The tax delegation

IRS, 5 years to collect tax bills. Here's how it works

The credits will return to the titular entities if the Agency does not recover the amounts

Luigi Lovecchio

16 May 2025

2' min read

Key points

The time available
Reduced liability
Conventions with the Ministry of the Economy
Executive assessment: extension on stand-by
Simplified reductions

2' min read

Simplification of discharge procedures and easing of the collection agent's responsibilities, on the one hand, accompanied by the acceleration of recovery activities and a shift to target-oriented operations, on the other.

All this is topped off with the hope of greater compliance on the part of debtors, stimulated by the progressive increase in the duration of payment extensions. This is the bet with which the implementing decree of the collection reform (Legislative Decree 110/2024) plans to solve the problems that have plagued the public collection sector for years.

The time available

With the automatic discharge of entrusted items, on 31 December of the fifth year following the entrustment of the load, and even more so with the early discharge, the reform aims to free resources of the offices of the Agenzia delle Entrate Riscossione (Ader) from the burden of the administrative management of the roles.

Anticipated discharge occurs, inter alia, where the collection agent has carried out even a single access to the tax registry, without detecting any attachable assets of the debtor.

These rules imply that the items 'abandoned' by Ader return to the availability of the creditor body (e.g. the Inland Revenue Agency or Inps), which then has to deal with the problem of managing them. The new alternative offered by the reform is the entrusting to private companies registered in the register of those authorised to collect local taxes, after public evidence procedures have been carried out. It is not clear whether this greater involvement of the creditor bodies will really prove successful, given that these are subjects that for decades have essentially disinterested themselves in the collection phase.

Reduced liability

In other respects, the reform establishes that the collection agent is only responsible for the management of docketed loads in two cases:

1. if he does not serve the payment notice within 9 months after the cargo has been entrusted;

2. if it does not interrupt the limitation period in a timely manner.

Moreover, accounting liability only operates if there is intent or gross negligence.

Conventions with the Ministry of the Economy

At the same time, greater emphasis is placed on annual agreements with the Ministry of the Economy that set recovery targets. In essence, it appears that the new collection will be more focused on the achievement of targets, rather than on the systematic execution of all forced recovery attempts.

Executive assessment: extension on stand-by

The reform also envisages an extension of the instrument of enforceable assessment to acts and revenues hitherto excluded from it. These include tax credit recovery notices and assessments issued for the purposes of indirect transfer taxes (registration tax, inheritance and gift tax). To date, however, this extension is not operational, as the appropriate implementing regulations are lacking.

Simplified Reorganisations

Finally, there is a clear promotion of deferrals with the collection agent. The maximum duration of these is progressively extended over time, on the basis of the parameters established in the Decree of the Deputy Minister of the Economy of 27 December. To give an example, for debts not exceeding 120,000 euro, the taxpayer may request an instalment of up to 84 monthly instalments, simply by declaring, and not documenting, the 'suffering' situation.