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With the recent ordinance no. 26510 of September 30, 2021, the Court of Cassation ruled on the IRPEF taxability of tips received by an employee in the performance of their duties (in this case, a head receptionist employed by a hotel).
The Regional Tax Commission had considered the sums received as tips to be non-taxable because they were not included in the definition of employment income, given their random nature and because they were received from customers (of the hotel) without any relation to the employer.
According to the Supreme Court, however, the concept of employment income is unique for both tax and social security purposes: the all-encompassing nature of the concept of employment income justifies the total taxability of everything the employee receives, even if not directly from the employer, but on which the employee can, based on common experience, reasonably if not certainly rely.
Therefore, according to the Court of Cassation, the link between the sums and the employment relationship justifies their total taxability, except for exclusions and/or exceptions expressly provided for: the concept of derivation from the employment relationship, which is independent of the synallagmatic bond that qualifies the employment relationship with the work performance, identifies not only everything that can be conceptually framed as remuneration but also, as in this case, all other income of the employee—whether in cash or in kind—that is casually connected to the employment relationship, in the sense that the existence of the employment relationship is the necessary prerequisite for their receipt by the employee.
Ultimately, the breadth of the concept of derivation requires, according to the Court of Cassation, that income paid to the employee by third parties outside the employment relationship, such as tips received by a hotel head receptionist directly from the hotel's clients, be included in the definition of employment income.
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