Tax and compliance in amateur sports employment

Tax and compliance in amateur sports employment

Since 1 July 2023 work within amateur sports associations and companies has no longer been exempt from the ordinary rules of employment law. Sports remuneration is income from work in every respect — employed, coordinated and continuous collaboration, or self-employed — and the fact that the decree excludes part of it from the tax base does not turn it into «non-income»: it turns it into income with an allowance. The distinction has concrete consequences when an inspection takes place.

This guide sets out the framework for those who administer an amateur sports body: who is a sports worker and who is not, which contractual form the law presumes, how the €15,000 really works, what may and may not be given to a volunteer, what is paid to INPS and INAIL, what is reported to the national Register and by which deadlines. It takes account of circular no. 7/E of the Italian Revenue Agency of 7 August 2026, which answered seven questions and settled — not always in the way practitioners expected — a number of issues that had remained open for three years.

Who is a sports worker, and who is not

The definition is contained in article 25 of Legislative Decree no. 36 of 28 February 2021. Sports workers are the athlete, the coach, the instructor, the technical director, the sporting director, the athletic trainer and the match official who, without distinction of gender and irrespective of the professional or amateur sector, carry on sporting activity for consideration for a body entered in the national Register of amateur sports activities, for a national sports federation, an associated sports discipline, a sports promotion body, a meritorious association, CONI, CIP, Sport e salute S.p.a. or any other registered entity.

The second sentence of the same subsection widens the category to any other registered member who, for consideration, performs duties falling, under the technical rules of the discipline, among those necessary for the carrying on of the sporting activity. The extension meets an immediate limit, however: with the exclusion of duties of an administrative and managerial nature. The third sentence adds the second exclusion: sports workers do not include those who provide services in the exercise of a profession whose qualification is granted outside the sports system and whose practice requires registration in rolls or lists kept by the relevant professional bodies.

The two exclusions are not symmetrical and operate on different planes. The first is objective and concerns the content of the service: the secretary, the treasurer and the person who keeps the internal accounts are not sports workers because they do not carry on sporting activity. The second is subjective and concerns who provides the service: the physiotherapist, the doctor, the lawyer and the accountant remain outside the definition even where what they do is essential to the team’s activity, because they practise a regulated profession.

The administrative and managerial collaborator

Administrative and managerial activity carried out for amateur sports bodies has its own set of rules, in article 37. It may form the subject of a collaboration under article 409(1)(3) of the Code of Civil Procedure; here too the second sentence of subsection 1 excludes anyone who carries it out in the exercise of a profession requiring registration with a professional body. Subsection 3 enrols these collaborators in the INPS Gestione separata, the separate social security scheme; subsection 4 brings them back, for social security purposes, under article 35(2), (6), (7), (8-bis) and (8-ter), and, for tax purposes, whatever the type of relationship, under article 36(6).

The cross-reference is not a formality: not being a sports worker, the secretary of an ASD would otherwise have neither the tax allowance nor the social security regime of sports work. By virtue of the cross-reference both apply, provided the person is not a professional registered with a professional body.

The three forms of the relationship, and the one the law presumes

Article 25(2) allows sports work to form the subject of a contract of employment or of a self-employment relationship, including in the form of coordinated and continuous collaborations under article 409(1)(3) of the Code of Civil Procedure. Coordinated and continuous collaboration is therefore not a third category: it is a species of self-employment.

The presumption in article 28(2)

In the amateur sector the choice of form is not free. Article 28(2) presumes that sports work is the subject of a coordinated and continuous collaboration where, towards the same principal, two requirements are met together: the duration of the services, although continuous in character, does not exceed twenty-four hours a week, excluding time devoted to taking part in sporting events; and the services are coordinated in technical and sporting terms, in compliance with the rules of the national sports federations, the associated sports disciplines and the sports promotion bodies, including paralympic ones.

It is a rebuttable presumption: evidence to the contrary is admitted. It does show, however, on which side the risk of reclassification lies, and that is not the side usually feared. Where the two requirements are met, the presumed form is collaboration; the reclassification that is actually challenged is the opposite one, of a relationship formally set up as a collaboration but in fact one of employment under article 2094 of the Civil Code. An instructor slotted into the gym’s timetable, who answers to a technical manager and does not organise his own activity independently, is an employee, whatever the formal label of the relationship.

How the characterisation can be secured

The instrument is contract certification. Article 25(3) refers to the collective agreements concluded by the national sports federations, the associated sports disciplines and the comparatively most representative organisations, which may identify the indicators relevant for the purposes of article 78 of Legislative Decree no. 276 of 10 September 2003; failing that, the indicators identified by decree apply. Certification does not make the contract unassailable, but it shifts the subject of the challenge: whoever challenges it must show that performance departed from what was certified.

Finally, it should be recalled that article 25(3-bis) allows sports bodies to make use also of occasional workers under the rules in force, and that subsection 5 refers, for everything the decree does not regulate, to the rules on employment relationships in business, including social security and tax rules, in so far as they are compatible.

The sports volunteer

Article 29 governs a figure who is not a worker and must not become one. Sports bodies may make use of volunteers who make their time and abilities available to promote sport, in a personal, voluntary and unpaid manner, without profit, even indirect, and exclusively for amateur purposes. The services of volunteers include directly carrying on the sporting activity, training, teaching and the preparation of athletes.

