With its comfort letter of 8 March 2025, the European Commission approved the fiscal rules contained in Title X of the Code of the Third Sector (Legislative Decree 117/2017), in particular those in Art. 80 and Art. 86 (the latter is specific to Associations of Social Promotion - APS - and to Voluntary Organisations - ODV).
Let us first point out that the entry into force of the ETS tax regime will lead to the disappearance of the flat-rate tax regime under Law 398/1991 from 1 January 2026, which will only continue to apply to ASDs and SSDs not registered with RUNTS.
In particular, from 1 January 2026, for Third Sector Entities (ETS) non-commercial registered with RUNTS will be able to opt for flat-rate income determination enterprise by applying the following coefficients to the amount of revenue earned:
- 5% for revenues up to 130,000 euro (7% if service activities);
- 7% for revenues from €130,001 to €300,000 (10% if service activities);
- 14% for revenues over €300,000 (17% if service activities).
A “non-commercial” ETS is defined as an ETS that exclusively or predominantly carries out activities in the general interest (ex Art. 5 CTS) and if these activities are non-commercial, i.e:
- if they are performed free of charge or against payment of a fee that does not exceed the actual costs. Actual costs are determined by calculating, in addition to direct costs, all costs attributable to general interest activities and, among these, indirect and general costs, including financial and tax costs;
- if the revenues are greater than the costs, if the revenues do not exceed the relevant costs by more than 6 per cent for each tax period and for no more than three consecutive tax periods.
If, on the other hand, applying the above criteria, the ETS will be qualified as “commercial”, the ordinary, non-lump-sum, income determination regime will apply to all income (commercial and noncommercial) received during the financial year.
Therefore, cultural associations that today perform business and who make use of L. 398/1991 have two alternatives:
- if they fulfil the non-tradability requirements for ETSs, they can register with RUNTS and benefit from the specific flat-rate scheme mentioned above;
- If this is not possible, they may apply either the ordinary non-flat regime or, alternatively, they may benefit from the flat-rate regime under Article 145 of the TUIR, which provides:
- a profitability coefficient of 15% of revenue up to EUR 15,493.71 and 25% above this threshold and up to EUR 309,874.14 for the provision of services;
- a profitability coefficient of 10% of revenue up to EUR 25,822.84 and 15% above this amount and up to EUR 516,456.90 for other activities.
While remaining at your disposal for any doubts or requests for clarification, we would like to take this opportunity to extend our best regards to all.