INPS tax bill instalments: how to pay monthly without losing the plan

What an instalment plan on an INPS tax bill is

Daniel worked for years as a warehouse operative and in 2019 set up his own VAT registration as a self-employed tradesperson. The first months were tight and two INPS contributions were never paid. Seven years later the envelope arrived with the tax bill inside: 2,900 euros, all at once. At the office in Cinisello Balsamo his first question was the obvious one: where am I supposed to find that? The real answer is that you do not have to find it all at once.

The tax bill, the cartella di pagamento, is the document with which the Agenzia delle Entrate-Riscossione officially demands the unpaid contributions: domestic work, a business that was opened and then closed, a few months left uncovered. The debt is already established, but it does not have to be settled in a single payment: you can ask for an instalment plan, that is, to spread it over monthly instalments. The rules are written in article 19 of D.P.R. 602/1973, updated by legislative decree 110/2024 for every application filed from 1 January 2025.

Be careful not to confuse two phrases you hear often at the counter. An instalment plan takes nothing off the debt: you pay everything, plus interest, only spread over many months. The discounted settlements, the so-called write-off schemes, cancel part of the fines and interest whenever the law opens one. They are two different roads, and for the same tax bill sometimes only one of them exists.

How many instalments you can get in 2026 (and when documentation is needed)

The number of instalments depends on two things: how big the debt is in a single request, and whether you are willing to document your financial situation. These are the updated thresholds for applications filed in 2025 and 2026.

• Up to 120,000 euros, on a simple request: you only declare that you are going through a temporary period of proven economic hardship. You reach 84 monthly instalments (96 for requests made in 2027 and 2028, 108 from 2029).
• Up to 120,000 euros, with documentation of the hardship: from 85 up to a maximum of 120 monthly instalments.
• Over 120,000 euros in the same request: documentation is always mandatory, and you can still reach 120 monthly instalments.
• In every case the minimum instalment is 50 euros: below that figure the plan does not open.

The minimum instalment matters more than it seems. With a debt of 3,600 euros, for example, 84 instalments do not stand up because they would come to 43 euros each: the plan stops at about 72 instalments, roughly sixty euros a month. With a debt of 40,000 euros instead the 84-instalment ceiling is far away and the plan can be stretched as long as you need, within the limits of the law.

What does documenting hardship mean? It is not a hand-written letter: you need the documents describing income, fixed expenses and family assets, from the tax return to payslips or pension, from the rental or mortgage contract to bank statements. It is the RDF form for individuals and sole traders, the RDG form for companies. The exact number of instalments granted depends on indicators the Agency calculates on your situation: this is why documented plans must be prepared with care, not filled in in a hurry.

How to ask for the instalment plan, step by step

An instalment application has no fixed deadline like the 730: you can file it whenever you want, but every month that passes adds interest and brings enforcement action closer. For simple requests of up to 84 instalments the fastest route is online: in the reserved area of the Agenzia delle Entrate-Riscossione website, or from the Equiclick app, the Rateizza adesso service gives you the plan straight away, logging in with SPID, CIE or CNS.

What to prepare before you start:

• The tax bill or notice with its identifying numbers: tax code, collection roll code and year of issue.
• Your tax code and a valid ID document.
• An IBAN if you want direct debit from your bank account.
• SPID, CIE or CNS credentials for the online route; or the RS form completed and signed, sent to the certified email address (PEC) printed on the form or handed in at the counter.

If you would rather not do it alone you can appoint someone: the form has a dedicated section for the delegation, and a copy of the ID document of whoever files the application for you must be attached. It is the route we take as a patronato: you bring the tax bill, we check together that the debt really is yours and the amounts are right, we prepare the application and we file it for you. If instead the plan needs documentation of hardship, you start from the RDF or RDG forms and send everything to the PEC address printed on the form or to the counter. For a plan already in place that you can no longer keep up with there is also the extension, with the RDP form.