What may be granted, and on what conditions

Subsection 2 is clear: the services of volunteers are not remunerated in any way, not even by the beneficiary. Flat-rate reimbursements may nonetheless be granted for expenses incurred for activities carried out including within the volunteer’s own municipality of residence, up to an overall limit of €400 a month, on the occasion of sporting events and competitions recognised by the national sports federations, the associated sports disciplines, the sports promotion bodies — including paralympic ones —, CONI, CIP and Sport e salute S.p.a.

The documentary set to be retained for each reimbursement is therefore this: the particulars of the resolution of the body that recognised the event and the instrument recognising the event itself; the volunteering engagement letter, with the declaration on remuneration received elsewhere and the indemnity clause; the quarterly return sent to the national Register; and the receipt stating the reason for the payment.

This is the condition most often missing: a flat-rate reimbursement is permitted only if those same bodies identify, by their own resolutions, the categories of expense and the volunteering activities for which that form of reimbursement is allowed. The body that passes the resolution is the one that recognises the event: a body that does not always coincide with the organisation to which the association is affiliated. An association affiliated to a sports promotion body which takes part in an event recognised by a federation must look to the federation’s resolution. Without that resolution the condition in article 29(2) is not met and the payment is not a flat-rate reimbursement within the meaning of the decree.

Reimbursements are not income, but they use up the allowance

The same subsection 2 lays down, one after the other, two rules that must be read together: «The reimbursements referred to in this subsection do not form part of the recipient’s income» and, immediately afterwards, that they «count towards the exceeding of the non-taxable limits provided for by article 35(8-bis), and form part of the base for social security contributions once that limit is exceeded, as well as of the limits provided for by article 36(6)».

The reimbursement is therefore not income, but it reduces by an equal amount the €15,000 allowance on sports work remuneration and also counts towards the €5,000 social security threshold. For a volunteer who receives no other remuneration the rule has no practical tax consequences: €400 a month makes €4,800 a year, and on its own does not exhaust the €15,000. The consequences arise for those who combine, in the same year, volunteer reimbursements and sports work remuneration from other bodies — the position of many instructors and technical staff. In social security terms, on the other hand, twelve full monthly payments already come close on their own to the €5,000 limit.

According to circular 7/E of 2026 the €400 monthly limit is to be referred to each volunteer for the sums received in the calendar year, and reimbursements paid by more than one body in the same year count towards it: it is not a limit referred to the individual body.

The incompatibility in subsection 3

This is the structural rule of the figure, and it applies even to a volunteer who receives not a single euro: «Voluntary sporting services are incompatible with any form of employment or self-employment relationship and with any other paid working relationship with the body of which the volunteer is a member or through which he carries on his sporting activity».

The prohibition does not depend on reimbursement and does not look at the content of the relationship, which may well be administrative and managerial: the same person cannot be at once a volunteer and a paid collaborator of that body. The scope of the prohibition lends itself to two readings: the first confines it to the body indicated, and is the one closer to the wording of the provision; the second extends it to every sports body. The question is unsettled.

The insurance obligation towards third parties

Subsection 4 requires amateur bodies that make use of volunteers to insure them for civil liability towards third parties, by reference to article 18(2) of Legislative Decree no. 117 of 3 July 2017. It is the obligation whose breach produces the most direct exposure of the body’s assets. The volunteer is in fact integrated into the body’s organisation and works under its technical direction: the body may be liable for damage caused to third parties under article 2049 of the Civil Code, once the relationship of superintendence and the necessary connection between the duties entrusted and the harmful act have been established on the facts.

The perimeter has to be built on two provisions, not one. Article 29(4) requires cover for liability towards third parties. For volunteers who are registered amateur sportspeople, article 34(4) of the same decree preserves, «in addition to what is provided for by article 29(4)», the compulsory insurance protection under article 51 of Law no. 289 of 27 December 2002, which covers injuries. The two covers are cumulative and have different sources: the second is not an optional precaution, and the first does not absorb it. Checking one without the other leaves a statutory obligation unmet.

The €15,000 tax allowance

The first sentence of article 36(6) provides that «remuneration for sports work in the amateur sector does not form a tax base up to an overall annual amount of €15,000.00». It is not an exemption, nor a threshold beyond which everything becomes taxable: it is an allowance, and only the excess is taxed.

It applies to every contractual form

Circular 7/E of 2026 clarified a point that some practitioners had read differently: the provision is anchored to the objective nature of the activity carried out, without distinguishing according to the contractual form. Since article 25(2) allows sports work to be the subject of an employment, self-employment or collaboration relationship, the exclusion operates «upstream», on the determination of the tax base, whatever the income category in which the remuneration falls. It therefore applies also to an athlete or an instructor engaged under a contract of employment; any excess then follows the ordinary rules of the Income Tax Code applicable to the relevant category. The conclusion takes up the answer given in legal advice ruling no. 14 of 30 September 2025.

The self-declaration as a condition of the exemption

No body can know how much a person receives elsewhere. Article 36(6-bis) therefore places the declaration on the sports worker: on payment — on every payment, not once a season — he issues a self-declaration certifying the amount of remuneration received for amateur sporting services provided in the calendar year.

The circular attaches a precise effect to this, and it is the point of greatest practical impact in the whole document: the non-application of the withholding within the €15,000 is conditional on that declaration having been received. A body that pays without having received it does not have the benefit of the exemption and must apply the withholding. The self-declaration must be kept on file, dated, for every payment.

