Losses, IRAP and compliance: the Redditi SP return and the partners' calendar

Marco and Anna's SAS, a ceramics workshop in Faenza, ends 2026 with a tax loss of €30,000. Its share capital is €10,000; Marco, the general partner, holds 70 per cent of profits and Anna, a limited partner, 30 per cent. Anna expects to deduct €9,000. Under the TUIR she gets €3,000: the part of the loss above share capital follows Marco alone.

Losses pass to the partners

Transparency does not only operate in good years. Article 8 of the TUIR, as it applies to 2026, provides that losses of SNCs and SASs are deducted by each partner in the same proportion as article 5, that is, according to profit shares.

An SAS has one extra rule, reflecting the partners' different liability. For losses exceeding the amount of share capital, the allocation applies only to the general partners. A limited partner, liable only up to what they contributed, does not receive the part of the loss above capital.

Read literally, the mechanism breaks into two steps. The loss up to share capital is split among all partners by their shares. The excess is split among the general partners alone, in proportion to their shares. With a single general partner, the whole excess is theirs.

The benchmark is the amount of share capital, a figure found in the partnership's records rather than in the partners' personal accounts. The text does not say how later contributions or partner loans are treated, and the course makes no assumption about it. Before splitting a large loss, have the accountant confirm the figure to use.

Which income the loss can offset

Receiving a loss does not mean it can be deducted from any income. Paragraph 3 of article 8 states that losses from holding an interest in an SNC or SAS are set against the related income, meaning business income, earned in the same tax period. That restriction decides how useful a partnership loss really is.

For a partner who also draws a salary, the consequence is clear. The SNC loss does not reduce employment income. It reduces other business income of the same year, such as a profitable share in another partnership or the income of a sole trade taxed under the ordinary regime.

Whatever cannot be absorbed in the year carries forward to later periods. Here too there is a ceiling: the loss can be used up to 80 per cent of the related income earned in those periods, for the full amount that fits within it. It is the same limit that applies to limited companies.

Article 8 then brings in two rules from article 84. Losses from the first three tax periods, if they relate to a new productive activity, are used without the 80 per cent ceiling. And for SNCs and SASs only, the block that applies when a majority of voting rights changes hands together with a change of activity also operates.

Because the loss now belongs to the partner, so does the record of it. The partnership's return shows the share allocated for the year, but only the partner can track how much has been used against their own business income and how much remains. Keep a personal schedule, year by year, and hand it to whoever prepares your return.

IRAP stays with the partnership

IRPEF passes to the partners; IRAP does not. The Agenzia's payments page says so in one line: partnerships pay only IRAP. The Ministry of Economy and Finance lists as liable those carrying on business or self-employed activity, whether individually or jointly.

Since the tax period running on 1 January 2022, IRAP is no longer due from individuals with business income or from individuals practising professions. The Ministry adds that the exclusion also covers family businesses and spouses' businesses not run as a partnership.

SNCs and SASs therefore sit outside that exclusion. It is often overlooked when comparing legal forms: two siblings trading as separate sole traders pay no IRAP, while the same two siblings joined in an SNC do. Put that difference into the numbers before setting up the partnership.

The course gives no IRAP rate. Rates vary by type of taxpayer, sector and region, and the regions publish their data through the Ministry's portal. The tax base, net value of production, is calculated differently for each type of taxpayer and does not match the income allocated to the partners.

The Redditi SP return

Even though it pays no income tax, a partnership files its own return every year, the Redditi SP. That is where the income or loss to be allocated is worked out and each partner's share is stated. Without it, the partners would have no figure to carry into their own returns.

The Agenzia's page lists the resident entities that must file it: simple partnerships, SNCs and SASs, shipowning partnerships, de facto or irregular partnerships, associations of individuals practising professions jointly, spouses' businesses run as a partnership between spouses, and European economic interest groupings.

Those excluded include spouses' businesses not run as a partnership, whose spouses file the Redditi Persone fisiche return instead, and non-resident partnerships, which use the return for capital companies or the one for non-commercial entities. Condominiums acting as withholding agents file form 770.

For the 2025 tax period the return is filed online, through the Agenzia's reserved area, between 15 April and 2 November 2026, because 31 October falls on a Saturday. The Agenzia provides the RedditiOnLine SP software for completing it; many partnerships use an intermediary.

The partner's calendar

A partner pays IRPEF on their share under the rules for individuals. According to the Agenzia's page, the balance from the Redditi PF return and any first payment on account are due by 30 June of the filing year, or within the following thirty days with a 0.40 per cent surcharge.

A payment on account is due if the declared tax, net of credits, withholdings and surpluses, exceeds €51.65. It equals 100 per cent of that tax. Below €257.52 it is paid in one go by 30 November; from that threshold up it is split into two instalments, 40 per cent in June and 60 per cent in November.

For ISA taxpayers the advance is split evenly, half in June and half in November. The page makes clear that this status reaches the partners: the 2026 extension under article 6 of Decree-Law 89/2026 also covers anyone holding an interest, under article 5 of the TUIR, in a partnership that meets the ISA conditions.

In practice, partners in an SNC subject to ISA, within the revenue limit set for its index, could pay their 2026 balance and first instalment by 20 July with no surcharge, or within the following thirty days at 0.80 per cent. It is a one-year measure, tied to a single decree, and needs checking again each spring.

The partnership's calendar and the partners' calendars run side by side. The partnership has to settle income and shares in time for the partners to pay in June; the partners, for their part, need cash to pay the balance and advance on income that may still be sitting in the partnership's account. Coordinating the two is the managing partner's job.

A yearly check in four questions

The first question is about shares. Is the deed of incorporation, or the latest authenticated deed amending it, dated before the start of the year? If a change was agreed during the year, the previous shares still apply for that period, and the Redditi SP return must reflect them.

The second is about the result. If the partnership made a loss and is an SAS, what was the share capital at year end, and how much of the loss exceeds it? That figure decides how much reaches the limited partners and how much falls on the general partners.

The third is about IRAP. Has the partnership set aside the regional tax, which remains its own liability even when all income passes to the partners? The amount depends on region, sector and deductible labour cost, and should be estimated with the accountant rather than inferred from the partners' IRPEF.

The fourth is about the partners. Does each one know the share they will be allocated, and do they have the cash for June's balance and advance? If profits stay in the partnership, a targeted distribution before the deadline saves a partner from borrowing to pay tax on income they never received.