The rebus of the thresholds for accessing benefits

It is a real headache to calculate the various thresholds of access to the facilitated or substitute regimes: the previous year's income is decisive, but pay attention to the type of taxable income to be taken into account; and in the presence of exempt, excluded or subject to facilitated or substitute regimes, it must be verified whether these should still be counted in the income for the purposes of other facilitations.

Among the Irpef substitute regimes, some provide for income thresholds for access, others do not; and the thresholds, when there are any, vary among them not only in amount, but sometimes also in calculation basis and time reference.

The various flat taxes for employees calculate the thresholdson employee income, not on total income. While for flat-rate employees (Article 1, paragraph 57, letter d-ter Law 190/2014), assimilated income (e.g. scholarships, administrator's fees) is also taken into account, for performance bonuses, tips, overtime and other benefits only salaries and pensions count (Circulars 28/E/2016 and 49/E/2008, also referred to in more recent practice).

The employee's income also includes tips taxed at 5% (the law provides for this). Facilitated productivity bonuses received in the previous year (and not converted into welfare) must be included to calculate the threshold in the following year (Article 1, paragraph 3, Ministerial Decree of 25 March 2016). Income for foreign work is also counted, even if not taxed in Italy (Circular 59/E/2008); but in the case of conventional taxation (Article 51, paragraph 8-bis, Tuir) only for the flat-rate taxable income and not for the actual salary. On the other hand, the exempt quotas ofimpatriates and returned brains are not taken into account: when it wanted to include them, in fact, the legislator explicitly provided for it, as in Article 1, paragraph 9 of the Budget Law 2025 for the supplementary treatment (while Article 8 of the Budget Bill 2026 does not provide for it for the one destined to the tourist-hotel sector).

It is almost never stated whether the income threshold is to be referred to the year of use of the facility or to the previous one. Sometimes the law refers to the previous period, as in the case of access to the flat-rate scheme; or the year is indicated, as in the case of night and holiday overtime (Article 4, paragraph 5, Bill), which looks at income 2025. But when the law is silent, it must be concluded that, in the absence of a different time reference, the previous year's figures apply: for example, Circulars 26/E/2023 (on tips) and 28/E/2016 (on performance bonuses) refer to the previous tax period. The same applies, therefore, also for salary increases (Article 4, paragraph 1 of the Budget Bill) and for accessory treatment in the Pa (Article 58).