For the volunteer the position is different: the volunteer is not a sports worker and the obligation in subsection 6-bis does not concern him, but the examples in the circular assume that he declares to the paying body what he has received elsewhere. It is therefore advisable to obtain a written declaration in any event, in the form of the declaration in lieu of an affidavit under article 47 of Presidential Decree no. 445 of 28 December 2000 — bearing in mind that the obligation to accept such declarations concerns dealings with public administrations and with concessionaires of public services, not a sports association. Above all it should be provided for as a contractual obligation in the volunteering engagement letter, with an undertaking to update it on each payment and an indemnity clause. It is the clause, not the form of the declaration, that gives the body a basis for claiming compensation for the loss arising from a declaration that is omitted or untrue.

How the excess is taxed

There is not one single withholding: it follows the relationship. On the excess paid within a self-employment relationship the body applies the 20 per cent withholding on account under article 25 of Presidential Decree no. 600 of 29 September 1973. On the excess paid to a coordinated and continuous collaborator, whose remuneration is treated as employment income under article 50(1)(c-bis) of the Income Tax Code, the withholding under article 24 of the same decree applies. On the excess paid within a contract of employment, article 23 applies, together with the regional and municipal surcharges, with a year-end adjustment.

The observation is not academic: in the amateur sector the presumed form is precisely coordinated and continuous collaboration, and treating it with the self-employment withholding is a recurrent slip. In every case the withholding is paid using form F24 by the 16th day of the month following that of payment and must be reported in the Certificazione Unica (Single Certification) and in form 770. Prizes, by contrast, have a regime of their own: sums paid to a body’s own registered members, athletes and technical staff in the amateur sector for results achieved in competitions or for taking part in national team training camps are characterised by article 36(6-quater) as prizes under article 30(2) of Presidential Decree no. 600 of 1973, with the withholding proper to that provision.

The two examples in the circular

The circular builds the rule on two cases, and the difference between the two cases is decisive.

Allowance already exhausted. A volunteer receives a monthly flat-rate reimbursement of €350 and declares to the paying body that he has received from other bodies, under self-employment relationships, sports work remuneration of €16,000. Since the limit had already been exceeded before the payment, the whole €350 reimbursement forms part of taxable income as self-employment income; the €1,000 already in excess also remains taxable in the volunteer’s hands. The practical conclusion is that the paying bodies must apply the withholding under article 25 of Presidential Decree no. 600 of 1973 both on the €1,000 and on the €350.

Allowance exceeded by that very payment. A volunteer receives €380 by way of reimbursement and declares that he has received €14,800 from other bodies by way of self-employed sports work remuneration. The €380 is added to the remuneration already received: €15,180 in all. Only the excess of €180 forms part of taxable income; up to €15,000 neither the other bodies nor the body paying the reimbursement applies the withholding, provided they have received the self-declaration from the recipient on payment.

One passage deserves to be flagged in its exact terms. The circular characterises the excess reimbursement as self-employment income even though there is no working relationship between the volunteer and the body paying it: article 29(1) indeed requires the service to be unpaid, and article 25 defines a sports worker as someone who works for consideration. It is a reading adopted in administrative practice, and a circular is not a source of law: it binds neither the taxpayer nor the court. As a matter of civil law the tax characterisation does not change the nature of the relationship. Since compliance nonetheless generates a Certificazione Unica for self-employment income in the name of a person for whom article 29(3) rules out any compatibility between volunteering and a self-employment relationship with the body, it is advisable that the resolution, the engagement letter and the payment description record the nature of the payment as a reimbursement and the basis on which the withholding was applied.

The social security account, which follows rules of its own

This is the point at which social security treatment departs from tax treatment: taking symmetry between the two for granted is a common mistake.

The employed sports worker

Article 35(1) enrols employed sports workers, irrespective of the professional or amateur sector, in the Professional Sportspersons’ Pension Fund managed by INPS, which from the entry into force of the decree takes the name Fondo Pensione dei Lavoratori Sportivi, the Sports Workers’ Pension Fund, with application of the rules in Legislative Decree no. 166 of 30 April 1997. The third sentence of the same subsection specifies that self-employed sports workers and coordinated and continuous collaborators operating in the professional sectors are enrolled in the same Fund: the divide between employed and self-employed is therefore not as clear-cut as it looks. For these workers neither the €5,000 threshold nor the 50 per cent reduction applies: contributions are due under the rules proper to that Fund. Applying the threshold to them means failing to pay contributions that are due.

Coordinated and continuous collaborators and self-employed workers

Article 35(2) concerns the amateur sector: sports workers holding coordinated and continuous collaboration contracts, or providing services on a self-employed basis, are entitled to pension and welfare insurance and are enrolled in the INPS Gestione separata referred to in article 2(26) of Law no. 335 of 8 August 1995.

The rates are set out in subsections 6, 7 and 8: 24 per cent for those already insured under other compulsory schemes, 25 per cent for those who are not. The further rates of the Gestione separata are referred to only in subsections 7 and 8, that is, for those not insured elsewhere. Two measures affect those rates, and they must be kept distinct:

Article 35(8-bis) excludes from the calculation of the pension rate the first €5,000 of remuneration a year: contributions are paid only on the part in excess. The provision speaks of the «first €5,000.00 a year»; that the threshold attaches to the person and not to the individual relationship is a reading adopted in administrative practice, not something the text states: the obligation to pay remains with each principal for what it pays out, but the count must be kept on the basis of the person’s own declaration, as with the tax limit.

Article 35(8-ter) provides that until 31 December 2027 contributions to the fund are due within the limits of 50 per cent of the contribution base, with an equivalent reduction of the pensionable base. It is a transitional measure that reduces the cost and, to the same extent, the future pension: this should be said to collaborators, not passed over.

