The municipal surcharge on Irpef, and the regional one

A translator with 40,000 € of taxable income moves on 20 January from a municipality charging 0.8 % to one charging 0.2 %. For the year of the move she budgets 80 € of municipal surcharge. She owes 320 €: what counts is the municipality where her tax domicile was on 1 January, and the new one only comes into play the following year. Local taxes on income run on dates and rules of their own, not those of Irpef.

A municipal tax hooked onto Irpef

The municipal surcharge does not exist on its own. Municipalities may introduce it under article 1 of Legislative Decree 360 of 1998. The key word is may: the surcharge exists in a municipality only if its council has adopted it, and at the rate the council chose within the legal limits.

The ceiling is set by national law. The rate may not exceed 0.8 %, save for exceptions expressly provided for. The Department of Finance page names one: Roma Capitale, which since 2011 may set a rate of up to 0.9 %.

The 0.8 % is a cap, not a price list. Two neighbouring municipalities can ask very different sums of the same income, and a municipality can ask nothing at all. That is why no surcharge is ever worked out from memory: every calculation starts from the resolution of the municipality competent for that year.

The State can also narrow what municipalities may do. For 2016 and 2017, Law 208 of 2015 suspended increases in local taxes above their 2015 rates, with some exceptions. A municipal resolution is always read together with the national rules for the year it concerns.

The base: Irpef income, not Irpef itself

The municipal rate applies to total income as determined for Irpef, net of deductible charges. It does not apply to the tax. That is the most common slip in hand calculations: 0.8 % of the Irpef owed is a far smaller number, and a wrong one.

The base is therefore the same line from which the Irpef calculation starts, before the brackets and before the tax credits. Anyone holding a breakdown of their Irpef will find the right figure there. The Irpef course shows how that income is reached; here it is taken as given.

One condition, however, ties the two taxes together. The surcharge is owed only if Irpef is owed for the same year, net of the tax credits due and of the credit for income earned abroad. If tax credits wipe out Irpef, no surcharge is paid, whatever rate the municipality has set.

The condition works one way only. Even a tiny amount of net Irpef triggers the surcharge on the whole base, not on a base scaled down in proportion. For a taxpayer close to zero tax, one tax credit more or less therefore changes the municipal bill as well.

One rate or rates by bracket

The municipality chooses between two structures. It can adopt a single rate, valid at every income level. Or it can set several differentiated rates, but then they must follow the same income brackets as national Irpef, with rates that differ and rise from one bracket to the next.

Rates by bracket work like Irpef's own: each applies to the slice of income falling within its bracket. The bracket limits are not the municipality's choice, they are the national ones; the municipality chooses only the rates. The irpef-scaglioni calculator shows those limits for 2026.

The addizionale-comunale-irpef calculator handles the most common case, a single rate, and states this among its assumptions. For a municipality with progressive rates, split the income across the brackets and add up the results, or use the Department of Finance simulator.

The exemption threshold is not an allowance

Since 2007 municipalities may introduce an exemption threshold tied to specific income conditions. The mechanism is spelled out on the page: the surcharge is not owed if income is lower than or equal to the limit set by the municipality, whereas it applies to total income if income exceeds it.

Above the threshold the rate hits all of the income, not just the part above it. That is the difference between a threshold and an allowance. An allowance would always shelter the first euros; the municipal threshold shelters everything or nothing, depending on which side of it income falls.

The step has practical consequences. Someone just above the threshold has good reason to check deductible charges carefully, because they reduce the base and can bring income back under the limit. A forgotten deduction, in that band, is worth far more than the deduction itself.

The page speaks of a threshold linked to specific income conditions, which the municipality defines. The calculator compares it with the same income to which the rate applies, and says so among its assumptions. Your own municipality's threshold must still be read in its resolution, conditions included, before any calculation.

