Working out the 19% tax credits: the threshold, the caps and the main items

Lucia paid her dentist 1,629.11 € in 2026 and expected to get back about a fifth of it, roughly 325 euros. Her 730 return shows 285. Nobody made a mistake: the 19% credit on medical costs only applies to the part above a 129.11 euro threshold. People who know the rules before they pay already know what will come back.

A percentage taken off the tax, not off the income

The mechanism of a 19% credit is plain. You take the eligible spending, work out 19% of it and subtract that figure from your gross IRPEF, the Italian personal income tax. The income that goes through the tax brackets does not move. Only the last step changes, the one leading from gross tax to net tax.

That is why the saving does not depend on your bracket. A hundred euros of eligible spending cuts nineteen euros of tax for someone earning twenty thousand and for someone earning sixty thousand alike, at least while income stays below the thresholds that shrink the credits, which are covered in the second module.

The Agenzia delle Entrate, Italy's revenue agency, points out a limit that catches many people out: credits can only be used up to the year's gross tax. Whatever is left over is neither refunded nor carried forward. Someone with little tax to pay, a part-time worker for instance, can lose part of the benefit.

Which text to read: the Agenzia guide and article 15

The kinds of spending that qualify are listed in article 15 of the consolidated income tax code, the TUIR, and in some separate laws. The Agenzia's guide to medical costs is explicit: only expenses the law names can be claimed. Something useful that is not on the list earns nothing at all.

The consolidated version of article 15 published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale needs careful reading, though. Its first paragraph still shows a 22% rate and, for the medical threshold, an amount in lire: a sign that this version does not carry every later amendment. The caps expressed in euros, on the other hand, are up to date.

The 19% rate is the one the Agenzia uses in its own guides and in the pre-filled return. The tax code itself confirms it: article 16-ter, added when credits were reorganised, refers to charges whose credit is set at 19 per cent by the code. This course therefore works with 19%.

Medical costs and the threshold

Medical spending is the item most people claim. It covers doctors' and specialists' fees, surgery, prostheses, medicines and medical devices. The 19% does not apply to the whole bill, only to the part of the year's total above 129.11 euros, an amount that works as a threshold.

• General practitioner visits and specialist services
• Over-the-counter and prescription medicines, homeopathic ones included
• Tests, imaging, therapies and surgical procedures
• Hospital stays linked to operations, and organ transplants
• Spa treatments, without travel or accommodation costs
• Buying or renting medical devices and prostheses
• Nursing and rehabilitation care, such as physiotherapy

For services delivered by the national health service, the SSN, what counts is the ticket, the patient's co-payment, not the full cost. When an expense is hard to classify, the Agenzia refers to the Health Ministry's lists of medicines, prostheses and specialist services. A medical certificate for a driving licence or for sport counts as a general medical cost.

The threshold is applied once, to the annual total of medical costs, and not to each receipt. Ten visits at fifty euros each add up to five hundred; you deduct 129.11 euros a single time and take 19% of what remains. Splitting payments into smaller amounts changes nothing.

There is one exception. Some costs incurred for people with disabilities qualify in full, with no threshold; the Agenzia gives ambulance transport and artificial limbs for walking as examples. For the detail it refers readers to its dedicated guide on tax relief for people with disabilities.

To prove the expense you need invoices, tax receipts or itemised till receipts showing what was bought and the recipient's tax code. The Agenzia states that you do not have to produce proof of payment for this check. The documents must, however, be kept until 31 December of the fifth year after the return is filed.

The mortgage on your main home

The second largest item is interest on a mortgage secured on the property and taken out to buy your main home. Letter b) of article 15 sets a ceiling: interest and ancillary charges count up to 4,000 euros a year. Interest paid beyond that figure produces no further credit.

The law sets precise conditions. The property must become the main home within a year of purchase, and the purchase must take place in the year before or after the mortgage is signed. A main home means the place where the taxpayer or members of the family habitually live.

On a joint mortgage the 4,000 euro ceiling covers the interest as a whole, and each spouse claims their own share. Where one spouse is a tax dependant of the other, the latter may claim both shares. The credit stops from the year after the one in which the habitual residence changes.

Two kinds of move do not cost you the credit: relocating for work, and a permanent stay in a care institution, as long as the home is not let. If the property bought needs renovation, the credit starts when you move in, and in any case within two years of the purchase.

There is also a separate credit for interest on a mortgage taken out to build the main home, with its own timing rules: the loan has to be signed close to the start of the works. Anyone who renegotiates or replaces the original loan keeps the credit if the new amount does not exceed the outstanding capital plus costs.

School, sport, nursery and funerals

Many family items come with a cap per person. The Agenzia's pre-filled return page gives, for attendance at nursery schools, primary and lower secondary schools and upper secondary schools, a maximum of 1,000 euros per pupil, shared among those who paid. School fees, contributions approved by the school, canteen and trips all count.

For amateur sport by young people aged 5 to 18, the annual enrolment and membership count up to 210 euros per child. Nursery (asilo nido) fees qualify up to 632 euros a year for each dependent child, split between the parents according to what each of them actually paid.

For funeral costs article 15 sets a ceiling of 1,550 euros per death. University fees qualify in full at a state university; at a non-state university the eligible amount cannot exceed the figure set each year by decree of the Ministry of Universities.

The last column is simple arithmetic: 19% of the cap. It gives you the order of magnitude before you pay. A school bill of three thousand euros, for example, still yields at most 190 euros of credit for that child, because only the first thousand counts.

The lesser-known items

Article 15 is a long list and some entries get overlooked. Vet bills count up to 550 euros, with the same 129.11 euro threshold as medical costs. Season tickets for local, regional and interregional public transport count up to 250 euros. The credit stays at 19% of the eligible amount in both cases.

Paying a personal carer for a family member who cannot look after themselves counts up to 2,100 euros, but only if your own total income is no more than 40,000 euros. For children aged 5 to 18 enrolled at conservatories, recognised music schools, choirs and bands, the cap is 1,000 euros, with income up to 36,000 euros.

University students living away from home, enrolled at least 100 kilometres from their home town and in another province, can claim rent up to 2,633 euros. Buyers of a main home through an estate agent can count the agent's fee up to 1,000 euros per year.

For life and accident insurance premiums the article 15 cap is 530 euros, with higher limits for long-term-care policies and for cover protecting people with severe disabilities. Employees also count any premiums their employer has already taken into account through the payroll.

Whose spending you can claim

Many expenses can be claimed when they concern a dependent family member: medical, school, sport and university costs among them. What matters is who paid, not who received the service. The document should therefore be in the payer's name, or name the family member and show who settled the bill.

A family member is a dependant if their total income does not exceed 2,840.51 euros, before deductible charges. For children up to 24 the limit rises to 4,000 euros. If a child goes over the limit, the Agenzia warns, the medical costs cannot be claimed by the parent or by the child.

Medical costs paid by heirs after someone's death, for that person's care, remain claimable even if the deceased was not a dependant. Where there are several heirs, each claims the share they actually paid. It is worth remembering at a moment, the settling of an estate, that is already hard enough.