What we check before sending

Before spreading a bill into instalments, it has to be read. Sometimes the debt was already paid with an F24 that was never registered, sometimes the notification deadlines have expired, sometimes the interest figure does not add up. Checking before signing is the difference between paying your own debt and paying somebody else's too: it is the first thing we always do at the office.

What happens after you apply: what stops and what does not

Filing the application has an immediate effect, even before the reply: the Agenzia delle Entrate-Riscossione cannot start new precautionary measures, meaning the block on your car or motorbike and the mortgage on your home, nor new enforcement measures, meaning the wage attachment. This is why it pays to move early: the later the application arrives, the more likely it is that something has already started.

Not everything stops, though. What stays in place:

• Enforcement actions already under way: a wage attachment already started goes on.
• Blocks and mortgages already registered: the application does not cancel them.
• Conservative actions, such as creditor avoidance claims, and steps in proceedings started by others, for example an auction promoted by another creditor.

After the application a proper administrative procedure begins: you receive a notice of commencement, then the decision. It can be a full grant, a partial grant, when the plan covers only part of the debt and the rest stays payable, or a reasoned refusal. The granted plan sets out instalments, due dates and amounts: the first instalment falls no earlier than 8 working days from the decision, precisely to give you time to organise yourself.

The plan and the instalments: how to pay and what they cost

The instalment is not just the debt divided by the number of months. Inside each instalment of the plan we find:

• The outstanding share of the debt: contributions, fines and interest already accrued on the date of the application.
• The default interest built up until that moment.
• The instalment interest, calculated at the rate in force: the exact figure, month by month, is always written in the granted plan.
• The collection fee, only for charges handed over for collection up to 31 December 2021.
• Notification rights and costs, plus the costs of actions already started: they are charged in full to the first instalment.

Instalments can be paid in several ways, all traceable: with pagoPA payment slips in the reserved area or the app, or at any punto pagoPA (Poste, banks, tobacconists, authorised retailers); with direct debit from your bank account, the so-called SDD, activated online or with the form at the counters and it takes the deadlines off your mind; or directly at the Agenzia delle Entrate-Riscossione counters, where you can also offset any tax credits.

If you pay late you do not lose the plan straight away, but on the overdue amounts default interest accrues until the day of full payment. Better to set up the direct debit or a reminder on your phone: an instalment forgotten is the start of a much bigger problem.

Five mistakes that make you lose the instalment plan

• Missing instalments. Forfeiture kicks in when you fail to pay 8 instalments, even not consecutive: eight missed instalments in three years and the plan is gone. If the unpaid instalments include the last one, fewer are enough.
• Thinking you can start again. For instalment plans filed from 16 July 2022, after forfeiture you cannot obtain a new plan on the same debts: there is only one plan.
• Underestimating the first instalment. All the notification costs and the costs of actions already started sit on it: if you do not pay it in full, the plan starts badly.
• Confusing an instalment plan with a write-off. The instalment plan pays everything plus interest; the discounted settlements, when they are open, cancel fines and interest but have their own deadlines and rules.
• Ignoring the partial grant. If the plan covers only part of the debt, the remaining part is still payable: deal with it straight away, do not leave it in a drawer.

At the patronato in Cinisello Balsamo: we handle the application for you

Marta brought us a tax bill of 1,800 euros containing years of domestic work never paid by an employer. We read it line by line, we checked the years and we filed the application as her delegate: today she pays a little over 50 euros a month and does not think about it any more. Every tax bill is a different story, and that is why the first thing we do is sit down for ten minutes and understand it.

We are in Via Oreste Terenghi 21/23, 20092 Cinisello Balsamo (MI), a couple of steps from the station. We are open from Monday to Friday, 9:30-12:30 and 15:00-19:00. You can call us on 02 8716 5567 or write on WhatsApp at 329 713 9762: we give you an appointment and tell you straight away what to bring.

The first consultation is free and the quote is given to you before starting: no surprises at the end. As a patronato we follow the practice from the opening of the application until the plan arrives, and we check the first instalment together with you. Do not wait for the payment warning: while the tax bill is still fresh, there are many more roads open.