Deducting contributions and claiming the carer credit: what the household employer gets back

Marco, an office worker in Padua with income of €38,000, employs a carer for his father, who is not self-sufficient. By the end of the year he has paid €1,700 of contributions out of his own pocket and €12,000 of wages by bank transfer. He can cut his income tax in two separate, combinable ways: by about €910 in total, if he fills in his return correctly.

Two tax breaks for two different costs

A family that employs a domestic worker pays for two things: the wage paid to the worker and the contributions paid to INPS. The tax system treats them separately. Contributions give the right to a deduction from income; the wage, in one specific case only, gives the right to a credit against the tax itself.

The Italian Revenue Agency's page on tax breaks for people with disabilities sets them out side by side, under the heading of personal care. The first applies to every domestic and family worker; the second applies only to someone caring for a person who is not self-sufficient.

Deducting contributions: only the family's own share

The pre-filled return describes the item precisely. You enter the contributions paid during the year as the employer of domestic service workers, such as drivers and gardeners, or of personal and family care workers, such as cleaners, nannies and carers for elderly people.

The deduction applies only to the share that remained the employer's own cost. The amount paid with the pagoPA notice also includes a share owed by the worker, which the family withholds from the wage, and that share must be taken out. Deducting the full amount paid to INPS is the most common mistake.

The cap is €1,549.37 a year. The pre-filled return warns that if you enter a larger amount, the system reduces it to the limit on its own. The figure comes from the income tax code, whose Article 10, paragraph 2, still states the limit in lire, three million; the euro amount is the one the Agency applies.

A deduction reduces taxed income, so what it is worth depends on the marginal rate of the person claiming it. In 2026 the IRPEF bands charge 23% up to €28,000, 33% up to €50,000 and 43% above that. The same cap is therefore worth different sums at different income levels.

Watch out for incomes close to a band limit. If the deduction brings income below €28,000 or €50,000, the part that crosses the limit is valued at the lower rate. The IRPEF bands calculator lets you compare the tax due with and without the deduction before you rely on a figure.

The deduction belongs to the person who paid the contributions as employer. If the hiring is in the name of the mother being cared for, she deducts them in her own return, at her rate. If her income is low, the deduction may be worth little: good to know before choosing whose name goes on the hiring.

The credit for carers: three conditions

The second tax break concerns wages, not contributions. The Agency describes it this way: 19% of the cost of personal carers can be credited against income tax when the person being cared for is not self-sufficient in the acts of daily life. A cleaner who only does the housework does not qualify.

First condition: the lack of self-sufficiency must be shown by a medical certificate. The Agency gives as examples people who cannot feed themselves, look after their personal hygiene, walk or dress, and people who need constant supervision. Age alone is not enough: the lack of self-sufficiency must stem from a medical condition.

Second condition: spending counts up to €2,100 a year. The cap applies per taxpayer, not per person cared for. Someone paying for care for themselves and for a parent is still limited to €2,100; if several children pay for the same parent, the cap is shared among them.

Third condition: the total income of the person claiming the credit must not exceed €40,000. The Agency adds that income from property let under the flat-rate cedolare secca regime counts towards this figure. Going over the threshold by a single euro costs the whole credit, not just part of it.

The person cared for can be the taxpayer or a family member, even one who is not a tax dependant. The credit also applies when care is provided by a nursing or care home, a service cooperative or a temporary work agency, provided the paperwork separates the part of the bill that relates to personal care.

Paperwork and payments: what makes the cost creditable

Since 2020 the credit has required a traceable payment: bank transfer, card or cheque. A carer's wage paid in cash gives no right to the 19%, even when the relationship has been properly notified and the contributions paid. The deduction for contributions, by contrast, follows the payment made with the pagoPA notice.

The paperwork can be a receipt signed by the carer, together with proof of the traceable payment. It must show the tax code and personal details of both the payer and the carer. If the cost relates to a family member, the receipt must also show that relative's details and tax code.

• The medical certificate showing the lack of self-sufficiency
• Monthly receipts signed by the carer, with the tax codes of everyone involved
• Bank statements or transfer confirmations
• The pagoPA receipts for contributions, downloaded from the Payments Portal
• A breakdown of the contributions withheld from the worker, to leave out of the deduction

Three families, three different results

The two tax breaks do not work the same way for every household. It helps to pin down three recurring situations, because each one decides which item goes into the return. What makes the difference is not the cost of the worker but the work being done and the person it is done for.

In the first two situations the tax benefit stops at the contributions. In the third, the two items add up, but each has its own claimant: the deduction goes to whoever is registered as the employer, the credit to whoever actually bears the cost of the wage, who may be a different relative.

A family can therefore organise itself so that nothing is wasted. If the child with the highest income is the employer, the deduction is worth more at that child's rate; if a sibling with income under €40,000 pays part of the wage, that sibling can claim the credit. Each payment must genuinely come from the person who declares it.

Both tax breaks together, in the 730 or the Redditi return

The Agency states expressly that the credit for carers does not rule out the deduction for compulsory contributions paid for domestic and family workers. Someone who employs a carer for a parent who is not self-sufficient can therefore use both in the same return, each with its own cap.

Both items go into the 730 return or the Redditi Persone fisiche return: contributions among deductible expenses, wages among expenses that give a right to a tax credit. The pre-filled return has a section for data sent in by third parties, which includes contributions for domestic workers.

In the pre-filled return you can check whether those figures have been used and add them if they are missing. It is always worth doing: check that the amount taken into account is only the employer's own share, and add the spending on care, which depends on a certificate and receipts that the Agency has no way of knowing about.

The same section also shows costs relating to dependants, by selecting their tax code. The wage paid to a carer, however, normally has to be entered by hand: the section of the pre-filled return listing third-party data mentions domestic contributions, not wages.

A useful final check is to rebuild the figures from the INPS Payments Portal. The quarterly receipts show what was paid; the carer's payslip shows the part withheld. The difference is the family's own share, to be compared with the €1,549.37 cap before confirming the return.

One limit is common to every tax credit: it works on gross tax and cannot exceed it. A pensioner with very little tax to pay may not be able to use the full 19%. For higher incomes there are general rules that reduce tax credits, which this course does not cover.