Tax Observatory › Tax collection › Settling municipal and regional payment notices in Italy: applications from 16 October to 15 December 2026

Settling municipal and regional payment notices in Italy: applications from 16 October to 15 December 2026

Around 1,500 regional and local authorities have opted into the facilitated settlement of debts entrusted to the Agenzia delle entrate-Riscossione, the Italian collection agency, between 2000 and 2023: IMU, TARI, vehicle tax and traffic fines. Debtors pay the original debt without penalties, interest or the collection fee (for traffic fines, the fine itself remains payable), in a lump sum or in up to 54 two-monthly instalments. The settlement applies only if the creditor authority has opted in, and the application is separate from the one for the central-government rottamazione-quinquies.

From 16 October to 15 December 2026, anyone who has received payment notices (cartelle di pagamento) issued on behalf of regions, provinces and municipalities may apply for their facilitated settlement (definizione agevolata, commonly known as rottamazione). They pay the original debt without penalties, interest or the collection fee; for traffic fines, however, the fine itself remains payable. On 25 September 2026 the Italian collection agency (Agenzia delle entrate-Riscossione) published the list of authorities that have opted in: there are around 1,500. Unlike the rottamazione-quater, which automatically covered debts owed to local authorities as well, this time the settlement applies only where the creditor authority has opted in.

The measure is laid down in Article 10-quinquies of Decree-Law No 38 of 27 March 2026, added on conversion into law by Law No 88 of 22 May 2026. It extends to debts owed to regional and local authorities the rules of the rottamazione-quinquies (Article 1(82) to (101) of Law No 199 of 30 December 2025). The timetable was rewritten by Article 1-sexies(3) of Decree-Law No 63 of 30 April 2026, added on conversion into law by Law No 113 of 25 June 2026.

Which debts are covered

The settlement covers debts entrusted to the Agenzia delle entrate-Riscossione by regions and local authorities from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2023, whether tax or non-tax. Depending on the choices made by each authority, these include municipal property tax (IMU), waste tax (TARI), vehicle tax and fines for breaches of the Highway Code (Codice della strada). Debts arising from judgments of the Court of Auditors (Corte dei conti) are excluded.

Two conditions must be checked first. The first: the creditor authority must appear in the list published by the Agenzia delle entrate-Riscossione, because the settlement does not apply to authorities that did not adopt and notify their decision to opt in by 31 July 2026. The only entries in the list marked as limited opt-ins concern the regions of Apulia and Umbria, which opted in for vehicle tax only; it is nonetheless advisable to read the decision published on the authority’s website. The list also names the third parties, such as companies in which the authority holds an interest, that entrusted debts for collection on its behalf: these debts are covered too. The second condition: the debt must have been entrusted to the Agenzia delle entrate-Riscossione. Taxes that the municipality collects itself or through private concessionaires are not covered. For these, the authority may provide for its own facilitated settlement, by regulation or, in the case of regions, by regional law: this is an option, not an obligation (Article 1(102) to (109) of Law No 199 of 2025).

What is paid and what is waived

Those who opt in pay the amounts due as principal, plus reimbursement of the costs of enforcement proceedings and of serving the payment notice. Penalties, interest entered in the collection roll (ruolo), late-payment interest and the collection fee (aggio) are waived.

For traffic fines and other non-tax administrative fines the benefit is narrower: the fine itself remains payable in full, and only the collection fee and interest, however described, are waived. Interest in this sense includes the surcharge of one tenth per six-month period under Article 27(6) of Law No 689 of 24 November 1981, which accrues until the collection roll is transmitted, and the late-payment interest under Article 30 of Presidential Decree No 602 of 29 September 1973, which accrues after the payment notice is served. On a payment notice served many years ago, it is mainly the late-payment interest that makes the reduction significant.

The timetable

From 15 October 2026, the debts eligible for settlement can be viewed in the secure personal area of the Agenzia delle entrate-Riscossione website. The application must be filed online only, from 16 October to 15 December 2026; the agency will publish the operating procedures by 15 October. By 28 February 2027 the agency will notify debtors of the amounts due and the payment dates.

Payment is made either in a lump sum by 31 March 2027 or in up to 54 equal two-monthly instalments, the first of which is also due on 31 March 2027; no instalment may be less than EUR 100. Where payment is by instalments, interest at 3 per cent a year applies from 1 April 2027. Partial payments already made on the payment notices are taken into account only to the extent allocated to principal and costs, and amounts already paid are not refundable.

Effects of the application

Filing the application has immediate effects on the debts listed in it. Limitation periods (prescrizione) and preclusive time limits (decadenza) are suspended. No new administrative detention orders (fermi amministrativi) or charges on real property (ipoteche) may be registered; those already registered remain in place, so the application alone does not release a car subject to a detention order. No new enforcement proceedings may be started, and those under way may not continue, unless the first auction has already been held with a successful outcome. Payment of the lump sum or first instalment extinguishes enforcement proceedings already started, subject to the same exception. In addition, the debtor is not treated as being in default for the purposes of the offsetting of tax refunds and of payments by public administrations (Articles 28-ter and 48-bis of Presidential Decree No 602 of 1973). Any instalment arrangements under way on the same debts remain suspended and are revoked on 31 March 2027, when the lump sum or first instalment of the settlement falls due; no new instalment arrangements under Article 19 of Presidential Decree No 602 of 1973 may be granted for the same debts.

