Paying in instalments, disputing the notice and, if it comes to it, handling the payment demand

Davide runs a bar in Naples and receives a notice for 8,000 € in tax, reduced penalty and interest. He cannot pay it in one go. Over twenty quarterly instalments the first comes to 400 € and he keeps the reduced penalty; if he lets every deadline slide, the sum goes onto the roll with the full penalty and a payment demand follows.

Spreading a friendly notice over instalments

Amounts due after an automated or formal check can be split into instalments. Article 3-bis of Legislative Decree 462 of 1997, cited by the Agenzia, allows up to twenty equal quarterly instalments. For notices processed from 2025 onwards there is no longer any amount below which the maximum number is reduced.

The first instalment follows the same deadline as payment in full: sixty days from receipt for check outcomes, thirty for separate taxation, ninety from when an electronic notice reaches the intermediary. The count stops here too between 1 August and 4 September. Each later instalment falls due on the last day of a calendar quarter.

The first instalment carries no interest. Every later one bears interest at 3.5 per cent a year, running from the first day of the second month after the month in which the notice was processed, a date printed on the letter, up to the day that instalment is paid. The further away an instalment falls, the more interest it collects.

Each payment goes through an F24, with principal and interest shown on separate lines under their own tax codes: 9001 and 9002 for notices under Articles 36-bis and 54-bis, 9006 and 9007 for those under 36-ter. The Agenzia also offers an application that works out the instalments and prints the F24 forms.

One point about the legal calendar. The rules described here are those in force in 2026. Article 3-bis is repealed by the consolidated code enacted by Legislative Decree 141 of 5 August 2026, which applies from 1 January 2027, so for notices arriving after that date the new provisions should be checked.

When the plan is lost

Instalments come with strict rules, and breaking them is expensive. The benefit is forfeited in five situations. The first instalment is not paid within sixty-seven days of receipt, meaning sixty plus seven days of minor delay, or ninety-seven for notices sent to an intermediary; or the first separate-taxation instalment is not paid within thirty-seven days.

The other three concern later instalments: a payment short by more than 3 per cent or more than 10,000 euros; an instalment other than the first left unpaid by the due date of the next one; and the last instalment unpaid ninety days after it fell due. The balance then goes onto the roll with full penalties and interest.

Minor non-compliance applies here too: a shortfall within 3 per cent and 10,000 euros, or a delay inside those margins, keeps the plan alive, and only the missing fraction or what is owed for the delay goes onto the roll. Voluntary correction before the next due date, or within ninety days for the last, avoids even that.

The practical lesson is plain: enter every quarterly due date in your diary the day you choose instalments, and always pay the whole instalment. A twenty-instalment plan lasts five years, and over five years bank accounts, accountants and habits change. A standing order or a recurring reminder is worth more than good intentions.

When the notice is wrong

The check is not always right. A payment made under the wrong code, an offset against a credit that was not picked up, a documented deduction that was disregarded: all of these happen often. For automated-check notices the Agenzia lists three ways to get help and have the outcome corrected.

• the CIVIS channel in the reserved area, dedicated to notices, electronic alerts and payment demands, sometimes reachable from the L'Agenzia scrive section of the Cassetto fiscale
• the Consegna documenti e istanze service, for sending the documents the office asks for
• the multichannel telephone help desks, or any Agenzia office by appointment, bringing proof of the declared figures or of the payment

If the amount is only partly corrected, the period for paying with the reduced penalty restarts from the date of the correction, and the taxpayer receives a new F24 with the revised figure. If that too goes unpaid for sixty days, ordinary collection begins for the tax, the interest and the full 25 per cent penalty.

For a formal check, data that were ignored or misread are reported through CIVIS or to the competent office by appointment, and the requested documents can be sent directly or through an intermediary. The deadline rule differs here: the reduced penalty stays tied to sixty days from receipt of the first notice, even when the office revises the amount.

Asking for a correction does not stop the clock unless the correction actually arrives. A taxpayer who waits for a CIVIS reply while the deadline expires may lose the reduction. When the dispute covers only part of the sum, it can make sense to pay the undisputed part on time and argue about the rest.

From non-payment to the payment demand

If the friendly notice is neither paid nor corrected, the amounts are entered on the roll, the ruolo. That is a list drawn up by the creditor body with debtors' names, the type of claim and the sums owed. The Agenzia delle Entrate passes it to its collection arm, Agenzia delle entrate-Riscossione, which prepares and serves the payment demand.

Once the demand has been served, time works against the debtor. If it is not paid within the set period, default interest accrues day by day from the date of service, together with any further costs. The rate is set each year by order of the Agenzia's Director, based on the average of lending rates charged by banks.

If the demand stays unpaid, with no instalment request and no suspension, the collector starts the precautionary and enforcement procedures that the law provides. That is why a payment demand should be opened and read at once: each of the routes described below has a deadline, and several of them close after sixty days.

Payment uses the attached pagoPA slip, pre-filled with the amount and a reference code linking it to the demand. You can pay online on the collector's website or through its Equiclick app, through banks, Poste and other pagoPA providers, at a bank, a post office, a tobacconist or the collector's counter. Paying after the due date updates the amount automatically.

Part-payment is possible too, at the collector's counters, at post offices or through online banking, by completing an F35 payment slip. Sums for state taxes can be offset against credits of the same kind, using the F24 Accise form with the tax code RUOL.

Spreading a payment demand over instalments

A payment demand can also be spread out, but the rules differ from those of the friendly notice. Instalments are monthly and are granted by Agenzia delle entrate-Riscossione according to the amount and the debtor's financial position. Article 19 of Decree 602 of 1973, rewritten by Legislative Decree 110 of 2024, governs requests filed from 1 January 2025.

For requests filed in 2025 and 2026, up to 120,000 euros per request, simply declaring a temporary situation of objective financial hardship secures up to 84 monthly instalments. Documenting that hardship opens the range from 85 to 120 instalments. Above 120,000 euros documentation is always required and the maximum is 120 instalments.

The number available on simple request will rise: up to 96 instalments for requests in 2027 and 2028, and up to 108 from 2029. Hardship is measured with the household ISEE indicator for individuals and sole traders on simplified accounting, with liquidity indices for other businesses, and with a specific index for condominiums.

Disputing the payment demand

A taxpayer who thinks the demand is unfounded has several routes, not mutually exclusive. The first is to ask the Agenzia delle Entrate office that drew up the roll, named on the demand, to review it and cancel it in whole or in part under its self-correction power, the autotutela. The request can be filed through Consegna documenti e istanze.

Careful: asking for review neither interrupts nor suspends the appeal period. If the office cancels, it issues a discharge order, the sgravio, that wipes out the debt and sends it to the collector; anyone who already paid is entitled to a refund. For automated-check rolls, review can also go through CIVIS or the call centre.

The second route is the statutory suspension of Law 228 of 2012, asked of the collector in a closed list of cases: payment made before the roll, discharge already issued, limitation or time bar reached before the roll became enforceable, suspension ordered by the creditor or a court, or a favourable judgment in proceedings the collector did not join.

This one-off request must be filed, on pain of forfeiture, within sixty days of service of the demand or other collection notice. Collection pauses meanwhile; if the creditor body does not reply within 220 days, the law cancels the debt. False documents cost 100 to 200 per cent of the sums due, at least 258 euros.

The third route is an appeal to the first-instance tax court within sixty days of service. If paying before judgment would cause serious harm, suspension can be sought from the court or, at the same time, from the office that drew up the roll. If the appeal later fails, interest for the suspension period is payable.