Corporate Welfare: 2026 Updates between the Omnibus Decree and Italian Revenue Agency Practice
1. The rules in brief
Corporate welfare comprises the benefits, works and services that the employer grants to all employees or to categories of employees, in kind or by way of expense reimbursement, for purposes of social relevance. The legal basis is art. 51, para. 2, of the TUIR (Italian Income Tax Code), which provides that they do not form part of employment income. The most relevant cases are:
letter f): works and services offered to all employees or to categories of employees, and to the family members referred to in art. 12, for the purposes set out in art. 100, para. 1 (education, instruction, recreation, social and healthcare assistance, worship);
letter f-bis): sums, services and benefits for the use, by the family members referred to in art. 12, of education and instruction services, including pre-school services, toy libraries, summer and winter camps, and scholarships;
letter f-ter): sums and benefits for the use of care services for elderly or non-self-sufficient family members referred to in art. 12.
As regards deductibility for the company, expenses incurred in accordance with the provisions of a contract, agreement or company regulation are fully deductible pursuant to art. 95, para. 1, of the TUIR. Where, instead, the works and services are offered voluntarily, the five-per-thousand limit of art. 100 of the TUIR applies. Hence the importance of a company regulation or agreement formalising the obligation to provide them. Corporate welfare may be subject to conversion into performance bonuses; on this point, please refer to our previous article: Corporate welfare and performance bonuses: interconnection between the two regimes.
2. The changes introduced by the Omnibus Decree
Legislative Decree no. 148 of 7 August 2026 (the so-called Omnibus Decree), in force since 12 August 2026, amends, in art. 1, para. 4-ter of art. 12 of the TUIR. This provision defines "family members" and "dependent family members" whenever a tax provision refers to art. 12, and therefore has a direct impact on the scope of welfare beneficiaries.
To understand the amendment, it should be recalled that art. 1 of Legislative Decree no. 192 of 18 December 2025 had provided, starting from the 2025 tax year, that the "other persons" listed in art. 433 of the Italian Civil Code (including parents and ascendants, parents-in-law, sons- and daughters-in-law, brothers and sisters) would be relevant only if they lived with the taxpayer or received maintenance payments not deriving from court orders. The condition applied to all tax provisions referring to art. 12 and, being effective for the whole of 2025, would not have made it possible, retrospectively, to benefit from welfare plans already implemented in favour of non-cohabiting family members.
The Omnibus Decree essentially restores the previous framework:
cohabitation or maintenance payments are required, together with the income limits of art. 12, para. 2, only where the tax provision refers to dependent family members, with regard to the "other family members" of art. 433 of the Italian Civil Code;
where the provision refers generically to the persons indicated in art. 12, such as letters f-bis) and f-ter) of art. 51, para. 2, no cohabitation requirement applies any longer;
the amendment applies from the 2025 tax year (art. 1, para. 3), for the benefit of those who were entitled to the tax relief under art. 12 as in force on 31 December 2024.
The same decree also amends (art. 2) the taxation of company cars used for both business and private purposes as a fringe benefit, a topic outside the scope of this article.
3. The Agency's clarification: ruling no. 163/2026
In ruling no. 163/2026, the Italian Revenue Agency applies the new rules to a specific case. The request concerned an employee who asked whether the reimbursement, provided for by the corporate welfare plan, of expenses incurred in 2025 for the admission and care of the employee's mother in a nursing home (RSA) could benefit from the favourable regime, even though she was not a cohabiting family member. The plan provider had in fact made the exemption conditional on the cohabitation requirement introduced by Legislative Decree no. 192/2025.
The Agency traces the evolution of para. 4-ter of art. 12 of the TUIR and refers to the parliamentary documents relating to Legislative Decree no. 148/2026, which show that the amendment was introduced to overcome the difficulties created by Legislative Decree no. 192/2025 for 2025 welfare plans in favour of non-cohabiting "other family members". It concludes that the reimbursement of nursing home expenses incurred for the non-cohabiting mother does not form part of employment income pursuant to art. 51, para. 2, letter f-ter), of the TUIR.
The opinion is given "subject to compliance with every other condition laid down by the relevant legislation, which is not the subject of this request": the further requirements of the favourable regime must therefore be verified on a case-by-case basis. The reasoning of the ruling, based on the new wording of para. 4-ter, applies to all provisions that refer generically to the family members of art. 12.
4. Conclusions
The Omnibus Decree brings the scope of family members eligible under welfare plans back to the situation prior to Legislative Decree no. 192/2025, with effect from 2025, and ruling no. 163/2026 confirms its application also to expenses already incurred. The general requirements of the regime, discussed in our previous article, remain unchanged.
