The furniture bonus and the paperwork: how not to lose the deduction

Marco has finished renovating his flat in Bari and buys a kitchen, a sofa and a dishwasher for €6,500, delivery and fitting included. He pays €5,600 by card and €900 in cash to get a discount from the shop. He thinks he can deduct half of everything. He will deduct a good deal less, and not only because of the cash.

The furniture bonus in 2026

The furniture bonus is an IRPEF deduction for buying furniture and large household appliances to furnish a property being renovated. It does not stand alone: it exists only alongside renovation work that itself qualifies for a deduction. Furnishing a home without any such work earns nothing.

For 2026 the deduction is 50%, computed on a maximum of 5,000 euros that includes any delivery and fitting costs. Like the building deduction, it is spread over ten equal yearly instalments. The most it can be worth is therefore 2,500 euros, or 250 euros a year.

The cap has shrunk in recent years. The text of decree-law 63 of 2013 records the sequence: 10,000 euros for 2022, 8,000 for 2023 and 5,000 for 2024, 2025 and 2026. Anyone remembering more generous figures is thinking of rules that do not apply to this year's purchases.

The deduction is available whatever the amount spent on the renovation. A small piece of qualifying work is enough to open the full 5,000 euro cap for furnishings. The text says so plainly: furniture spending is counted without regard to the amount spent on the building work.

Which goods and which works

Furniture must be new. For large appliances the energy class matters too: no lower than class A for ovens, class E for washing machines, washer-dryers and dishwashers, and class F for fridges and freezers, for appliances that carry an energy label.

• Ovens: class A or better
• Washing machines, washer-dryers and dishwashers: class E or better
• Fridges and freezers: class F or better
• Furniture: new, for the renovated property
• Delivery and fitting: included within the 5,000 euro cap

The link with the works also runs through time. For purchases made by 31 December 2026, the renovation must have started on or after 1 January of the previous year, that is 1 January 2025. Work started in 2024 does not open the furniture bonus for 2026 purchases.

The cap applies to each dwelling, with its appurtenances, or to the common part of the building being renovated. Someone renovating two separate flats is entitled to the bonus twice, once for each dwelling, each with its own 5,000 euro cap.

There is also a rule for people who used the bonus the year before. If the work was done in the previous year, or began then and carried on, the cap is reduced by the furniture spending of the previous year that already earned the deduction. The same works do not get a fresh cap every year.

How to pay

The way you pay is a condition, not a detail. Renovation work must be paid by bank or post office transfer showing the purpose of the payment, the tax code of the person claiming the deduction, and the tax code or VAT number of the firm or professional being paid.

For the ecobonus, the agency's page adds the invoice number and date to the transfer. Some items need no transfer, such as urbanisation charges, stamp duty, fees for permits and building notices, and the charge for occupying public land; and the obligation does not apply to work carried out as part of a business.

Furniture follows different rules. You can pay by bank transfer, debit card or credit card; cheques, cash and other means are not allowed. When paying by transfer, there is no need for the special transfer, subject to withholding, that banks and the Post Office provide for renovation work.

A payment method that is not accepted has a simple consequence: spending paid in cash drops out of the calculation. That is why the discount Marco obtained by paying cash may cost him more than it saved, although, as the case study shows, in his situation the cap softens the blow.

The records to keep

For renovation work, the agency's page sets out the conditions and the documents. Before work starts, where building-site safety rules require it, a notice goes to the local health authority by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt. The property's cadastral details must be entered in the tax return.

Where a tenant or borrower does the work, the return also gives the registration details of the lease or loan agreement. For work started from 28 May 2022 costing over 70,000 euros in total, the contract must state that the firm applies the construction sector's collective agreements.

• Required planning permissions, or a sworn statement giving the start date of the work
• Application for cadastral registration, if the property is not yet recorded
• IMU property tax receipts, where the tax is due
• Owners' meeting resolution and apportionment table, for common parts
• Owner's consent, where the work is done by a holder other than a cohabiting family member
• Advance notice to the local health authority, where required
• Invoices, receipts and transfer confirmations

These documents are not attached to the return: they are kept and shown when the tax office asks. The deduction runs for ten years, and a check may come long after the builders have left. It pays to keep a single file, digital and paper, for each project.

A timeline for the file

The conditions on the agency's pages become easier to meet once they are put in time order. Some must be met before the site opens, some while paying, some once the work is finished, and the last one comes back every year for ten returns.

• Before the work: permissions or sworn statement, notice to the health authority where due, contract citing the construction agreements above 70,000 euros
• During the work: every payment by the required transfer, keeping invoices and receipts
• For furnishings: purchases by 31 December, paid by transfer or card
• When the work ends: ENEA filing within 90 days where required, with the technician's sworn report and energy performance certificate for the ecobonus
• Every year: the instalment in the return, with the property's cadastral details

The file follows the property for as long as the instalments run. Anyone who changes accountant, or moves from the pre-filled 730 to the Redditi return, must be able to find the first year's transfers and invoices within minutes. Without them, even a perfectly correct deduction becomes hard to prove.

The ENEA filing

For the ecobonus, details of the work, together with the energy performance certificate where one is needed, must be sent electronically to ENEA, the national energy agency, within 90 days of the end of the work. A qualified technician must also certify that the work meets the technical requirements.

The energy performance certificate is requested after the work from a qualified technician who took no part in it. The agency's page waives it for some simpler jobs: replacing windows and frames in individual dwellings, solar hot-water panels, condensing boilers, solar shading, biomass heaters and remote control devices.

The description sent to ENEA gives who paid, the building, the type of work, the yearly energy saving achieved, the cost of the work including professional fees, and the amount used to compute the deduction. It is worth collecting those figures while the work is still going on.

For some renovation work involving energy savings or renewable sources, data must also go to ENEA within 90 days of completion or final inspection. Here the agency's page states that failing to file, or filing late, does not forfeit the deduction, citing resolution 46 of 2019.

2026 brings a calendar detail. For work completed between 1 and 22 January 2026, when the updated portal went live, and for work finished in 2025 with some spending paid in 2026, the 90 days run from 22 January 2026.

Deduction and tax: having enough to absorb it

All these incentives reduce gross tax. The furniture bonus text says so in terms: the deduction applies up to the amount of the tax. In practice, each year's instalment is only useful if there is enough IRPEF that year for it to reduce.

Each instalment is entered in the return for the year it relates to, in the 730 or the Redditi return, for ten years running. For renovation work the agency's page asks for the property's cadastral details in the return and, where the work is done by a holder, the registration details of the agreement.

Anyone stacking several incentives needs to add everything up. Renovation, ecobonus and furniture instalments, plus the year's other deductions, all have to fit within gross tax. A pensioner with modest tax facing 90,000 euros of work should check this before signing the contract.

Here the choice may differ: spread the work, have a cohabiting family member with more tax pay part of it, at 36% rather than 50% since he holds no title, or scale down the project. These are decisions to take before the transfers go out, since the deduction belongs to whoever pays.