By virtue of article 37(4), the same social security regime extends to administrative and managerial collaborators. Flat-rate reimbursements to volunteers also count towards the exceeding of the limit in article 35(8-bis) and form part of the base for social security contributions once that limit is exceeded; the cross-reference, however, is incomplete, because the provision establishes the contribution effect without identifying either the scheme or the person liable to pay for a recipient who has no working relationship with the paying body.

Article 35(3), finally, concerns instructors at sports facilities and clubs, technical directors and instructors at sports companies: they are entitled to pension and welfare insurance on the basis of their working relationship, and the same figures already enrolled in the entertainment workers’ pension fund were able to opt, by 30 June 2024, to keep the previous regime.

The regional tax on productive activities (IRAP): the €85,000 is a threshold, not an allowance

The second sentence of article 36(6) provides that all individual items of remuneration for coordinated and continuous collaborators in the amateur sector that are below the annual amount of €85,000 do not count towards the determination of the tax base referred to in articles 10 and 11 of Legislative Decree no. 446 of 15 December 1997.

Two warnings. First: unlike the €15,000 allowance, the €85,000 is not an allowance but a threshold referred to each individual item of remuneration — remuneration that reaches or exceeds that amount counts towards the tax base in full, not only as to the excess. Second: circular 7/E extended the exclusion to remuneration for administrative and managerial collaborations as well, because article 37(4) brings that activity within the provision «whatever the type of relationship»; but the same provision refers to the persons covered by subsection 1, from which professionals registered with a professional body are expressly excluded. The exclusion in article 36(6) does not concern them; that, however, does not mean that their remuneration enters the body’s IRAP base. Article 10(1) of Legislative Decree no. 446 of 1997 subjects to IRAP, for non-commercial bodies, the pay of employees, assimilated income, remuneration for coordinated and continuous collaboration and remuneration for self-employment not carried on habitually: the fee of a habitual professional holding a VAT number does not fall within it, and in the commercial sphere (article 10(2), which refers to article 5) it is a deductible cost. The professional’s fee therefore stays outside the body’s IRAP base for a different and more fundamental reason. For completeness, it should be said that reading the €85,000 as a threshold per individual item of remuneration is the literal reading, and to date it is not confirmed by administrative practice.

Insurance and protections: three separate tracks

Article 34 distinguishes three positions, and confusing them is one of the most costly mistakes.

Employed sports workers. Those employed by the persons listed in article 9 of the consolidated act approved by Presidential Decree no. 1124 of 30 June 1965 are subject to compulsory INAIL insurance, even where private policies exist under contract or by law: subsection 1 says so expressly, and private cover does not replace the public obligation. The pay figures and tariff references for calculating the premium are set by decree of the Minister of Labour, in agreement with the Ministry of Economy and Finance and with the Authority delegated for sport, on a proposal from INAIL; from the date the obligation takes effect the same pay figures also apply to the settlement of the daily allowance for total temporary incapacity.

Coordinated and continuous collaborators. Subsection 3 is clear: only the compulsory insurance protection under article 51 of Law no. 289 of 27 December 2002 and its implementing measures applies to them. Not INAIL.

Administrative and managerial collaborators. Here the asymmetry is counter-intuitive and needs to be known: article 37(2) applies to these relationships the INAIL insurance obligation under article 5(2) and (3) of Legislative Decree no. 38 of 23 February 2000. Two coordinated and continuous collaborators of the same body — one technical, one in the office — therefore have compulsory cover from different sources.

Volunteers. Subsection 4 preserves for amateur sportspeople acting as volunteers the same protection under article 51 of Law no. 289 of 2002, in addition to the cover for civil liability towards third parties under article 29(4). These are two forms of cover that add together, not that replace one another.

As regards income protection, article 33 extends to employed sports workers enrolled in the sports workers’ pension fund, whatever their grade, the sickness and maternity protections provided for members of the general compulsory insurance scheme, family allowances and NASpI, with application of the annual cap on the contribution base. The same article provides that article 21(2) of Legislative Decree no. 81 of 9 April 2008 on health and safety applies to sports workers whose annual remuneration does not exceed €5,000. Medical checks are governed by article 32, which refers to an implementing decree and in any event preserves the obligations under article 41 of Legislative Decree no. 81 of 2008; the cost of the health record, for employees, falls on the body.

Article 33(6), finally, requires, by implementing decree, specific measures to protect minors, including the designation of a child protection officer, whose appointment must be notified to the affiliating body on affiliation and re-affiliation; and Legislative Decree no. 39 of 4 March 2014 continues to apply.

Obligations towards the national Register

The national Register of amateur sports activities was set up at the Department for Sport by Legislative Decree no. 39 of 28 February 2021. It does not perform a merely archival function: it is the channel through which a sports body discharges obligations that in other sectors are discharged towards the employment centre, and the data passing through it are immediately visible to the supervisory authorities.

Notification of the working relationship

Article 28(3) requires the body receiving the services to notify the Register of the data needed to identify the sports working relationship. The notification is equivalent for all purposes to the one to the employment centre required by article 9-bis(2) and (2-bis) of Decree-Law no. 510 of 1 October 1996, converted by Law no. 608 of 28 November 1996, must be made with the same informational content and is made available to INPS and INAIL in real time. The deadline, set by subsection 5, is the thirtieth day of the month following that in which the relationship begins. Failure to comply attracts the same penalties as those provided for failure to notify the employment centre, imposed by the supervisory authorities for labour, tax and social security matters. The body’s own data to be entered in the Register are listed in article 6(2) of Legislative Decree no. 39 of 2021 and may be redetermined by decree; the data format for notifying the working relationship, by contrast, is not laid down in primary legislation, because article 28(5) entrusts it to technical provisions and IT protocols.

