Avviso Bonario in English: An Italian Tax Notice After Your Return

An avviso bonario — officially a comunicazione di irregolarità — is a notice from the Agenzia delle Entrate, Italy's tax office, after it has checked a tax return you filed: for a foreigner, often the return for the rent of a holiday home. It is not yet a demand, and it can be settled cheaply.

Two kinds of check

• The automatic check (controllo automatico, art. 36-bis DPR 600/1973; art. 54-bis DPR 633/1972 for VAT): tax declared but not paid, a calculation error, a credit not due.
• The formal check (controllo formale, art. 36-ter): the office reviews the documents behind your deductions and credits.

It comes by post or PEC, online through the accountant who filed the return, and in your cassetto fiscale (your online tax file), under L'Agenzia scrive.

The 60 days

• For notices issued since 1 January 2025, pay within 60 days of receiving it (before: 30) — 90 if it went online to your accountant.
• The penalty is then cut to one third (8.33% of the tax after an automatic check) or to two thirds (16.67% after a formal check).
• Or pay in up to 20 quarterly instalments, the first within the 60 days.
• The days from 1 August to 4 September are not counted. Enter the day you received it on this page and the site counts the last day without them.

If it is wrong

Tell the office before you pay — through CIVIS, the assistance service of your online area (documents can be sent there too), or at an office by appointment. If it agrees, it corrects or cancels the notice (autotutela).

If you do nothing

The amount goes to collection with the full penalty (now 25% of the tax) and interest, and comes back as a cartella esattoriale. Undeclared income is claimed instead by an avviso di accertamento.

A lettera di compliance

A compliance letter is softer still: the office's data — rents, sales, foreign accounts — do not match your return, and it invites you to correct it yourself with reduced penalties (ravvedimento operoso) before any check. Answer only in the way the letter names.

Check before you pay

Fake e-mails in the Agenzia's name are common. A real notice can also be seen in your cassetto fiscale; pay only with the F24 form it encloses, never through a link in an e-mail. A lawyer for fines and administrative penalties can check the notice and answer it in Italian.