January
Renew your ISEE for the new year. Fourth-quarter contributions for domestic workers and carers by the 16th.
Tax deadlines · Calendar
Guide to Italian tax deadlines
The Italian tax calendar contains hundreds of dates. The ones that concern you number between two and twenty, depending on who you are. This guide is here to pick them out, instead of scrolling through a list that is almost always about someone else.
01 · Picking out what matters
Six profiles, six different calendars
Before looking at dates, you need to work out which of the six rows concerns you. Most people have only one; someone with a rented-out property and a partita IVA (Italian VAT number) has two.
| Profile | How many deadlines | The main ones |
|---|---|---|
| Employee or pensioner with no property | Two or three | Tax return, ISEE (the family income and assets indicator) if needed |
| Employee with property | Five or six | Tax return, IMU (municipal property tax) advance and balance, cedolare secca (flat tax on rental income) if any |
| Partita IVA under the flat-rate scheme | Eight to ten | Tax return, balance and advance payments, contributions, stamp duty on invoices |
| Partita IVA under the ordinary regime | Twenty or more | All the above plus VAT settlements, LIPE (the quarterly VAT settlement report), annual VAT return |
| Limited company | Twenty-five or more | All the above plus financial statements, filing, company tax returns |
| Household employer | Four | Quarterly contributions for domestic workers and carers |
Another useful distinction is between recurring obligations (which come round every year or every month, and can be automated) and one-off obligations tied to an event: an inheritance, a purchase, starting a business. The latter almost always have shorter and less forgiving time limits.
02 · The calendar
The tax year, month by month
The dates shown are the standard ones. Each year they may be changed by extensions, and some depend on the accounting regime: they should therefore be checked for the current year.
February
LIPE for the fourth quarter, unless the annual VAT return is filed early. Reference deadline for the ISEE used for the Assegno Unico (the universal child benefit).
March
Certificazione Unica (the annual income statement): delivery to recipients and online filing.
April
Annual VAT return. Approval of financial statements within one hundred and twenty days of the end of the financial year.
May
Filing of financial statements within thirty days of approval. The pre-filled tax return season opens.
June
IMU advance payment by the 16th. Balance and first advance payment of income taxes and contributions by the 30th.
July
Option to pay within thirty days with a 0.40% surcharge. Second-quarter contributions for domestic workers.
September
Deadline for filing the 730 (the Italian tax return for employees and pensioners), unless extended.
October
Ordinary deadline for filing the Redditi return (the general income tax return) online.
November
Second advance payment of taxes and contributions by the 30th. LIPE for the third quarter.
December
IMU balance and VAT advance payment by the 16th. The ISEE certificate expires on the 31st.
Every month
The 16th is the date for withholding taxes and, for those who settle monthly, VAT for the previous month.
03 · How time limits work
The rules that move tax deadlines
Not every deadline actually falls on the day shown in the calendar. Five rules move them, and knowing them avoids both late payments and needless rushing.
- Saturdays and public holidays: the deadline moves to the next working day. This applies to F24 payments (the Italian tax payment form) and to obligations in general.
- Summer suspension: payments falling due within a set period in the summer can be made by a later date without any surcharge. It is confirmed every year.
- Deferral with a surcharge: the balance and first advance payment can be paid within thirty days by adding 0.40%. It is not a late payment, it is an option provided by law.
- Instalments: the balance and first advance payment can be paid in instalments, with interest. The instalments have their own due dates, which must be respected.
- Extensions: they are frequent, but should never be taken for granted. Planning around the ordinary date and then getting an extension is convenient; the reverse is not.
The shift applies to the deadline, not to the calculation. If you move the payment you do not move the period it belongs to: interest and later instalments keep running from the original dates.
04 · Catching up
What to do if the deadline has already passed
Almost everything can be put right, and the cost of doing so grows with time. There is just one practical rule: act before the tax authorities notice.
Within a few days
Ravvedimento operoso (voluntary correction) applies the lowest penalty. On a missed payment of a few hundred euros the difference is a few euros.
Within the year
The reductions are still significant. This is the window in which most corrections fall.
After the year
Voluntary correction remains possible up to the time limits for tax assessments, with smaller and smaller reductions.
After a formal challenge
Voluntary correction is no longer available: you move on to settling the avviso bonario (informal tax notice) or to an appeal.
05 · Prevention
How never to be late
Missed deadlines rarely come from forgetting the date. They come from not having the money or the documents when they are needed.
- Set money aside during the year: a fixed share of every payment you receive, moved to a separate account, covers taxes and contributions with no surprises in June.
- Note the dates at the start of the year, not the month before: the three or four that concern you fit in one reminder.
- Get your documents ready in advance: what holds up the 730 is not the date, it is the missing Certificazione Unica.
- Check your cassetto fiscale (your online tax records) two or three times a year: many communications appear there before they arrive by post.
- Keep an eye on your PEC (certified email): documents served electronically count as received even if nobody reads the mailbox.
- Renew your ISEE in January: it opens up bonuses and benefits for the whole year, and doing it early costs nothing.
The set-aside rule
The method that works for people with a partita IVA.
- On every payment you receive, move a share straight to a dedicated account
- The share is estimated on the previous year's tax burden, not by guesswork
- Do not touch that account for day-to-day spending
- In June and November the money is already there, and the deadline is just a date
06 · Where to read more
The pages on each obligation
Every deadline leads back to an obligation that has its own page, with documents, steps and common mistakes.
- Tax return: the 730 form, documents, deductions, 730 without an employer.
- ISEE: ordinary, current, documents.
- VAT: settlements and LIPE, annual return, electronic invoicing.
- Contributions: Gestione Separata, artisans and traders.
- Property: IMU, cedolare secca, short-term rentals.
- Companies: financial statements, filing, notes to the accounts.
- If something went wrong: voluntary correction, tax notices and payment demands.
Frequently asked
The questions that keep coming up
Extensions always come. Can I count on them?
Historically some deadlines have been extended regularly, but an extension is a discretionary measure that often arrives close to the deadline.
Planning around the ordinary date and getting an extension is an advantage. Planning around an extension and not getting one means a voluntary correction.
Is it worth paying in July with the 0.40% surcharge?
It is a financial choice: you pay 0.40% for thirty days of extra time. If during those thirty days you receive money you need, it makes sense.
It is not a late payment and carries no penalties: it is an option provided by law, but it must be exercised by paying exactly within the deferred deadline.
I missed an instalment. What happens?
It depends on the type of instalment plan. For payments due from the tax return, a late instalment can be put right with voluntary correction; beyond certain limits you lose the benefit and the remaining amount becomes due immediately.
For instalment plans granted by the tax collection agency, the rules on losing the benefit are specific and stricter. In both cases it pays to act straight away, not at the next instalment.
How do I know which deadlines concern me?
It depends on your tax regime, type of activity, and whether you own property or have employees. The table of profiles at the top of this page is the first filter.
Clients of the practice receive a personalised schedule with reminders: it is usually between three and eight dates a year, not the hundreds in the general calendar.
From the blog
Articles that go deeper into this page
June tax deadlines for VAT number holders
June packs VAT, withholding tax, IMU, the balance and first advance of taxes and contributions into a few weeks. What you pay, why the figure surprises people in their second year, and how to arrive with the cash ready.
Read the article
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Clients of the practice do not consult calendars
They receive a reminder weeks in advance with the list of documents to prepare, and that is all.