It should be stressed that this obligation has no thresholds: it applies regardless of the amount of the remuneration and of whether the €15,000 allowance still has headroom. It is the most frequent mistake — believing that below €15,000 there is «nothing to be done» — and the most expensive, because failure to notify is penalised regardless of whether the tax treatment was correct.

The libro unico del lavoro and the pay slip

Subsection 4 concerns only coordinated and continuous collaborations: the words defining its scope are exhaustive. For those it allows the obligation to keep the libro unico del lavoro (single labour ledger), required by articles 39 and 40 of Decree-Law no. 112 of 25 June 2008, converted by Law no. 133 of 6 August 2008, to be discharged electronically within a dedicated section of the Register, and it exempts the body from issuing a pay slip where annual remuneration does not exceed €15,000. For the employed sports worker there is no derogation: the pay slip and the ledger follow the ordinary rules, whatever the amount, and even where the remuneration stays within the tax allowance. The €15,000 limit must not be confused with the notification obligation, which remains in every case. Subsection 5 specifies that entry in the ledger may be made in a single operation within thirty days of the end of each reference year, it being understood that remuneration may also be paid in advance.

Reimbursed volunteers

Bodies paying flat-rate reimbursements must notify, through the dedicated section of the Register, the names of the volunteers receiving them and the amount paid to each, by the end of the month following the quarter in which the services were provided. Article 29(2) provides for that notification to be made immediately available, within their respective remits, to the National Labour Inspectorate, to INPS and to INAIL, as well as being made available through the national digital data platform and the public connectivity system. It is data that the body hands to the supervisory authorities: it should be consistent with the corporate books, with the resolutions and with the accounting records.

Match officials

For match officials and for those responsible for ensuring the proper conduct of competitions in the amateur sector, article 25(6-bis) provides for a simplified regime: for each individual service the notification or appointment by the competent federation, associated discipline or sports promotion body is sufficient, and flat-rate reimbursements may be granted within the limits of article 29(2). The last sentence of the same subsection 6-bis warns, however, that the regime in article 36(6) does not apply to the services of match officials operating in the professional sector. Subsection 6-ter concentrates on those organisations the notifications to the employment centre, referred to combined cycles of no more than thirty services within no more than three months; the deadline is the thirtieth day following the end of the calendar quarter. Those called up and their remuneration must instead be notified to the Register within ten days of the individual events.

The sports body: forms, constitution and tax regimes

The rules on work do not operate in isolation: they depend on how the body is set up and on which clauses its constitution contains.

The forms in article 6

Article 6(1) of Legislative Decree no. 36 of 2021 provides that amateur sports bodies may be set up as a sports association without legal personality governed by articles 36 et seq. of the Civil Code (letter a), an association with legal personality under private law (letter b), a company limited by shares or a cooperative under Book V, titles V and VI, of the Civil Code (letter c), or as a third sector entity entered in the single national Register which carries on, as an activity of general interest, the organisation and management of amateur sporting activities and is also entered in the Register of sports activities (letter c-bis). The corporate name must indicate the sporting purpose and the amateur nature of the body, and the body affiliates annually to one or more affiliating organisations.

The constitution

Article 7 lists the mandatory content of the constitution: name, corporate object with specific reference to the carrying on on a stable and principal basis of the organisation and management of amateur sporting activities, legal representation, absence of profit-making purpose under article 8, democratic internal organisation with elective offices (save for companies), the obligation to produce financial accounts, the rules on winding up and devolution of the assets for sporting purposes. Two clarifications avoid an inconsistency: for bodies that have taken on the status of third sector entity and are entered in the RUNTS, the requirement that the amateur activity be carried on on a principal basis is not required (subsection 1-bis); and for amateur sports companies subsection 1-ter rules out the application of the Civil Code rules on the distribution of profits, without prejudice to article 8(3) and (4-bis). The deadline for bringing constitutions into line was 30 June 2024, and subsection 1-quater is strict: non-compliance makes an application for entry in the Register inadmissible and, for those already entered, leads to removal of the entry by the authorities.

Absence of profit-making purpose, and attenuated profit distribution

Article 8 requires profits and operating surpluses to be applied to the activity set out in the constitution or to increasing the body’s assets, and prohibits distribution, including indirect distribution, to members, workers, collaborators and directors. For bodies set up as companies limited by shares or cooperatives, subsections 3 and 4 open up a derogation: they may apply a share of less than fifty per cent of annual profits, after deduction of prior losses, to a bonus increase of capital within the limits of the ISTAT index, or to the distribution of dividends not exceeding the maximum interest on interest-bearing postal bonds increased by two and a half points, and they may repay to a member the capital paid in and, where applicable, revalued, within the same limits. The derogation does not apply to cooperatives with prevailing mutual purpose under article 2512 of the Civil Code. Subsection 4-bis raises that share to up to eighty per cent for bodies that run swimming pools, gyms or sports facilities as owners, lessees or concessionaires, but its effectiveness is conditional on authorisation by the European Commission under article 108(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union: before relying on it, it must be checked that the authorisation has been granted.

Attenuated profit distribution and the relief in article 148 of the Income Tax Code

Circular 7/E of 2026 addressed the difficulty that follows. The attenuated prohibition on profit distribution in article 8 is different from the absolute prohibition that the tax rules require for the regime in article 148(3) of the Income Tax Code. The Revenue Agency recalls that the second sentence of article 36(3) of the decree confirmed that «for amateur sports companies and associations without profit-making purpose the relief under article 148(3) continues to apply» of the Income Tax Code, and draws the practical conclusion: bodies set up under decree no. 36 that intend to benefit from it must supplement the constitutional clauses arising from articles 7 and 8 with those required by article 148(8) — absolute prohibition on distribution, devolution of assets, uniform rules governing membership, annual accounts, free eligibility for office and one member one vote, and the non-transferability and non-revaluation of the membership share. The same considerations apply to the second sentence of article 4(4) of the VAT decree.

