Making the election, short lets and payments

Luca chose the cedolare secca in 2025 for his two-room flat in Rome and paid the balance, 1 890 €, in June 2026. He thought the tax year was behind him. In November his adviser reminds him of the second instalment of the 2026 advance, 1 134 €. The cedolare is not paid once a year: it follows the IRPEF calendar, advance payments included.

When the election is made

The election can be made at two moments: when the lease is registered, or in one of the following contract years if the lease runs for several years. Either way the tool is the RLI form, the same one used to register the lease and to report its extensions and terminations.

Timing carries a cost. A landlord who opts in at registration never pays registration tax or stamp duty on the lease. One who opts in later has already paid them on the original registration and does not get them back: the saving on lease taxes only covers the years the election actually covers.

A landlord choosing the cedolare from the start registers the lease within 30 days of signing or, if earlier, of the date it takes effect. This can be done through the Agenzia's online services, by asking an office to register it, or through an authorised intermediary: a professional, a trade association or a CAF.

A landlord choosing later has a different window: within 30 days of the end of the previous contract year, again on the RLI form. In the meantime the original registration followed the ordinary rules, and the registration tax and stamp duty already paid can no longer be refunded.

The election, or any change to it, can be filed through the Agenzia's online services, that is the RLI software or RLI-web, or by lodging the completed RLI form at the office where the lease was registered. The channel changes nothing about the effect; meeting the deadline is what counts.

One requirement applies to every new lease, with or without the cedolare. The lease must include a clause in which the tenant confirms having received the information and documents on the energy performance certificate, the APE. A copy of the APE is attached to the lease, except where single residential units are let.

Notifying the tenant

Before applying the cedolare, the landlord must inform the tenant by registered letter. In that letter he waives the right to request rent updates, even those the lease provides for, ISTAT indexation included. From that moment the tenant knows his rent will stay put for as long as the election lasts.

Two situations escape the registered-letter requirement. The first is a lease whose total duration within the year is under thirty days, which need not be registered. The second is a lease that already states, expressly and on whatever basis, that rent updates are waived.

Hence a practical tip for new leases: write the express waiver of rent updates into the lease itself. The Agenzia treats it as an alternative to the registered letter, and the landlord avoids a separate mailing that could be forgotten, or whose date could later be hard to prove.

Duration, revocation, extension and termination

The election covers the whole term of the lease or of its extension. Made in a contract year after the first, it covers the remaining term. It is not irrevocable, however: the landlord may revoke it in any contract year following the one in which it was made.

Revocation is filed within 30 days of the end of the previous contract year and triggers payment of any registration tax that is then due. After revoking, the landlord may come back into the cedolare in a later year. The choice can therefore be reviewed year by year, as long as the deadlines are met.

When the lease is extended, tacitly or not, the election must be confirmed together with the notice of extension, within 30 days of the expiry of the lease or of the previous extension. It is the same deadline set for paying registration tax, so it is worth noting next to the lease's own expiry date.

If the lease ends early, no registration tax is due provided all landlords opted for the cedolare. One formality remains: the termination must be reported by filing a completed RLI form with the office where the lease was registered.

The condition covers every landlord. If even one co-owner stayed in the ordinary regime, the condition set by the Agenzia is not met and the exemption from registration tax on termination falls away. One more reason for co-owners to agree on their choice at registration rather than each deciding alone.

Short lets: two rates and a ceiling

Short-let landlords can opt for the cedolare as well. These leases carry no obligation to register within a fixed time, so the cedolare is applied directly in the income tax return for the year the income arises. Opting at registration remains possible where the lease is registered on use or voluntarily.

There are two rates. Income from short lets of the property the taxpayer designates in the return is taxed at 21 %. A second property is taxed at 26 %. Deciding which property takes the 21 % rate is up to the taxpayer, and it is a decision with money attached.

From the 2026 tax year the ceiling has tightened. The cedolare on short lets is only recognised if no more than two flats are used for that purpose during the year; the previous limit was four. Beyond the threshold the activity, whoever carries it on, is deemed to be run as a business.

The consequence reaches beyond the rate. Someone who puts three flats on the short-let market in 2026 does not merely lose the cedolare on the third: the activity counts as a business, and the tax treatment of the whole changes with it. The rules that then apply lie outside this course.

Picking the 21 % property follows simple arithmetic. Five percentage points separate the two rates, and those five points fall on the rent of whichever property is declared second. The second should therefore be the one that earns less: the saving equals five points of the difference between the two rents.

Anyone letting through a platform or an agency also meets the intermediaries' obligations, which the Agenzia gathers in its dedicated short-let guide. Those rules concern whoever collects the rent or brings the parties together, not how the owner's cedolare is computed, and this course leaves them aside.

How and when payment is made

The substitute tax follows the IRPEF deadlines and methods: a balance and advance payments. The balance is paid by 30 June of the year after the one it relates to, or by 30 July with a 0.40 % surcharge by way of compensatory interest.

The advance equals 100 % of the tax due for the previous year. As a rule, then, no advance is paid in the first year of the election: the reference base, the cedolare due for the year before, does not exist. An advance is only due if the previous year's cedolare exceeds 51.65 €.

• Advance below 257.52 €: one payment by 30 November
• Advance above 257.52 €: a first instalment of 40 % by 30 June, or by 30 July with the 0.40 % surcharge
• Second instalment, the remaining 60 %: by 30 November

A different rule applies to taxpayers carrying on activities for which ISA indicators have been approved and declaring revenue or fees within the limit set by the approving decree: the two advance instalments are equal, 50 % each. Flat-rate forfettari, the advantage regime and the other ISA exclusions fall under it too.

Payment is made on the F24 form, using three tax codes reserved for the cedolare. Mixing up the balance code with an advance code does not change the amount owed, but it books the payment under the wrong heading. Finally, the cedolare can be offset under the ordinary rules.

A cedolare landlord's calendar thus comes down to two dates, 30 June and 30 November, from the second year of the election onwards. In the first year there is only the balance, due the following year. It is precisely the step from the first year to the second that catches out those who did not see it coming.

A cedolare year, deadline by deadline

• At signing: registration on the RLI form within 30 days, with the election and without registration tax or stamp duty
• Before applying the regime: registered letter to the tenant, except in the excluded cases
• 30 June: balance for the previous year and first advance instalment, or 30 July with the 0.40 % surcharge
• 30 November: second instalment, or the advance in a single payment
• Within 30 days of the end of each contract year: revocation or a fresh election, if wanted
• On extension, tacit or not: confirmation of the election within 30 days

For short lets the calendar is shorter: no compulsory registration, no registered letter, and the election appears directly in the income tax return. The balance and advances stay the same, because the substitute tax follows the IRPEF deadlines.

It is sensible to keep the lease, the registration receipt, a copy of the registered letter and the F24 payment receipts together. In an audit, those documents show that the election was made in time and that the waiver of rent updates was actually communicated to the tenant.