Italy’s Revenue Agency has ruled that digital register managers for blockchain-based financial instruments cannot be treated as first-tier banks for tax purposes, preventing them from performing certain investor certification and reporting functions reserved for authorised intermediaries.
The Italian Revenue Agency clarified, on 10 September 2026, that companies managing digital registers for blockchain-based financial instruments cannot operate as traditional banks under tax law. In response to question no. 170/2026, the Agency ruled that these managers lack authority to collect investor certifications, communicate with tax authorities, or file required tax forms.
The regulatory disconnect
A company operating a distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform sought to clarify its tax treatment under Italian law. The platform issues and transfers bonds and debt securities in digital form through blockchain technology, implementing the Fintech Decree (Legislative Decree no. 25/2023). The company argued that its registry manager function resembled that of a first-tier bank as defined by Ministry of Finance Decree no. 632/1996.
The taxpayer’s organisational model separated functions between the registry manager (handling issuance and ownership records) and an internal trust company (handling tax withholding calculations and investor communications).
The company wanted confirmation that this setup qualified it to collect self-certifications from non-resident investors, report to the Data Exchange System (SID), and submit Form 118/IMP for tax purposes.
The Agency’s position
The Revenue Agency rejected this interpretation. No regulatory provision extends first-tier bank status to digital register managers, the Agency stated. Legislative Decree no. 239/1996, which governs tax withholding on bond income, identifies only specific entities authorised to exempt non-resident investors from this tax, and register managers are not among them.
The Fintech Decree itself maintains tax neutrality. Article 8 of the explanatory memorandum explicitly states that tax rules for digital financial instruments remain identical to those for traditional securities. This means the substitute tax continues to apply under Article 5, paragraph 2 of Legislative Decree no. 239/1996. When securities are not deposited with authorised intermediaries, the tax falls to the entity making the payment or the issuer itself.
Complete disintermediation of digital instruments does not exempt them from standard tax treatment. The principle of technological neutrality cannot stretch statutory definitions to cover entities the legislature did not authorise.
