A questionnaire from the Agenzia delle Entrate, an invitation to the adversarial procedure, an on-site inspection at the company: these are manageable situations if handled methodically and without improvising. This guide explains what to expect and what to do, step by step.
The three channels of control
Automated and formal checks: cross-checks on the declared data, which arrive as communications or “avvisi bonari”, often definable with reduced penalties. Questionnaires and invitations: requests for documents and clarifications on specific transactions. On-site visits and audits: the inspection activity at the company, which ends with the “processo verbale di constatazione (PVC)”.
What to do immediately
Read carefully what is being requested and by when: deadlines are the first thing to keep under control. Involve your professional adviser immediately and respond in a complete but relevant way: deliver what is requested, organised and explained, not the entire archive.
The time limits are few and they cannot be recovered. Here they are.
| Stage |
Time limit |
What you do |
| Schema di atto, the draft decision (art. 6-bis, comma 3, L. 212/2000) |
Not less than 60 days in total |
Counter-arguments and, on request, access to the file with the right to take copies: one single period for both. Before it expires the act cannot be adopted. |
| Schema di atto |
30 days from the communication |
Application for accertamento con adesione, settlement with the tax authority (art. 6, comma 2-bis, first sentence, d.lgs. 218/1997). |
| Assessment notice preceded by the schema di atto |
15 days from service |
Application for adesione: it suspends the time limit for appeal for 30 days. It is barred to anyone who has already applied on the schema di atto (art. 6, comma 2-quater). |
| Act to which the contraddittorio does not apply |
Within the time limit for filing the appeal |
Application for adesione (art. 6, comma 2): it suspends for 90 days both the time limit for appeal and the time limit for paying the assessed VAT (IVA) (art. 6, comma 3). |
| Processo verbale di constatazione (PVC), the audit report |
30 days from delivery |
Adesione al verbale (art. 5-quater d.lgs. 218/1997): penalties at half the level applicable to adesione, that is one sixth of the minimum. |
YOUR RIGHTS
The Statuto del contribuente (Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights) lays down precise rules: the auditors’ stay at the company is subject to time limits, you are entitled to assistance from your professional adviser and, before the act is issued the tax authority sends you a draft decision allowing at least 60 days for counter-arguments. Preventive adversarial proceedings (contraddittorio preventivo) are now the rule, but they do not cover everything: automated and substantially automated acts, atti di pronta liquidazione (prompt liquidation of returns) and formal control acts identified by d.m. 24 April 2024 are excluded, together with reasoned cases of well-founded danger for collection and acts recovering tax credits that are non-existent (crediti inesistenti), which are not the same thing as credits that are merely not due (crediti non spettanti). Where they apply, use them: this is often where the position gets sorted out.
Documents in order, half the work
Consistent VAT (IVA) ledgers and VAT settlements, invoices and receipts aligned with telematic flows, contracts and supporting documentation for the main transactions, reconciled bank statements. The quality of the documentation sets the tone for the entire audit.
IF THERE IS SOMETHING TO FIX
The sooner the regularisation, the less it costs: ravvedimento operoso significantly reduces penalties as long as the violation has not been challenged. On the website you will find the calculator for an initial estimate.
→ Calculate the ravvedimento operoso
THE MOST COMMON ERRORS
Ignoring communications hoping they will go away; replying hastily without a strategy; providing more than requested; signing minutes without having your observations recorded in the minutes.
Information guide updated as of August 2026: it does not replace assistance in the specific case. If an act has already been served, deadlines are running: contact the Studio immediately.
STUDIO PONCHIO — OPERATING GUIDE
Tax audit: how to prepare and defend yourself
The three channels of control, your rights in the adversarial procedure and the costly mistakes
Not all checks are the same
Receiving a communication from the tax authorities (Fisco) does not mean you are under audit. Understanding what type of check it is is the first step to respond in the right way, without alarmism but without underestimating it.
The three channels of control
1. Automated check
Agenzia delle Entrate cross-checks the data in the tax returns with payments and databases. This gives rise to compliance notices (avvisi bonari), which indicate unpaid taxes or calculation errors. They are often resolved by paying or correcting, with reduced penalties if action is taken within the deadlines.
2. Formal check
Here, the office asks you to produce the documents that justify the expenses (oneri), tax credits (detrazioni) and deductions (deduzioni) stated in the tax return. It is essential to keep and provide the evidence: if the documentation is in order, the check is closed with no consequences.
3. Audit and on-site access
This is the most intrusive check: the Guardia di Finanza or the Agenzia accede in azienda or in studio, examines records and documents and draws up an official report (processo verbale). It may arise from reports, anomalies in indicators, or form part of audit plans. From this, a notice of assessment (avviso di accertamento) may be issued.
