Tax refunds, EUR 26.3 billion returned to households and businesses in 2025

For the Inland Revenue Agency, the year 2025 closed with a record figure for tax refunds: the 26.3 billion euro amounts returned to families and businesses for overpaid taxes and fees are close to touching the mark. A growth that for the Inland Revenue, led by Vincenzo Carbone freshly renewed as director general, is equal to a plus 8.5% compared to the 24.2 billion worked by the offices in 2024. The result, comments a note from the Agency, 'marks the highest ever', driven by a 5% increase in the number of payments: over 4.1 million against 3.9 million the previous year.

Of the total 26.3 billion, 5.3 billion concerned direct taxes. Of this, 3.5 billion Irpef went back into the pockets of households and 1.8 billion was deposited by the tax authorities directly into the accounts of companies. In fact, one of the keys to cutting the time it takes to settle the sums due to citizens and businesses is the direct crediting to the current account communicated by the taxpayer to the Inland Revenue offices. Evidence of this is the fact that of the 5.3 billion returned to families, as much as 1.8 billion was paid directly by the Inland Revenue to almost 2.4 million citizens who submitted the 730 form by the end of September without indicating an employer in order to receive the direct credit in their pay envelope.

The lion's share of the refunds always goes to VAT holders such as companies, artisans, traders and professionals. To VAT holders in 2025, the Inland Revenue has returned (as of 24 December) more than 20.8 billion in VAT refunds, roughly equal to what was returned in 2024 and more than a billion more than the VAT refunds in 2023. As the Revenue note then reminds us, in addition to Irpef, Ires and Iva, there are also the 169 million settled by the Fisco for other taxes such as registration, government concessions and Irap deductibility.

As mentioned, the offices of the tax administration processed approximately 5 per cent more refund applications submitted by citizens and businesses. In 2025, the refunds successfully closed by the Revenue Agency totalled 4.1 million compared to 3.9 million in 2024. Of these refunds, 4 million refer to Irpef overpaid by individuals, thus accounting for approximately 96% of the total number of applications processed, and 102 thousand were VAT refunds. Finally, the IRES refunds to companies and those relating to other taxes managed by the Agency stopped at 44 thousand in all.