In short, a constitution that complies with the sports decree is not, in itself, a constitution that complies with the Income Tax Code. Anyone who amended it in 2023 looking only at the sports reform has reason to review it.

Secondary and ancillary activities

Article 9 allows activities other than the principal one to be carried on provided that the constitution provides for them and that they are secondary and ancillary, according to criteria and limits to be laid down by decree. Income from sponsorship, from promotional and advertising activity, from the assignment of rights, allowances linked to the training of athletes and income from the management of sports facilities and structures fall outside the calculation of those limits. Failure to comply with the criteria for two consecutive financial years leads to removal from the national Register by the authorities.

Entry in the Register and supervision

Article 10 makes clear that it is entry in the Register that certifies the amateur nature of the activity for all the purposes the legal system attaches to it, and that the Department for Sport sends the Revenue Agency the list of registered bodies each year. The same Department, acting through Sport e salute S.p.a., exercises inspection functions; in the event of breaches it gives the directors formal notice to comply within a period of not less than twenty days and, if the irregularities cannot be remedied or are not remedied, withdraws the status of amateur body. The application for entry is submitted by the affiliating organisation, which checks that the constitution complies with the principles of its own statute approved by CONI or by CIP (article 6 of Legislative Decree no. 39 of 2021): it is a third check, distinct both from the check on compliance with decree no. 36 and from the one required by article 148(8) of the Income Tax Code, and every body must send by 31 January each year an update of its data and of the directors in office. Documents subject to entry or filing may be relied on against third parties only after publication in the Register, unless the body proves that the third parties were aware of them; and for transactions carried out within the fifteenth day following publication they may not be relied on against third parties who prove that it was impossible for them to have knowledge of them.

One incompatibility that is often overlooked should also be noted: article 11 prohibits the presidents of amateur sports associations and companies from holding any office in other amateur sports bodies within the same federation, associated discipline or sports promotion body.

The tax provisions in article 12

Three rules worth knowing. On grants paid by CONI, the federations and the sports promotion bodies recognised by CONI to amateur sports companies and associations, the 4 per cent withholding under article 28(2) of Presidential Decree no. 600 of 1973 does not apply. Instruments of incorporation and transformation directly connected with the carrying on of sporting activity attract registration tax at a fixed amount; subsection 2-bis exempted from registration tax the amending resolutions adopted by 30 June 2024 to bring constitutions into line, but that window has closed: a body that amends its constitution today pays the tax under the ordinary rules. And consideration, in money or in kind, in favour of amateur sports bodies carrying on activities in recognised youth sectors constitutes, for the payer, up to €200,000 a year, advertising expenditure under article 108(1) of the Income Tax Code: it is the provision on which the deductibility of sports sponsorship rests, and the limit needs to be monitored.

The regime under Law no. 398 of 1991

Amateur sports associations and companies falling within article 6(1)(a), (b) and (c), affiliated to federations or sports promotion bodies, whose income from commercial activities in the preceding tax period did not exceed €400,000, may opt for the regime under Law no. 398 of 16 December 1991. The option takes effect from the first day of the month following that in which it is exercised and binds the body for at least three years; if the limit is exceeded during the year, the regime ceases from the following month.

The regime brings exemption from the accounting records required by articles 14, 15, 16, 18 and 20 of Presidential Decree no. 600 of 1973 and from the obligations under title II of the VAT decree, with commercial income recorded in the collection statement or receipt declaration; VAT is applied in the manner set out in article 74(6) of the VAT decree; taxable income is determined by applying to commercial income a profitability coefficient of 3 per cent, to which capital gains are added. Invoices issued and received must in any event be numbered and retained.

Connected commercial income and fundraising

Article 25(2) of Law no. 133 of 13 May 1999 excludes from taxable income, for bodies that have opted for the regime under Law no. 398, income obtained in the carrying on of commercial activities connected with the body’s institutional aims and income obtained through public fundraising. The provision was rewritten as to its personal scope by article 9(2-bis) of Decree-Law no. 38 of 27 March 2026, converted with amendments by Law no. 88 of 22 May 2026: from 23 May 2026 the benefit is available to the amateur sports associations and companies referred to in article 6(1)(a), (b) and (c) of Legislative Decree no. 36 of 2021.

The same article 25 contains, in subsection 5, a rule that reaches well beyond the regime under Law no. 398 and that is among the most frequently challenged during inspections: payments in favour of amateur sports associations and companies, and payments made by them, of an amount equal to or greater than €1,000, must pass through bank or post office current accounts in the body’s name, or be made by other means capable of ensuring that they can be traced. Failure to comply attracts the penalties under article 11 of Legislative Decree no. 471 of 18 December 1997. The limits of the relief in subsection 2, by contrast, remain two: no more than two events a year and an overall amount not exceeding €51,645.69, set by the inter-ministerial decree of 10 November 1999. The scope must also be read for what it leaves out, however: the reference to letters (a), (b) and (c) alone leaves outside the relief, from 23 May 2026, amateur sports bodies set up as third sector entities under letter (c-bis). An ASD that is also a third sector entity and relies on the relief needs to be reviewed.

