Car tax, changes from 2026, for new cars

Car tax, it's changing. But only from 2026 and for newly registered cars. The new law establishes that for cars registered from next year the payment of the tax will not be in the three months now identified as the deadline, but must be made by the last day of the month following registration. It will then be paid for the entire year even if the regions - it is in fact a regional tax - will be able to decide on four-monthly deadlines for some types of cars. Nothing could change instead for cars purchased before the end of 2025: the rules remain the same (with four-monthly deadlines), unless the individual regions of belonging decide otherwise.

The rule is not yet law, but almost. The text has in fact been approved by the Council of Ministers as a legislative decree that implements the tax delegation "containing provisions on regional and local taxes and fiscal federalism". It is now being examined by the competent committees and after the opinion the government will decide whether to introduce any changes with a second reading of the Council of Ministers. The draft legislative decree introduces a significant technical innovation in the case of the sale of a used vehicle: the taxable persons - whether buyers, usufructuaries or holders of a financial lease - are identified on the first day of the tax period and not the last day available for payment. This - as explained in the technical report - allows "to overcome the inconveniences that occur in the case of transfer of ownership of the vehicle during the month of payment, especially if this occurs between different regions and also to avoid requests for reimbursement by taxpayers and consequent disputes". In this way - the report adds - "a uniformity of discipline at a national level is also achieved, which has long been desired both by other regions and by operators in the sector".

The tax - it is established - is then paid for 12 months for new vehicles, overcoming the current rules that provide for payments with different deadlines depending on the type of vehicle. But, even in this case, the rules can provide for exceptions, with quarterly payments. Another important innovation concerns vehicles subjected to administrative seizure, the so-called fiscal jaws, a restrictive measure that can be decided for the recovery of tax sums, but also for serious violations of the Highway Code, such as in the case of significantly exceeding the alcohol level while driving. The new text establishes that the tax must be paid even in the case of administrative seizure which is expressly excluded from the cases of "loss of possession of the vehicle due to force majeure or by a third party or unavailability resulting from a provision of the judicial authority or public administration". Until now, however, based on a ruling by the Constitutional Court in 2017, these vehicles were exempt from paying the tax. This rule, however, will also be overcome by 2026 and is at the center of the evaluations of the competent commissions. Some simplifications are then introduced for those who trade in used vehicles. "The transfer of vehicles by anyone carried out towards subjects who professionally trade them - it is clarified - determines the interruption of the obligation to pay the car tax only in the case in which it is transcribed in the Public Automobile Register-PRA". The communication can take place within 60 days and a four-monthly list disappears, with the details of the owners of the car and the sales contract, which had to be filled out by those who sell the cars with an increase in bureaucracy also for the PRA.