What to do when an audit starts
- Ask for and verify the authorisation to access the premises and the stated reasons. The authorisations and the official reports of the audit operations drawn up under comma 4 must set out expressly and adequately, with reasons, the circumstances and the conditions that justified the access: this is required by art. 12, comma 1, second sentence, L. 212/2000, introduced by art. 13-bis d.l. 84/2025 converted by L. 108/2025, for acts and reports drawn up after the conversion law came into force. If the statement of reasons is missing, have that recorded in the report straight away.
- Notify your accountant (commercialista) immediately: you have the right to be assisted.
- Have observations and requests recorded; each day of the audit must be documented in the report.
- Make the requested documents available, without handing over more than necessary.
- Maintain a cooperative but cautious attitude: what you state remains on the record.
The Statuto del contribuente sets limits on how long auditors may remain at the premises: no more than thirty working days, extendable by a further thirty in cases of particular complexity identified and reasoned by the head of the office. The limit falls to fifteen working days over a period of no more than three months, extension included, only for businesses on simplified accounting and for self-employed professionals. What counts is the days the auditors are actually present, not the calendar days between the start and the end of the audit.
Your rights in the adversarial procedure (contraddittorio)
From 2024, the prior adversarial procedure (contraddittorio preventivo) is generalised: before issuing most tax assessment acts, the Tax Authority must communicate a draft measure (schema di provvedimento) and grant you a deadline to submit observations. This is a concrete safeguard: if used well, it can prevent the assessment or reduce its scope.
- Before issuing the act the tax authority sends you a schema di atto, the draft decision, and allows you a period of not less than sixty days in total to file counter-arguments and, on request, to access the file and take copies of it. The period is a single one and covers both activities: a second one is not added to it. Until 19 December 2025 the provision read “controdeduzioni ovvero accesso” (counter-arguments or access); art. 13, comma 1, letter a), of d.lgs. 192/2025 inserted the word “complessivamente” (in total) and replaced “ovvero” (or) with “e” (and), closing off the reading of those who counted two separate periods. Before that period expires the act cannot be adopted.
- If the period for the contraddittorio expires after the decadenza, the forfeiture deadline within which the assessment must be issued, or if fewer than one hundred and twenty days run between the two, the decadenza is postponed to the one hundred and twentieth day following expiry of the contraddittorio (art. 6-bis, comma 3, terzo periodo, L. 212/2000). It has to be factored in: a contraddittorio opened close to the decadenza lengthens the office’s time, it does not consume it.
- The time limit under art. 12, comma 7, of the Statuto del contribuente, which ran from delivery of the audit report, was repealed by d.lgs. 219/2023: the clock now starts from communication of the schema di atto, not from the report.
- The act must be reasoned: it must explain the facts and the grounds for the claim.
- You can always request annulment in autotutela, that is the withdrawal of the act by the authority itself, when the error is obvious.
When the contraddittorio does not apply
The obligation is not a general one. Art. 6-bis, comma 2, L. 212/2000 refers to a decree of the Minister of Economy and Finance, issued on 24 April 2024 and published in Gazzetta Ufficiale no. 100 of 30 April 2024. The following, among others, fall outside it.
- Automated and substantially automated acts (art. 2 of the decree): tax rolls (ruoli), demands for payment (cartelle di pagamento) and the other acts of Agenzia delle entrate-Riscossione, stand-alone payment demands and those issued on forfeiture of an instalment plan, partial assessments under artt. 41-bis d.P.R. 600/1973 and 54, comma 5, d.P.R. 633/1972 and the recovery acts under art. 38-bis d.P.R. 600/1973 built exclusively on data cross-checks, acts on vehicle taxes and excise duties, notices of liquidation issued on forfeiture of reliefs for registration, mortgage and cadastral taxes.
- Atti di pronta liquidazione, prompt liquidation of returns (art. 3): the irregularity notices under art. 36-bis d.P.R. 600/1973 and under artt. 54-bis, 54-ter and 54-quater d.P.R. 633/1972, notices of liquidation for registration, mortgage and cadastral taxes, for inheritance and gift tax, for stamp duty and for the substitute tax on financing, and the invitations to pay the contributo unificato, the court filing fee.
- Formal control acts (art. 4): the communications of the outcome of the control under art. 36-ter d.P.R. 600/1973.
- Well-founded danger for collection, provided it is reasoned in the act: here the defect to look for is precisely the statement of reasons for the urgency.
