Cedolare secca and rental income in 2026: rates, dates and the right choices

What cedolare secca is and who it is for

Mr Franco has been renting out his two-room flat on via Milano ever since he retired, and every time the tax season comes round he turns up at the desk with the same question: does he have to pay IRPEF on the rent he receives every month, the way he does on a salary, or is there a simpler route? The answer is called cedolare secca, and for anyone renting out a home it is almost always the first thing to look at.

Cedolare secca is an optional regime: instead of adding the rent to your other income and paying IRPEF at its rising rates, you pay a fixed percentage on the rent alone. On top of that, you pay no registration tax and no stamp duty on the registration, renewal or termination of the contract. The price of this benefit is clear: for the whole duration of the option you cannot ask for the rent to be updated, not even the ISTAT increase written into the contract, and you must send the tenant a letter giving up that right.

• it can be chosen by the owner or by anyone holding a real right over the property, as long as they are a natural person and not acting in the course of a business, trade or profession
• it covers homes in cadastral category A (A10 excluded) and their appurtenances rented together with the dwelling
• it is decided property by property: one house can be under cedolare secca and another not
• it applies to residential leases; the income it replaces is the income of the property, not the rest of the household's income

The 2026 rates: 21%, 10% and 26%

In 2026 there are three cedolare secca rates, and they depend on the type of contract and, for short lets, on how many homes you rent out. These are national rules, the same all over Italy: what changes is the contract, not the percentage.

• 21% on the annual rent of free-market contracts, the classic 4+4
• 10% on regulated-rent contracts — the 3+2, temporary contracts from 1 to 18 months and student contracts from 6 months to 3 years — signed in municipalities with a shortage of housing, in high housing-pressure municipalities, in provincial capitals and in the municipalities bordering them: Cinisello Balsamo is one of them
• 21% on the income from short lets, those lasting no more than 30 days, for a single property chosen each year in the tax return
• 26% on the other homes let short-term in the same year

The 2026 novelty concerns exactly the short lets: the Budget Law has cut from four to two the number of flats you can use for this kind of lease. Anyone renting out three homes or more, including through portals and agencies, is running an activity that the law presumes to be a business: a VAT number and contributions are required, and cedolare secca no longer applies. It is a change that caught many small landlords off guard.

A quick calculation on the rent

Say the rent is 7,200 euro a year, that is 600 euro a month. With cedolare secca at 21% the tax on the rent is 1,512 euro, and with that you are in order. Under ordinary taxation the rent counts towards income at 95%, that is 6,840 euro, and you pay IRPEF on it starting from 23%: the tax alone is already 1,573 euro, and the figure grows for those on a higher rate, plus the regional and municipal surcharges and the registration and stamp duties on the contract.

Regulated rent in Cinisello Balsamo: the 10% rate and the benefits that come with it

The regulated-rent contract, the one everybody calls 3+2, lasts at least three years with two more to renew, and comes from an agreement between tenants' unions and landlords' associations. In Cinisello Balsamo the Local Agreement was signed and filed with the municipality on 15 April 2024: the rent is not agreed by word of mouth, but calculated on the indicators of the agreement, split by area and by the features of the dwelling.

To get the tax benefits you need the certificate of compliance issued by the signatory associations: it is a two-sided document, and without it the contract is valid but unlocks no relief. The municipality also asks landlords to report the start of the contract to its Tax Service, with the registration receipt from the Agenzia delle Entrate, in order to apply the reduced IMU: national law provides for one quarter less tax on properties let at a regulated rent.

• cedolare secca at 10% instead of 21% on the regulated rent
• IMU reduced by a quarter, after reporting the contract to the municipality's Tax Service
• a duration of 3 years plus 2 to renew; for temporary needs there are temporary contracts from 1 to 18 months
• contracts for out-of-town university students from 6 months to 3 years, in municipalities hosting a university and in those nearby
• the two-sided certificate from the associations that signed the Local Agreement: without it there are no benefits

What the tenant is entitled to

Anyone living in rented accommodation under a regulated-rent contract gets a bigger deduction than with free-market contracts: 495.80 euro if total income does not exceed 15,493.71 euro, and 247.90 euro in the band up to 30,987.41 euro. For young people aged at least 20 and under 31 there is an even more substantial item: 20% of the rent, with a minimum of 991.60 and a maximum of 2,000 euro, for the first four years of the contract and with income no higher than 15,493.71 euro. The deductions cannot be added together: you take the most favourable one, and claim it in the 730 or the Modello Redditi.

