Flotte urges the Government to reform the system

The motoring sector is raising the bar on the issue of tax reform affecting vehicle fleets and is calling on the Government to use the flexibility clause to support the sector. In fact, there has been talk of reform for years, with a view to bringing the legislation into line with that of the main European markets. Now the trade associations – Anfia, Aniasa, Unrae and Motus – have signed a comprehensive reform proposal to be submitted to the Government, calling for ‘structural measures to meet the targets set by Brussels and accelerate the renewal of the vehicle fleet’. The aim is to register 400,000 zero-emission vehicles over the three-year period 2027–29, with an estimated financial commitment of half a billion euros. This includes the removal of the tax penalty on home charging of company vehicles (estimated financial impact of less than 2.5 million euros). The reasoning is that taxation on company cars can therefore play a dual role: on the one hand, to revitalise the Italian automotive market, which currently holds a market share of over 30 per cent; on the other, to accelerate the green transition within the sector. In Italia, the corporate sector accounts for just under 30 per cent of new registrations, compared with around 60 per cent in the European Union. Strengthening vehicle fleets is also at the heart of the European strategy: from the Clean Corporate Vehicles Regulation to the Industrial Accelerator Act and the Electrification Action Plan, the electrification of fleets is recognised as a lever for decarbonisation, albeit with a number of distinctions between the various initiatives.

The proposal has been submitted to the Ministry of Economy and Finance and to the Prime Minister’s Office; the aim is to achieve a reform of the tax regime for company car fleets that is ‘sustainable for the public finances and immediately operational’, as the organisations describe in a statement. This follows on from last year’s reform of the fringe benefits regime and the changes announced by the government regarding the IPT (Provincial Registration Tax). ‘2026 began with positive expectations regarding the implementation of the enabling act for tax reform and the revision of the rules on partially deductible mobility costs for businesses. However, these expectations have so far been dashed and, on the contrary, the year has seen a series of regulatory measures that risk curbing investment and further slowing down the renewal of the vehicle fleet,” comments Italo Folonari, president of Aniasa.

Aniasa lists the latest measures introduced for the fleet sector and highlights their negative impact on the sector. “The new rules on fringe benefits also impose a tax penalty on electric vehicles that are more than five years old” explains President Folonari, who also gives a negative assessment of the new rules on the provincial registration tax, “which introduce interpretative uncertainties and potential disputes for hire car companies, right up to the recent proposed amendments”. The assessment is also negative regarding the amendments to the Highway Code, “which risk shifting the financial liability for fines unpaid by foreign customers onto rental companies”.

These are different measures, Aniasa explains, but they all have in common an impact on potential cost increases, uncertainties and burdens for a sector that also plays an important role in modernising the fleet on the road in Italia. The real risk, argues Folonari, “is that a build-up of restrictions and penalties will end up producing the opposite effect to that intended: delaying fleet renewal, curbing investment and slowing down the modernisation of the vehicle fleet”. Instead, stable rules geared towards long-term objectives are needed – rules capable of harnessing, rather than hindering, ‘the contribution that car hire can make to the transition of Italian mobility’, concludes the president of Aniasa.

Operators are therefore distancing themselves from the Government’s latest measures and calling for the structured fiscal intervention that has been promised for years. They also point out that the proposed reform comes at a favourable time in the European political landscape. ‘The flexibility clause,’ they write, ‘opens up budgetary scope to fund investments with structural effects on reducing emissions and on the transition to more sustainable mobility. The resources to take action, therefore, are available: the fiscal scope recognised by the Commission can be utilised from the next Budget Act onwards.’