When the benefit is lost

The settlement is lost if the lump sum, two instalments (even if not consecutive) or the last instalment are not paid or are underpaid. In that case the payments already made are retained as payments on account, and the agency resumes collection of the remaining debt, including penalties and interest. The five-day grace period for late payment applies only to the lump sum and to the last instalment. For intermediate instalments the law looks at whether they were paid in full: according to the agency, a debtor may fall behind by one instalment only, but each subsequent payment is first allocated to the instalment in arrears. A debtor who reaches the end of the plan with one instalment still outstanding will find that the last payment is allocated to it, so that the last instalment is treated as unpaid and the settlement is lost. A missed instalment should therefore be made up before the final due date.

Relationship with the central-government rottamazione-quinquies

The settlement of local debts is separate from the rottamazione-quinquies of central-government debts. That scheme covers taxes declared but not paid or arising from automated and formal checks, social security contributions owed to INPS that do not arise from an assessment, and fines for Highway Code breaches imposed by central-government authorities. Applications for that scheme closed on 30 April 2026. Fines imposed by State bodies such as the traffic police (Polizia stradale), for which the prefectures are responsible, are therefore excluded from the October–December application, whereas fines imposed by the municipal police (Polizia locale) are covered if the municipality has opted in. The central-government application does not cover IMU, TARI or vehicle tax payment notices: these require a new application.

Points to watch

Before opting in, it is worth checking that the payment notice was properly served: a statute-barred debt, or one never validly served, need not be paid, not even in part. Limitation must, however, be raised by the debtor as a defence, and the extract of the collection roll (estratto di ruolo) cannot be challenged: a payment notice believed to have been invalidly served can be challenged directly only in the cases of prejudice listed in Article 12(4-bis) of Presidential Decree No 602 of 1973. The application also suspends the limitation period: filing it for a debt that is close to becoming statute-barred and then failing to pay may leave the debtor worse off. If proceedings are pending on the debts concerned, before the tax court or, for traffic fines, before the justice of the peace or the ordinary court, the application must state this and include an undertaking to withdraw them. In the meantime the proceedings are stayed, and after the first instalment is paid the court declares them extinguished, even where a favourable first-instance judgment that is not yet final has already been obtained. The choice should therefore be weighed with the adviser handling the case.

Given the full cross-reference to Article 1(99) and (100) of Law No 199 of 2025, it is reasonable to assume that local debts included in the rottamazione-quater on which payments were up to date at 30 September 2025 remain excluded, while those for which the rottamazione-quater had already lapsed by 30 September 2025 may be settled again. Debts on which payments were up to date at that date remain excluded even if the rottamazione-quater lapses later: anyone paying it on IMU, TARI or traffic fines should therefore not stop paying, at least until the agency has issued instructions. Finally, the instalment plan runs for almost nine years, until 31 January 2036: it should be matched to the debtor’s actual ability to pay, because missing two instalments means losing all the benefits.

In practice

• Check the Agenzia delle entrate-Riscossione list to see whether your municipality, province or region has opted in, and for which revenues.
• From 15 October, view the eligible debts in the secure personal area and check that they were properly served and are not statute-barred.
• File the application online between 16 October and 15 December 2026, stating the debts to be settled, the number of instalments and any pending proceedings.
• Wait for the notice of the amounts due, expected by 28 February 2027, and pay the lump sum or the first instalment by 31 March 2027.
• Businesses should assess the settlement together with their other debts owed to the State and to social security bodies.

Frequently asked questions

My municipality does not appear in the list: can I still settle its payment notices?

No. The settlement applies only to debts owed to authorities that opted in by 31 July 2026. If the tax is collected directly by the municipality or by a private concessionaire, you should check whether the authority has adopted its own facilitated settlement, which may cover taxes and non-tax revenues (entrate patrimoniali); for fines collected by the authority itself, the authority’s own decision should be read.

Is the traffic fine itself waived?

No. For non-tax administrative fines, only the six-monthly surcharge for late payment, the late-payment interest and the collection fee are waived; the fine itself remains payable in full.

I have already applied for the rottamazione-quinquies: does it also cover IMU and TARI?

No. The central-government rottamazione-quinquies does not include debts owed to regions and local authorities. These require a separate application, to be filed between 16 October and 15 December 2026.

Sources

Article 10-quinquies of Decree-Law No 38 of 27 March 2026, added on conversion into law by Law No 88 of 22 May 2026.

Article 1-sexies(3) of Decree-Law No 63 of 30 April 2026, added on conversion into law by Law No 113 of 25 June 2026.

Article 1(82) to (109) of Law No 199 of 30 December 2025, in particular paragraphs 87, 89, 90, 91, 92, 94, 95, 97, 99 and 100; Article 1(231) and (247) of Law No 197 of 29 December 2022.

Article 27(6) of Law No 689 of 24 November 1981; Articles 12(4-bis), 19, 28-ter, 30 and 48-bis of Presidential Decree No 602 of 29 September 1973.

Agenzia delle entrate-Riscossione: press release and list of participating authorities of 25 September 2026; frequently asked questions on the rottamazione-quinquies of 18 September 2026.