When you pay: deadlines, F24 and tax codes

Cedolare secca is paid with the F24 form and follows the IRPEF deadlines: you pay the balance for the year just closed and the advance for the current year. If we prepare your 730 or Modello Redditi, the amounts come from the settlement statement: they are not invented, they are read from there.

• balance for the previous year: by 30 June, or by 30 July with an extra 0.40% as interest
• advance: equal to 100% of the tax paid the year before, and paid only if it exceeds 51.65 euro
• if the advance does not exceed 257.52 euro it is paid in a single instalment by 30 November
• if the advance is higher it is split into two instalments: 40% by 30 June (or 30 July with the 0.40%) and the remaining 60% by 30 November; for those applying the ISA the two instalments are at 50%

The three tax codes to know

In the Erario section of the F24, cedolare secca uses three codes, and each of them answers a different question: which instalment you are paying. Getting the code wrong is not as serious as getting the year wrong, but it forces a reconciliation that can drag on for weeks.

• 1840: advance, first instalment
• 1841: advance, second instalment or single payment
• 1842: balance

If the amount weighs on you, the payment can be split into instalments: the instalment number goes in the 'Rateazione/regione/prov./mese rif.' field of the form, and the first instalment must still meet the original deadline. Before sending the F24 we always check that the code, the reference year and the amount describe the same payment.

Short lets in 2026: two homes, the CIN and the new rules

Short lets means leases lasting no more than 30 days, the ones that go through booking portals. Here cedolare secca is at 26%, with the option of paying 21% on a single property chosen each year in the income tax return: it pays to put that choice on the home that earns the most. The platforms withhold 21% on every payment, but that withholding is an advance: if the correct rate is 26%, the difference is paid with the F24.

From 2026, anyone renting out three homes or more for short periods leaves the regime: the law presumes that a business activity is being carried on, with a VAT number, contributions and a SCIA filed with the municipality. Alongside these tax rules sit the obligations to identify the property, which also apply to the owner of a single home.

• the CIN, the national identification code issued by the Ministry of Tourism, has been mandatory since 1 January 2025 for holiday homes and short lets
• it must be displayed outside the property and shown in every listing, including those managed by agencies and portals
• the penalty for not having a CIN ranges from 800 to 8,000 euro; for a listing without a CIN from 500 to 5,000 euro; from 2,000 to 10,000 euro if the SCIA is missing, and from 600 to 6,000 euro for the safety requirements of the systems
• from 20 May 2026 EU regulation 2024/1028 also applies: platforms send guest data to the authorities and listings must show the registration number

Option, revocation and voluntary correction: the choices to get right

Cedolare secca is chosen with the RLI form: on registering the contract, or within 30 days of the expiry of the previous annual period or of a renewal. The choice binds you for the whole duration of the contract or of the renewal in progress, and the option has no effect unless the notice to the tenant, giving up the rent update, has been sent first. If the form arrives late, the favourable regime starts only from the following annual period.

Changing your mind is possible, but only at precise deadlines. The owner can revoke the option in each following annual period, within the deadline set for paying that year's registration tax: in that case the registration tax is paid and you go back to ordinary IRPEF. And you can always return to cedolare secca in the periods after the revocation, with the same mechanism.

If the payment was missed

A forgotten F24, an advance that never started: it happens, and the worst thing is to wait. Those who put their position right on their own use voluntary correction, which cuts the penalty to a tiny fraction of the ordinary 30% and adds interest day by day. Voluntary correction is no longer possible once the breach has been established or an assessment has started: the longer you wait, the higher the bill.

How we do it together

At the CAF on Via Oreste Terenghi 21/23 we always start from the documents: the lease, any renewals, rent receipts and F24s already paid. In one appointment we work out which rate applies, whether the contract is one of the regulated ones, which deadlines are still open and how much it costs to put everything in order. You are told the fee for the paperwork before we start, and you decide whether to go ahead.

The questions we get most often

The five questions we hear most often at the desk about cedolare secca, with short answers. If your case is not among them, call or drop by the office: every contract has its own nuances.