- Acts recovering tax credits that are non-existent (crediti inesistenti), under the authentic interpretation in art. 7-bis, comma 1, d.l. 39/2024 converted by L. 67/2024. The exclusion is written for credits that are non-existent: for credits that are merely not due (non spettanti) the contraddittorio is still owed. This is the point to hold, because the way the credit is classified is often the real subject matter of the dispute.
- Acts for which the law lays down specific forms of interlocution between the authority and the taxpayer, and acts that carry no tax claim: these too fall outside, under art. 7-bis, comma 1, d.l. 39/2024.
A refusal of a refund is instead an open question. Art. 7-bis, comma 2, d.l. 39/2024 states that refusals are among the excluded acts to be identified by decree of the Minister of Economy and Finance, also by reference to their value; the d.m. 24 April 2024, expressly a decree of first application, does not list them. Anyone served with a refusal without a contraddittorio therefore has arguments to raise the point, but the matter is not settled: part of the literature reads the authentic interpretation as already operative in itself. Raise it, and give reasons.
The other forms of contraddittorio and of prior interlocution provided for by Italian tax law remain in any event unaffected, as art. 1, comma 2, of the decree expressly states.
Tools to settle
If a claim is well-founded, wholly or in part, the law provides ways to settle the position by reducing penalties.
| Instrument |
In summary |
| Voluntary disclosure (ravvedimento operoso) |
Voluntary settlement, still available after the audit has begun and after the official report: it is barred only by notification of a liquidation or assessment act or of an irregularity notice |
| Settlement by agreement (accertamento con adesione) |
Agreement with the office, penalties at one third of the minimum and payment by instalments; the time limits are tight, see below |
| Acquiescence (acquiescenza) |
Acceptance of the assessment notice with a reduction in penalties |
| Conciliation (conciliazione) |
Agreement during the litigation phase |
| Autotutela |
Annulment of a flawed or incorrect measure |
Adesione: the time limits after the reform
Art. 6 d.lgs. 218/1997 has been rewritten: there is no longer one single time limit, and they do not all have the same suspensive effect.
| Situation |
Time limit |
Effect |
| You have received the schema di atto under art. 6-bis, comma 3 |
30 days from communication of the schema |
Application under art. 6, comma 2-bis, first sentence. No suspension is needed: the act cannot be adopted before the sixty days are up in any event. |
| The assessment notice preceded by the schema has been served on you and you had not applied |
15 days from service |
Application under art. 6, comma 2-bis, second sentence: the time limit for appeal is suspended for 30 days. |
| You have been served with an act to which the contraddittorio does not apply |
Within the time limit for filing the appeal |
Application under art. 6, comma 2: appeal and payment of the assessed VAT (IVA) suspended for 90 days. |
| You have already used the application on the schema di atto, or adesione under commi 1 or 2-ter |
No further time limit |
Art. 6, comma 2-quater: you cannot file a second application after service. No 30-day suspension: the appeal must be brought within the ordinary sixty days. |
| The processo verbale di constatazione has been delivered to you |
30 days from delivery |
Adesione al verbale under art. 5-quater: penalties reduced to half the level applicable to adesione, that is to one sixth of the minimum. The assessment time limits remain suspended until the communication and in any event for no longer than the thirtieth day. |
Mind the interaction with ravvedimento operoso. After communication of a schema di atto not preceded by an audit report, ravvedimento is worth one sixth of the minimum, and after a schema concerning a violation already recorded in an audit report one quarter: in both cases only if an application for adesione on the schema has not been filed (art. 13, comma 1, letters b-ter and b-quinquies, d.lgs. 472/1997, for violations committed from 1 September 2024). Asking for adesione closes the door on ravvedimento: the choice has to be made with the figures already worked out, within the thirty days.
Mistakes that can cost you dearly
- Ignoring a compliance notice (avviso bonario) and losing the penalty reduction.
- Submitting documents or tax returns without the support of your professional advisor.
- Letting the sixty days for counter-arguments on the schema di atto lapse, or the thirty days for the application for adesione on the schema, or the fifteen days for the application after service of the assessment notice, or the thirty days for adesione to the processo verbale di constatazione.
- Failing to keep evidence of costs, tax credits, deductions and allowances for the required period.
- Facing the audit alone, underestimating the consequences of what is recorded in the minutes.
The role of the firm
We support you from the very first contact with the Tax Authority (Amministrazione) through to closure: review of the notice/assessment (atto), management of the adversarial procedure (contraddittorio), selection of the most convenient instrument and, if needed, representation in tax litigation. Preparing in advance, with bookkeeping in order and evidence preserved, is the best defense.
Studio Ponchio STP — Dottori Commercialisti — studioponchio.eu — information guide updated as of August 2026. It does not replace tailored advice.
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