Tax notice and payment demand
What you have received and which time limits apply.
OpenDeadlines · Collection
Rottamazione: settling your tax bills (cartelle)
It is the measure that, from time to time, lets you pay debts handed over for collection without penalties and without late-payment interest. It is not an amnesty and it does not cancel the debt: it removes what has built up on top of it.
01 · How it works
What is cancelled and what remains
The definizione agevolata (facilitated settlement), which everyone calls rottamazione, covers debts handed over to the collection agent within a range of years set each time by the law. It does not cover debts still held by the creditor body.
The mechanism is always the same: you pay the tax and the reimbursement of costs, and everything that has built up on top of it falls away.
| Item | In the facilitated settlement |
|---|---|
| Tax or contribution due | Remains due in full |
| Penalties | Not due |
| Late-payment interest | Not due |
| Interest for late entry on the collection roll | Not due |
| Collection fee (aggio) | Not due |
| Notification and enforcement costs | Remain due |
| Fines for Highway Code offences | The fine remains; interest and the collection fee fall away |
With traffic fines the mechanism is reversed: the fine is the debt, so it remains. Only the interest and the collection fee fall away. If you expect to wipe out a fine through rottamazione, you will be disappointed.
02 · The scope
Which tax bills qualify for rottamazione
The scope is set by the individual law that introduces the measure, and it changes with each edition. These, however, are the criteria that recur.
- Debts handed over for collection within a range of years set by the law: what counts is not the date of the debt but the date it was handed over.
- State taxes, social security contributions, and local taxes handed over to the national collection agent.
- Debts already on an instalment plan can normally be included too, with effects on the plan in progress.
- Debts with enforcement already under way can be included too, provided the enforcement has not already been completed.
- Certain listed debts are excluded: recovery of State aid, Court of Auditors judgments, criminal penalties and others specified case by case.
- Debts not yet handed over for collection are outside it: those are dealt with through the ordinary tools.
03 · The procedure
How to join
The procedure is online and has a strict deadline, different for each edition. Missing it means waiting for the next measure, if there is one.
Request the estratto di ruolo
It is free and you get it from the collection agent's reserved area. It lists every debt with the year, the creditor body and the amount.
Check before you join
The debts may include items that are time-barred, already paid, or documents never served. Joining for those means giving up the right to challenge them.
Submit the application
You state which debts you want to settle (you do not have to include them all) and in how many instalments.
Receive the plan
The agent sends you the amount due and the deadlines. From that moment, enforcement proceedings are suspended.
What you give up by joining
Joining is not free in terms of your rights.
- Joining means dropping pending court cases on those debts
- A time-barred debt, once settled, can no longer be challenged
- A document never properly served loses the chance to be objected to
- That is why the check must be done before the application, not after
04 · Payment
Instalments and deadlines
You can pay in a single sum or in instalments, up to the maximum number set by each edition of the measure.
- The deadlines are set by law and cannot be negotiated: they are the same for everyone.
- On instalments after the first, interest is charged at the set rate.
- There is a grace period of a few days on each payment, beyond which the settlement lapses.
- Payment is made with the payment slips attached to the notice from the agent, or through the online channels.
- While the plan runs, enforcement proceedings are suspended and no new ones are started on the settled debts.
05 · Lapsing
What lapsing means
This is the part to look at before choosing how many instalments to ask for, because the consequences are severe and cannot be undone.
- Missing an instalment, or paying it late beyond the grace period, makes the whole settlement lapse.
- The debt comes back in full, with the penalties and late-payment interest that had been removed.
- What you have already paid is kept as a payment on account: it is not lost, but it is not enough.
- The debt can no longer be paid in instalments under the ordinary collection procedures.
- Precautionary and enforcement action resumes: vehicle liens, mortgages on property, attachment of earnings or accounts.
In practice: it is wiser to ask for a number of instalments you are sure you can keep up than for the maximum allowed. A shorter plan that is kept to is worth far more than a long one that lapses at the third deadline.
06 · If there isn't one
If no rottamazione is open
The facilitated settlement is a window that opens from time to time. Outside those windows the ordinary tools remain: they do not wipe out penalties, but they let you manage the debt.
- Ordinary instalment plan with the collection agent: up to a large number of instalments, with a simplified application below a certain threshold.
- Ravvedimento operoso (voluntary correction), if the debt has not yet been handed over for collection: here the penalties really are reduced.
- Settling the avviso bonario (the preliminary tax notice), if you are still at that stage: the penalty stays reduced.
- A challenge, if the debt is time-barred or the underlying document was never served.
- Suspension of collection, in the listed cases where the debt turns out not to exist.
The right order is always the same: first look at the estratto di ruolo, then decide. Joining a settlement without checking what it contains is the quickest way to pay something you did not owe.
Frequently asked
The questions that keep coming up
Can I include only some of my cartelle (payment demands)?
Yes. The application lists the individual debts you want to settle: you do not have to include them all.
It is often the right choice, because for some debts it may be better to challenge them than to settle, and the two options exclude each other.
I already have an instalment plan in progress. What happens?
Debts already on an instalment plan can normally be included in the settlement, and the earlier plan is suspended pending the outcome.
It needs assessing case by case: if you have already paid a lot under the ordinary plan, the benefit of the settlement may be smaller than it looks.
If my settlement lapses, can I get back in?
No, not into the same settlement. The debt comes back in full and, for those debts, can no longer be paid in instalments under the ordinary collection procedures.
You may still join a later settlement, if the law provides for one and those debts fall within it. But that is a gamble, not a plan.
Are fines wiped out?
No. With administrative penalties the penalty itself is the debt, so it remains due: the interest and the collection fee fall away.
It is the most common misunderstanding about rottamazione, and worth clearing up before working out how much you would save.
Let's talk
The first step is not joining: it is understanding what you have
The estratto di ruolo (the statement of your debts under collection) is free to request and shows every debt, with the year and the creditor body. It often contains items that are time-barred or already paid.