Furniture bonus: 50% deduction also in 2025. Voucher of up to 100 euro on household appliances

Paraphrasing the language of television, one could say that on household appliances the manoeuvre (finally approved by the Senate on 28 December) does not leave but doubles. In reality, we must pay close attention to the differences between the furniture and household appliance bonus, which is also extended for 2025, albeit with a now light expenditure ceiling (5,000 euro), and the household appliance voucher, introduced during the parliamentary passage of the Budget law and strongly desired by the chairman of the Chamber's Productive Activities Committee, the Leghist Alberto Gusmeroli.

In the first case, we are faced with a tax deduction of 50% of the expenditure incurred up to a maximum of 5,000 euro that can be used in the tax return in ten equal annual instalments. The prerequisite - as always - is that the expenditure for furniture and electrical appliances is necessarily connected to building heritage restoration work (extraordinary maintenance or renovation work) that entitles the purchaser to the 50 per cent deduction. In this sense, it could be called a trailed bonus. It should be noted, however, that despite the cut-off destined to fall from 2025 on building bonuses, no distinction will be made for the deduction on furnishings and household appliances between main homes and second homes: the rate of the tax discount will, in fact, remain at 50 per cent in both cases. The requirements that new large household appliances must have in order to be eligible for tax relief have been reconfirmed: energy class no lower than class A for oven, class E for washers, washers/dryers and dishwashers, class F for refrigerators and freezers, for appliances that have an energy label.

The nature and purpose of the household appliance voucher is different. The measure (paragraphs 107 to 110 of the manoeuvre) aims to offer an economic contribution for scrapping old household appliances to be replaced with the purchase of new ones with high energy efficiency not lower than the new energy class B, produced in the territory of the European Union, with the simultaneous disposal of the replaced appliance. In this case, therefore, the standard required is generally of a higher level than that of the 50% deduction, also because the measure has as its stated objectives those of "encouraging an increase in energy efficiency in the home" and "reducing consumption". The contribution may be granted to an extent not exceeding 30% of the purchase cost of the appliance and in any case for an amount not exceeding 100 euro for each appliance, raised to 200 euro if the purchaser's household has an Isee of less than 25,000 euro per year. The restriction, however, is that the contribution can only be used for the purchase of one household appliance.

To understand how applications will work, however, we will have to wait for the decree of the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy (Mimit) which, within the first 60 days of 2025, will have to establish the criteria, methods and terms for disbursement. Not least because the available resources are contingent: 50 million euro is the dowry on which the contribution will be available. And it will be a question of understanding, among other things, whether purchases made in the first months of the year before the arrival of the implementing provisions will also be eligible for the incentive.