VAT

The exemption for services connected with the practice of sport

Services closely connected with the practice of sport, including teaching and training services, supplied by non-profit organisations — including the amateur sports bodies referred to in article 6 of decree no. 36 — to persons taking part in sport or physical education are exempt from VAT by virtue of article 36-bis(1) of Decree-Law no. 75 of 22 June 2023, converted with amendments by Law no. 112 of 10 August 2023.

The waiver of obligations, and its cost

Circular 7/E takes the view that a body carrying out those transactions may avail itself of the waiver of the invoicing and recording obligations under article 36-bis of the VAT decree — a different provision, despite the identical numbering — upon notification to the tax office, the ordinary obligations remaining in place for any other taxable transactions carried out. The waiver does, however, have objective exclusions which, for a sports body with a medical or physiotherapy area, are no small detail: transactions under numbers 11), 18) and 19) of the first paragraph and those under the third paragraph of article 10 of the VAT decree stay outside it, that is, investment gold, healthcare services and hospital and care services.

The waiver, however, has a cost that subsection 2 of the same article spells out: a body availing itself of it is not allowed to deduct the tax on purchases and imports, and must in any event file the annual return, completing the list of suppliers. The notification is made in the annual return for the previous year or in the return declaring the start of activity, binds the body for at least three years and has effect until revoked, revocation being notified in the annual return with effect from the current year. The waiver is not a simplification without a price, but a surrender of the right to deduct, and it must be assessed by weighing input tax against the obligations saved.

The taxability of the assignment of an athlete’s contract

The circular rules out that the assignment, by an ASD or SSD to a professional club, of the right to an athlete’s sporting services can be described as «closely connected» with the practice of sport: it concerns the economic and financial aspect of acquiring rights, the actual beneficiary is not the person practising sport but the acquiring club, and a different reading would conflict with article 132 of the VAT Directive. The transaction is therefore taxable, as a supply of services under article 3(2)(5) of the VAT decree, which so characterises assignments of contracts of every kind and object.

Exempt, by contrast, under article 36(4) of decree no. 36, is the training and technical development premium under article 31(2), which is assimilated to the exempt transactions in article 10 of the VAT decree; where it is received by amateur sports companies and associations without profit-making purpose that have opted for the regime under Law no. 398 of 1991, that premium does not count towards the determination of income.

What changes from 1 January 2027

Some of the statutory references cited are shortly to change in numbering, though not in content. The consolidated act on payments and collection, approved by Legislative Decree no. 33 of 24 March 2025, applies from 1 January 2027 — a date already postponed once from the original 1 January 2026 by article 4(4) of Decree-Law no. 200 of 31 December 2025, converted with amendments by Law no. 26 of 27 February 2026 — and absorbs the provisions on withholdings: article 25 of Presidential Decree no. 600 of 1973 becomes article 38. From the same date the consolidated act on income taxes approved by Legislative Decree no. 117 of 19 June 2026 replaces the Income Tax Code: articles 49, 50 and 53 become articles 51, 52 and 55 respectively. The VAT decree too has its own consolidated act, approved by Legislative Decree no. 10 of 19 January 2026: article 4(4) becomes article 4, article 3 becomes article 10 and article 36-bis on the waiver becomes article 94. For this guide one further correspondence matters most: article 148(3) of the Income Tax Code is carried over into article 157 of the new consolidated act on income taxes.

The references that from 2027 will no longer be the text to cite also include article 25(2) of Law no. 133 of 1999 and article 36-bis of Decree-Law no. 75 of 2023, which Normattiva shows as in force until 31 December 2026. Nothing of substance changes for sports bodies, but the statutory references in constitutions, contracts and internal circulars will need to be re-read: a clause that refers to an article of the Income Tax Code by number, and not by content, will from 2027 refer to a different provision. Further postponements are, moreover, possible: the date should be checked again as it approaches.

In practice: the compliance checklist

On incorporation or amendment. Check that the constitution, in addition to the clauses required by articles 7 and 8 of decree no. 36, contains those in article 148(8) of the Income Tax Code, if the regime in article 148(3) and article 4(4) of the VAT decree is to be applied. Enter the body in the national Register and keep its data up to date.

Before the season opens. Characterise each relationship by checking the two requirements in article 28(2), and consider contract certification where the characterisation is uncertain. Prepare the self-declaration form under article 36(6-bis), to be signed on every payment. Provide by contract for an equivalent declaration by reimbursed volunteers. Check that the body recognising the event has passed a resolution on the categories of expense and the activities eligible for flat-rate reimbursement. Make sure the workers’ insurance position is in place (INAIL for employees, the protection under article 51 of Law no. 289 of 2002 for sports collaborators, INAIL for administrative and managerial collaborators) and that two compulsory covers are in place for volunteers: civil liability towards third parties (article 29(4)) and the injury protection under article 51 of Law no. 289 of 2002 (article 34(4)).

At the start of every relationship. Notify the national Register of the details of the relationship by the thirtieth day of the following month, regardless of the amount.

On every payment. Collect the updated self-declaration. Keep for each person a single count adding together remuneration and reimbursements, with two separate limits: €15,000 for tax purposes, €5,000 for social security. Apply the withholding only to the excess, choosing the right article according to the form of the relationship. Issue the pay slip in every case for an employee; for a coordinated and continuous collaborator, where annual remuneration exceeds €15,000.

Every quarter. Send the Register the details of reimbursed volunteers by the end of the following month.

Every month. Pay withholdings and contributions by the 16th day of the month following payment.

Every quarter, for bodies under the 398 regime. Pay the VAT determined on a flat-rate basis in the manner set out in article 74(6) of the VAT decree.

