Omnibus Tax Decree: Changes Affecting the Day-to-Day Operations of Businesses and Professionals

At first glance, a “corrective” decree may seem like something of interest only to specialists. Legislative Decree No. 148/2026, which entered into force on 12 August, proves otherwise: its 37 articles introduce changes affecting many aspects of the everyday tax affairs of businesses, professionals and employees.

Let us start with an issue affecting thousands of employment relationships: the taxation of company cars made available for both business and private use. The flat-rate calculation remains based on 50% of the ACI cost for a conventional annual mileage of 15,000 kilometres (10% for electric vehicles and 20% for plug-in hybrids), but the decree introduces a significant change: once five years have elapsed since the vehicle’s initial registration, the taxable value is increased by 50%. An “older” company car will therefore cost the employee more for tax purposes, contrary to what one might intuitively expect. A further 5% increase applies to accessories not included in the ACI tables. The new regime applies to vehicles assigned from 2026 onwards (as well as those ordered and assigned in 2025). For vehicles assigned between 1 July 2020 and 31 December 2024, or ordered by that date and assigned in 2025, the previous rules continue to apply until the fifth year following initial registration; after that point, however, the 50% increase applies under all regimes.

As regards tax audits and assessments, the measure reshapes the balance between the Tax Administration and taxpayers in several respects. For items whose tax effects extend over several years—depreciation and amortisation first and foremost—a clear statute-of-limitations period is introduced, linked to the tax return in which the relevant amount is deducted for the first time, rather than to each individual year in which the asset is used. This is a taxpayer-friendly provision that reduces uncertainty surrounding long-term investments, although it applies only to assets acquired from the 2027 tax period onwards. The scope of assessments based on “lack of economic rationale” is also narrowed: a deviation from market value will no longer, in itself, be sufficient grounds for a tax adjustment unless it is supported by further serious, precise and consistent evidence, or unless the deviation is manifest and particularly significant. Lastly, the decree addresses closely held companies, finally establishing by law that the presumption that profits have been distributed to shareholders must be based on specific and established elements—such as concealed revenues or fictitious costs—rather than on mere suspicion.

The decree also introduces equally significant changes in a number of other areas that will be examined in greater detail over the coming days: the rules governing dependent family members, including the removal of the cohabitation requirement for spouses and children; the extension of the deadlines for VAT deduction and the recording of purchase invoices; changes to the carry-forward of tax losses in the event of a transfer of corporate control, now extended to indirect transfers carried out through the parent company; the revision of the rules governing contributions of shareholdings generating capital losses; the strengthening of the principle whereby taxable income is derived from the financial statements, with implications for stock options, goodwill and trademarks; the new special voluntary disclosure and remediation regime relating to the 2020–2023 two-year advance tax agreement (concordato preventivo biennale); and the simplified IRAP regime for Third Sector entities.

Behind the label of a “corrective” measure, therefore, lies a decree that rewrites significant aspects of day-to-day tax planning.