Employers

Inps year-end adjustments 2025: deadlines, holidays, fringe benefits and severance pay. Here's how to do it

Circular issued by the social security institution on the procedures to be followed in carrying out the adjustment operations, relating to the year 2025, aimed at correctly quantifying the taxable contribution, also with regard to the measurement of the variable elements of remuneration

by Rome Editorial Staff

3 January 2026

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

Terms
Variable elements of remuneration
Leave pay and taxation
Fringe benefits
Settlements for payments of severance pay to the Treasury Fund

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The Inps (Italian National Social Security Institute) has issued indications for employers on the 2025 year-end adjustment of social security and welfare contributions (circular 156 of 30 December). In particular, the social security agency provides indications as to the procedures to be followed in carrying out the adjustment operations, relating to the year 2025, aimed at the correct quantification of the taxable contribution, also with regard to the measurement of the variable elements of remuneration. The circular is particularly extensive and exhaustive. Here are some indications provided by the Inps (for an overview, we recommend consulting the text of the circular).

The deadlines

Employers will be able to carry out the adjustment operations, in addition to the accrual report for 'December 2025' (payment deadline 16 January 2026), also with the accrual report for 'January 2026' (payment deadline 16 February 2026.

Considering, moreover, that from 2007 the adjustments may also concern the TFR to the Treasury Fund and the compensatory measures, the Inps points out that the relevant transactions may also be included in the 'February 2026' tax return (payment due date 16 March 2026), without incurring additional charges. The obligation to pay or recover the contributions due on the variable salary components in January 2026 remains unaffected.

For public administrations and employers registered with the Public Administration, the adjustment operations must be carried out by February of the year following the reference year of the income subject to adjustment. It follows that for taxable salaries relating to the year 2025, the adjustment operations must be included at the latest in the tax returns relating to February 2026. The statements relating to the annual adjustment operations must be received no later than the month following the month in which the adjustment operations are carried out and, in any event, for employment relationships continuing in 2026, no later than March 2026. The deadline for the payment of the contribution resulting from the adjustment operations, without additional charges, shall expire on the 16th day of the month following the month in which the adjustment operations are carried out, without prejudice, in any event, to the deadline of 16 March 2026.

IL DOCUMENTO

La circolare dell’Inps sul conguaglio di fine anno 2025

Visualizza

Variable elements of remuneration

The rule is that if, during the course of the month, elements or events occur that lead to changes in the taxable remuneration, employers may be allowed to take the changes into account when fulfilling their obligations and making the related payment of contributions for the month following the month affected by the intervention of such factors, without prejudice to the correspondence within each calendar year between the remuneration pertaining to that year and the remuneration subject to contributions. The elements are: compensation for overtime work; travel or mission allowances; sickness or maternity pay paid in advance by the employer on behalf of INPS; allowances for breastfeeding; paid days for blood donors; reductions in remuneration for accidents at work indemnifiable by INAIL; unpaid leave; abstention from work; allowances for untaken holidays; marriage leave; wage subsidies (not for zero hours). Cash allowance, employee loans and parental leave in general can be assimilated to these elements. Among the salary variables, the social security institution has included the previous month's salary accruals (as a result of recruitment during the month) following the processing of the pay slips, without prejudice to the temporal placement of the contributions in the month in which the recruitment took place.

It follows that if the recruitment took place in the months of January to November, no adjustments need to be made; if the recruitment takes place in December and the accruals are made in the January salary, the event must be highlighted in the UniEmens flow. The events or elements that have determined the increase or decrease in taxable salaries, pertaining to December 2025, whose contribution obligations are fulfilled in January 2026, must be highlighted in the UniEmens flow by valorising the element of , to manage the salary and contribution variables in increase and/or decrease with the consequent recovery of contributions not due.

The Inps also recalls that, for the purposes of the allocation to the employee's insurance and contribution position, the variable elements of the salary are considered according to the accrual principle (December 2025), while, for the purposes of the contribution regime (rates, ceilings, benefits, etc.), they are considered to be the salary of the month of January 2026. Also for the purposes of the 2026 Single Tax Certificate and the submission of the declaration via the 770/2025 form, employers will take into account the variable salary elements when calculating the taxable income for the year 2025. The contributory arrangement of the variable salary elements (except for the 18% bonus) must be made within the month following the month to which they relate.

Monetisation of holidays and taxation

The subjecting of remuneration for holidays not taken, even if not paid, to contributions is one of the operations whose contribution obligations may be fulfilled in the month following the month in which the remuneration accrues. The Inps points out that the identification of the time at which the obligation to pay contributions on holiday pay arises does not constitute a time limit on the employee's right to actually take the holiday. It may therefore be the case that they are actually taken in a period subsequent to that of the contribution liability. In this hypothesis, the contribution paid on the part of the salary corresponding to the 'holiday pay' is no longer due and must be recovered by the employer, and the relevant remuneration must be deducted from the taxable income for the year (or month) to which it was charged. With regard to the commencement of the limitation period, the social security institution observes that the actual taking of the holiday, with the consequent payment of contributions that renders the previous payment sine causa, constitutes the constitutive fact of the undue payment and therefore it is only from that moment in which the conditions justifying the repayment of the undue payment are ascertained and come into existence that the ordinary limitation period for the related action for recovery can commence.

Fringe benefits

In the event that, upon adjustment, the value and amounts of fringe benefits exceed the limits for the 2025 tax year, the employer must make the total value, and not just the excess, subject to contribution. Goods or services transferred by previous employers, if any, must also be taken into account in determining the limits. For social security purposes only, if the limit is exceeded, the adjusting employer shall pay contributions only on the value of the fringe benefits paid by him (unlike for tax purposes, where IRPEF is also withheld on the fringe benefits paid by the previous employer). For contribution adjustment operations, the employer must comply with the following procedures: increase the taxable salary of the month to which the report refers by the amount of the fringe benefits paid in the 2025 tax period, not subject to contribution during the year if - also following cumulation with the amount paid by the previous employer - it exceeds the amount of 1.€1,000 or €2,000 for employees with dependent children; to withhold from the employee the difference in the amount of the contribution not withheld during the year. If the value of the goods or services provided turns out to be lower than the limit when the adjustment is made, and the amount cannot be deducted from the taxable salary, the employer must recover the contribution paid on the difference.

Adjustments for payments of severance pay to the Treasury Fund

The payment of the amounts of the TFR due by the recipient companies under the provisions of Law 296/2006 is to be made monthly, subject to adjustment at the end of the year or at the termination of the employment relationship. At the time of the adjustment operations, therefore, the companies must provide for the settlement of the debit or credit differences that may arise in relation to the monthly amounts paid to the Treasury Fund and the regularisation of the related compensatory measures.