At year end. Entry in the ledger within thirty days of the end of the year, Certificazione Unica and form 770 for the withholdings applied.

The most common mistakes

Believing that below €15,000 there are no obligations. The allowance concerns the tax base: it does not affect the obligation to notify the Register, which has no thresholds, nor the contribution obligation, which has a different and lower threshold.

Paying without a self-declaration. Without that declaration the exemption from withholding does not operate. Collecting it once at the start of the season is not enough: the provision requires it on every payment.

Applying the €5,000 contribution threshold to an employee. It does not apply to an employee: he is enrolled in the Fondo Pensione dei Lavoratori Sportivi and contributions are due under that Fund’s rules.

Using the flat-rate reimbursement as disguised pay. Volunteering is incompatible with any working relationship with the same body, and the reimbursement presupposes a resolution by the body that recognises the event. Without those conditions the payment constitutes remuneration, with the tax, contribution and notification obligations that follow.

Treating a sports co.co.co. as self-employment. The remuneration is treated as employment income: the withholding changes, the certification changes, the social security treatment changes.

Insuring volunteers with only one of the two covers. Article 29(4) requires civil liability towards third parties; article 34(4) preserves, in addition, the compulsory protection under article 51 of Law no. 289 of 2002 for registered amateur sports volunteers. Both are needed, and they are two different contracts.

Frequently asked questions

Is a flat-rate reimbursement of up to €400 a month always exempt?

It is not income in itself, but it uses up the €15,000 allowance. Once that is exhausted — including by remuneration received from other bodies — the reimbursement forms part of taxable income: in full if the limit had already been exceeded before the payment, and only as to the excess if it is that payment which takes the person over.

Does the €15,000 allowance apply to an instructor engaged as an employee?

Yes, for tax purposes: the exclusion operates on the determination of the tax base regardless of the income category, and the excess is taxed under the rules on employment income. For social security purposes, by contrast, the €5,000 threshold does not apply to him.

Must I notify the Register of relationships below €15,000 as well?

Yes. The obligation in article 28(3) has no thresholds and its breach is penalised in the same way as failure to notify the employment centre. The €15,000 limit is relevant, in documentary terms, only for the exemption from the pay slip, and only for coordinated and continuous collaborations.

Does an accountant who keeps an ASD’s books fall within this regime?

No. The third sentence of article 25(1) excludes from sports workers anyone working in the exercise of a profession requiring registration with a professional body, and the second sentence of article 37(1) repeats the exclusion for administrative and managerial activity. The €15,000 allowance does not apply to him. As for IRAP, the €85,000 threshold is of no use to him: his fee, being habitual self-employment, does not count towards the body’s tax base under article 10 of Legislative Decree no. 446 of 1997.

May a public employee collaborate with an ASD?

Article 25(6) allows it in the capacity of volunteer, outside working hours and upon notification to the administration employing him, with application of the regime in article 29(2). If the activity falls within sports work and provides for consideration exceeding €5,000 a year in total, prior authorisation from the administration is required, and is deemed to be granted if the administration does not respond within thirty days of the request.

What happens if the person giving the declaration makes a false statement?

The circular does not say: it does not identify who is liable for an excess that comes to light later. That is why the declaration should be backed by the indemnity clause described above, and why a withholding agent who has paid the withholding is required to exercise recourse against the recipient: article 64(1) of Presidential Decree no. 600 of 1973 provides that a person obliged to pay tax in place of another «must exercise recourse unless it is expressly provided otherwise». It must be said clearly, however, that the indemnity operates only as a matter of civil law: towards the tax authorities a withholding agent who has not applied the withholding remains liable for the withholding not applied and for the penalty under article 14 of Legislative Decree no. 471 of 18 December 1997, without prejudice to the recipient’s joint liability. The contractual clause does not release him: it merely gives him a basis for recovering his loss.

A caveat on the implementing decrees and on sources

Four passages of this guide rest on decrees that Legislative Decree no. 36 of 2021 leaves to later measures: the criteria and limits for secondary and ancillary activities (article 9(1)), the indicators for contract certification in the absence of collective agreements (article 25(3)), medical checks and the health record (article 32(1)) and the measures protecting minors, with the protection officer (article 33(6)). The same applies to the effectiveness of article 8(4-bis), which is conditional on authorisation by the European Commission. Where the decree has not been adopted, the passage should be read as a description of the legal framework and not as an obligation already enforceable: before relying on it, its status must be checked.

Legislation consulted in the text in force at 31 August 2026: Legislative Decree no. 36 of 28 February 2021; Legislative Decree no. 39 of 28 February 2021; Presidential Decree no. 600 of 29 September 1973; Presidential Decree no. 917 of 22 December 1986; Legislative Decree no. 446 of 15 December 1997; Legislative Decree no. 471 of 18 December 1997; Presidential Decree no. 633 of 26 October 1972; Decree-Law no. 75 of 22 June 2023, converted by Law no. 112 of 10 August 2023; Law no. 398 of 16 December 1991; Law no. 133 of 13 May 1999; Legislative Decree no. 117 of 3 July 2017; Legislative Decree no. 276 of 10 September 2003; Presidential Decree no. 445 of 28 December 2000; Legislative Decree no. 33 of 24 March 2025; the Civil Code. Administrative practice document: circular no. 7/E of the Italian Revenue Agency of 7 August 2026.

Updated to 31 August 2026.

The firm assists ASD and SSD clubs and their collaborators in characterising each relationship, in managing the thresholds and in dealing with inspections, to head off the most costly reclassifications.

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