplies of goods as supplies. Donating leftover stock to a friend or an association on closing therefore does not avoid VAT on goods whose VAT was deducted.

The rule only excludes goods on which no deduction was made on purchase, and goods outside the business's own line of trade with a unit cost of no more than €50. For the stock the business normally sold, that threshold does not apply.

Which value VAT is charged on

With no consideration, the taxable amount has to be built. Article 13, paragraph 2, letter c) sets it for point 5 supplies: the purchase price or, failing that, the cost price of the goods or of similar goods, determined at the moment the transaction takes place.

Those last words matter. You do not use the price paid years ago, nor what customers would have paid: you use what it would cost today to buy those goods, or similar ones. Goods that have lost value have a lower base; goods that have become dearer, a higher one.

The rate of the goods is then applied to that base. For standard-rated goods it is 22 %, the same figure ActioFin's VAT calculator uses.

Alongside the standard rate there are reduced rates of 10, 5 and 4 %, reserved for certain goods and services. If you keep goods that carry them, check separately which rate applies: this course does not cover it.

Flat-rate taxpayers and goods bought without deduction

The Agency's page on the simplifications of the flat-rate scheme (regime forfettario) notes that people using it charge no VAT on invoices and do not deduct VAT paid on purchases. They are also exempt from periodic settlements and payments and from the annual VAT return.

Read next to point 5 of article 2, the picture becomes clear: goods bought under the flat-rate scheme, with no deduction, fall within the exclusion. A flat-rate professional who closes and keeps equipment bought in those years owes no VAT on it.

Trickier is the person who moved into the flat-rate scheme after years under the ordinary regime, bringing along goods bought with a deduction. A change of regime has its own adjustment rules, and the Agency's 2026 VAT return page notes that their repeal has been postponed to 1 January 2027.

This course does not go into that adjustment. The advice is to trace, item by item, under which regime each purchase was made, and to get help from an adviser if the inventory includes goods bought before joining the flat-rate scheme.

The last VAT return

Paragraph 4 of article 35 says what the final annual return must include: the tax due on goods applied to unrelated purposes under point 5 of article 2 as well. That is where VAT on private use at cessation ends up.

The same paragraph asks you to count the transactions in the fifth paragraph of article 6 whose tax has not yet become chargeable. In other words, VAT on transactions already made but deferred to a later moment does not stay pending beyond the closure: it goes into the final accounts.

As for the calendar, the Agency's 2026 VAT return page says the return for the 2025 tax year is filed online only, between 1 February and 30 April 2026. Someone closing during 2026 will file that year's return in the window the Agency sets for 2027.

Until the winding-up operations end, paragraph 4 adds, payments and periodic settlements remain due as well. The final settlement of the closing period therefore covers VAT on the last invoices and VAT on goods kept by the owner.

The income tax side

For a business, closing also affects the final year's income, under rules that differ from VAT. Article 85, paragraph 2, of the income tax code (TUIR), in the wording applicable to 2026, counts as revenue the normal value of trading stock applied to purposes unrelated to the business.

For capital assets such as a van or a machine, article 86 brings into income the gain realised when the assets are applied to unrelated purposes. Paragraph 3 measures it as normal value minus the cost not yet depreciated.

Note the different yardsticks: VAT uses the current purchase price, income uses normal value. The TUIR defines normal value in another article, which this course does not cover: they are two distinct amounts, each to be documented on its own.

Documenting means, in practice, keeping a quote, a price list or a catalogue page showing what it would cost today to buy the goods again, and a reasoned estimate of their normal value. These are the papers that justify both bases used in the final year if the tax office asks.

For professionals, the income tax treatment of assets kept on closing follows the self-employment rules, which this course has not read and does not summarise. The VAT side, however, is the same: point 5 of article 2 expressly names those practising an art or profession.

That leaves the income tax return. The Agency's page on the 2026 Redditi PF return sets, for 2025 income, an online filing window from 15 April to 2 November 2026. Income for the closing year is reported the same way the following year, in the windows that will be set.

A checklist for the final year

• Issue the last invoices and collect, as far as possible, what customers still owe
• Gather price lists or quotes showing the current price of goods you will keep
• Take an inventory: VAT deducted on purchase or not, sale to a third party or private use
• Work out VAT on private use from the current purchase price and include it in the final settlement
• Fix the cessation date once the operations are complete
• Within thirty days: form AA9/12, or the single business notice with form I2 for a sole trader
• The following year: the last VAT return where due, and the income tax return with revenue and gains from the closure