Which municipality: tax domicile on 1 January

The surcharge is owed to the municipality where the taxpayer had their tax domicile on 1 January of the year to which the payment relates. One date decides for the whole year. A move on 2 January does not change the competent municipality for the current year; a move on the previous 31 December does.

That rule explains the translator's bill. On 1 January she was domiciled in the old municipality, at 0.8 %: on 40,000 € she owes 320 €. The new municipality, at 0.2 %, will be competent from the following year, provided her tax domicile is there on 1 January of that year.

The municipal rule refers to tax domicile. The regional surcharge is also paid to the region of tax domicile on 1 January; the law that created it refers to residence instead, to set its rate. Anyone who changes address around the turn of the year must therefore check, for payment, where their tax domicile was on 1 January.

Advance and balance

Payment is made as an advance and a balance, together with the Irpef balance. Two years therefore sit in the same payment: the balance of last year's surcharge and the advance on this year's. Anyone planning their Irpef balance has to budget for both items as well.

The advance does not require knowing the current year's income. It is 30 % of the surcharge obtained by applying the rate the municipality set for the previous year to the previous year's Irpef taxable income. It is built entirely from known data, those of the return just completed.

The balance comes the year after. It is the surcharge actually owed for the year, at that year's rate and on that year's income, minus the advance already paid. If the advance exceeds the surcharge owed, a surplus in the taxpayer's favour remains, which the calculator shows separately.

Where rate and threshold are published

The Department of Finance publishes the data of every municipality in the section on applicable rates for the municipal surcharge. A search engine works by single municipality or by geographical area, and shows the rate and any exemption for each year.

Two lists complete the search. The general list of all municipalities updates itself automatically every day. At the end of each year a summary list is also published, giving for each municipality the rate and the exemption to use for that year's balance.

For the balance, use the summary list for the right year rather than a search made months earlier. A resolution can change the rate or the threshold from one year to the next, and an advance computed on old data says nothing about the new rate.

• Identify the municipality of tax domicile on 1 January of the year
• Read its resolution: single rate or rates by bracket, any exemption threshold and its conditions
• Take total income net of deductible charges
• Check that net Irpef is owed for the year; if it is zero, stop
• Compare income with the threshold; above it, apply the rate to all of the income
• Subtract the advance paid to reach the balance, and compute 30 % for next year's advance

The order of these steps matters. Starting from the rate and skipping the check on net Irpef produces a surcharge that is not owed. Applying the threshold before picking the right municipality uses the wrong resolution. Each step presupposes the one before it.

The regional surcharge: it exists, but it is not computed here

Alongside the municipal one there is a regional surcharge on Irpef, created by article 50 of Legislative Decree 446 of 1997. It is computed by applying the rate set by the region, or autonomous province, where the taxpayer is resident to the same total income net of deductible charges.

Like the municipal surcharge, it is owed only if Irpef is owed for the same year, net of tax credits and of the credits for distributed profits and foreign income. Individuals running a business, art or profession under the flat-rate scheme are outside its scope.

Each region starts from a base rate set by the State and may change it within the limits of national law, including with several rates following the Irpef brackets and rising with them. The rules differ between ordinary-statute regions and the special autonomies, and they change over time.

This course deliberately gives no regional rates: we do not hold complete, verified tables for every region. They are read region by region in the section on applicable rates for the regional surcharge, on the Department of Finance website.

Publication follows fixed dates. A regional law changing the rate must appear in the regional Official Bulletin by 31 December of the previous year. By 31 January of the year concerned, the region enters the data in the fiscal federalism portal for publication on the Department's website.

Failing to enter the data has a precise effect in the taxpayer's favour: no penalties or interest can be applied. Someone who pays on the basis of the published data is not penalised for figures the region did not make available in time.

One caveat covers the whole module. The Irpef on which both surcharges rest is governed by the consolidated income tax act, repealed from 1 January 2027 by Legislative Decree 117 of 2026. The rules described are those of 2026; the new text will need reading once it applies.