Renovation, energy and seismic incentives: what is left in 2026

Chiara wants to redo the bathroom and wiring of the flat she owns and lives in, in Padua: the quote is €60,000. Her neighbour says the incentive has dropped to 30%, her sister-in-law says new windows still get 65%, and the builder offers a discount on the invoice. All three are wrong, each in their own way, and the gap is worth several thousand euros.

A general rule and an extension

Italy's home renovation incentives are deductions from personal income tax, IRPEF: they do not reduce income, they reduce the tax itself. Whoever pays for qualifying work gets back a percentage of it, in yearly slices, through the tax return. Knowing how much comes back in 2026 means reading two layers of rules that sit on top of each other.

The first layer is the permanent rule. The incentive for renovating existing housing is governed by article 16-bis of the consolidated income tax act, which grants a 36% deduction on up to 48,000 euros per dwelling. From 26 June 2012 to 31 December 2024 that was raised to 50% on up to 96,000 euros.

For spending from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2033, the tax act cuts the general rate to 30%. The exception is replacing an emergency generator with a latest-generation gas unit, which gets 50%. Anyone who stopped reading there would conclude, like Chiara's neighbour, that the incentive is now worth 30%.

The second layer is the extension. The 2026 budget law, law 199 of 2025, provided that spending in 2025 and 2026 earns a 36% deduction, raised to 50% for a main home, still on a maximum of 96,000 euros per dwelling.

The extension already has its end date written in. For spending in 2027 the deduction falls to 30%, or 36% for a main home, still within the 96,000 euro cap. Two neighbours doing identical work a few weeks apart, either side of New Year's Eve 2026, can end up with noticeably different deductions.

Beyond 2027 the Revenue Agency's pages announce no further extension, which leaves the general rule of the tax act. Anyone planning major work therefore needs to watch the payment calendar closely, not just the building schedule.

Who qualifies for 50%

Any IRPEF taxpayer, resident or not, who owns or holds the property under a valid title and pays for the work can claim. The agency's page lists the owner and bare owner, the holder of a right in rem such as usufruct, the tenant and the borrower under a loan-for-use agreement.

• Owner or bare owner of the property
• Holder of usufruct, use, habitation or surface rights
• Tenant or borrower under a loan-for-use agreement
• Cohabiting family member: spouse or civil partner, relatives to the third degree, in-laws to the second
• Unmarried cohabiting partner, for spending from 1 January 2016
• Separated spouse to whom the other spouse's property has been assigned
• Sole trader, for property that is neither a business asset nor trading stock

The higher rate, however, has a narrower reach. Article 16 of decree-law 63 of 2013, as currently in force, grants 50% where the person paying holds the main home as owner, or through a right in rem such as usufruct, and the work concerns that very home.

That produces a distinction summary pages do not always spell out. A tenant renovating the flat they live in can claim, but at 36%, because they hold neither ownership nor a right in rem. The same goes for a borrower under a loan-for-use. An owner or usufructuary who lives there gets 50%.

The deduction is shared among everyone entitled who contributed to the cost. If two spouses who co-own the home each pay half the work, each deducts their own half. What matters is who actually paid, as shown by transfers and invoices, not merely whose name is on the deeds.

Two limits complete the picture. Since 1 January 2025, replacing a heating system with a single boiler running on fossil fuels is excluded. And for homes also used for a business, a trade or a profession, the deduction is cut by half.

The 96,000 euro cap and ten instalments

The 96,000 euro cap applies to spending, not to the deduction, and it applies per dwelling. Someone who spends 120,000 euros renovating their own main home applies 50% to 96,000 euros only: the deduction is 48,000 euros, and the remaining 24,000 euros bring no benefit at all.

The deduction is not collected in a single year. As a rule it is spread over ten equal yearly instalments: the first in the return for the year of payment, the others over the following nine years. A 48,000 euro deduction is therefore worth 4,800 euros a year across ten returns.

Each instalment reduces that year's gross IRPEF. Someone with little or no tax may be unable to use a full instalment: before committing to expensive work, compare the expected instalment with the tax you normally pay, year by year.

Ecobonus: saving energy

The ecobonus covers work that improves the energy efficiency of existing buildings: insulation, replacing windows and frames, solar panels for hot water, heat pumps, solar shading, remote controls for heating systems. It is governed by article 14 of decree-law 63 of 2013.

It differs from the renovation incentive in two ways. It can be set against IRPEF or against corporate tax, IRES, so companies can use it too. And business owners can claim it on property they own or hold, whether used in the business, held as stock or held as an investment. Here too the deduction runs over ten yearly instalments.

Until 2024 the ecobonus had rates of its own, mostly 65% and in some cases 50%, with higher rates for blocks of flats. For spending in 2025 and 2026, the agency's page now gives the same rate as for renovation: 36%, raised to 50% for a main home.

The calendar matches as well: spending in 2027 gets 30%, or 36% for a main home. Replacing heating with single fossil-fuel boilers remains excluded. Anyone still quoting 65% is reading a rule that no longer applies to new spending.

Sismabonus: making buildings earthquake-safe

The sismabonus covers anti-seismic work on residential and productive buildings in seismic zones 1, 2 and 3. For spending from 2017 to 2024 the deduction was 50%, rising to 70% or 80% when the work cut the risk by one or two classes, with even higher rates on the common parts of blocks of flats.

For 2025, 2026 and 2027, paragraph 1-septies.1 of article 16 of decree-law 63 of 2013 sets one rate for every type of anti-seismic work: 36% for spending in 2025 and 2026, and 30% for spending in 2027.

Those rates rise to 50% and 36% respectively when the spending concerns a main home and is borne by its owner or by the holder of a right in rem over it. It mirrors ordinary renovation, with the same consequence: a tenant paying for anti-seismic work on a rented flat stays at the lower rate.

The percentages linked to risk classes therefore do not apply to new spending. The instalments have changed too: under law 67 of 2024, spending from tax year 2024 onwards is deducted over ten yearly instalments, no longer over five as originally.

Invoice discounts and credit transfers

For a few years, homeowners could avoid waiting through ten returns: they took a discount on the invoice, advanced by the builder, or sold the tax credit to a bank. Since 17 February 2023, when decree-law 11 of 2023 came into force, that option has in general disappeared.

Narrow exceptions remain. For 2026 spending, the discount and the transfer are still possible in areas struck by the earthquakes in Abruzzo, Lazio, Marche and Umbria on 6 April 2009 and from 24 August 2016 onwards. For Chiara's builder, working in Padua, that route is closed.

The agency's pages still describe the transfer chain in detail, with up to three further transfers to banks, financial intermediaries and insurers. That matters to anyone managing credits created in past years. For a private owner starting work in 2026 outside those areas, the deduction is used in the tax return, one instalment at a time.

Buying a home in a renovated building

The same deduction is available to someone who buys a home in a building fully renovated by a construction or renovation company, or a housing cooperative, which sells or assigns the property within eighteen months of finishing restoration, conservation or building renovation work.

The buyer does not know what the works cost, and does not need to: the deduction is computed on a flat amount equal to 25% of the sale or assignment price, VAT included, whatever the works were actually worth. The deduction rate for the year is then applied to that amount.