Pre-filled 730 Italy: what it is and how to check it without mistakes

What the pre-filled 730 is

Picture Sarah. She works in a warehouse in Sesto San Giovanni, comes back to Cinisello in the evening and every year thinks: «a tax return is a mountain of papers». Then a friend tells her about the pre-filled 730: a form that is already filled in, which you do not have to complete from scratch. Sarah opens it, spends half an hour checking, files it, and in July the refund turns up in her payslip. She has never gone back since.

The pre-filled 730 is exactly this: the tax return the Italian Revenue Agency prepares for you, starting from the data it already holds — income from work or a pension, medical expenses, mortgage, insurance and much more. In 2026 the form for 2025 income can be viewed online from 30 April; from 14 May you can accept it, amend it and file it. The filing deadline stays 30 September 2026.

What it contains (and what it does not)

Inside the pre-filled form

The Revenue Agency gathers the data that reaches it from other parties: your employer or INPS, banks, insurance companies, pharmacies, universities. In practice the form already shows:

• employment, pension or freelance income, taken from your Certificazione Unica (the Italian income certificate)
• medical expenses, medicines and health service charges passed on through your health card (tessera sanitaria)
• mortgage interest on your main home and insurance premiums
• university fees, school fees and nursery school costs
• contributions for domestic helpers, carers and babysitters, and payments into a supplementary pension
• renovation and energy-efficiency works, including the ones paid by the building's condominium
• donations to third-sector organisations and funeral expenses

Outside the pre-filled form

Not everything is in there, though. Expenses that nobody reports to the tax office are almost always missing: the rent you deduct under the onus locazione, visits paid in cash at a private practice, interest on a personal loan, your children's sports costs, or donations you made without sending a receipt to the Revenue Agency. These are exactly the items you have to add yourself: whoever does not look for them does not get them back.

How to check the pre-filled 730, step by step

The check takes half an hour if you get your folder ready before you sit down. This is how we do it at the CAF, in three simple moments.

1. Open the form

You log in to the Italian Revenue Agency website with SPID, CIE or CNS and open your pre-filled return. Before 14 May you can only view it: even at that stage you can spot whether a whole section is missing. From 14 May the form can be accepted, amended and filed.

2. Compare it with your documents

Put the form next to your folder: Certificazione Unica, medicine receipts, mortgage payment slips, rent receipts. Figure by figure. If an expense you paid does not appear, it is not your mistake: simply nobody reported it. You add it and it becomes a deduction.

3. Add what is missing

The most frequent additions, the ones we see at the office every week:

• rent paid in 2025, with the details of the tenancy agreement
• medical expenses that did not go through the health card
• costs for dependent children: school, sport, after-school activities
• interest on loans and mortgages not included in the form
• insurance premiums and contributions paid during the year

Accept or amend: the choice that decides the checks

If you accept without changes

If the form is correct as it stands and you file it without changing anything that affects income or tax, the documents proving the expenses reported by third parties — doctors, pharmacies, banks, insurers, universities — are no longer checked. This is the biggest advantage of the pre-filled form: fewer papers, fewer verifications.

If you amend it

If you correct or add items that affect the calculation, the return counts as «amended». With a CAF that attaches the visto di conformità (certification of conformity), the documentary checks move to us: except in cases of wilful misconduct, any penalties are borne by the CAF, while any higher taxes and interest remain yours. On medical expenses, the check only concerns the documents that were not in the pre-filled form.

Watch out for a case that catches people out: expenses shown only in the separate statement (the one that flags data for you to verify) are not yet in the return. If you enter them yourself, the return counts as «amended»: one more reason to do the check calmly, instead of filing on the spot.

The 2026 deadlines to put in your diary

This year's calendar, with the dates that really matter:

• 30 April 2026: the pre-filled 730 can be viewed online
• 14 May 2026: you can accept, amend and file the pre-filled 730
• 31 May 2026: file by today and the refund reaches your July payslip
• 30 September 2026: last day to file the 730, both pre-filled and ordinary
• 26 October 2026: with the 730 integrativo you correct things in your favour (a bigger credit or a smaller amount due)
• 2 November 2026: with Modello Redditi PF you correct things to your disadvantage or replace the 730

A simple rule applies to refunds: the sooner you file, the sooner it arrives. File by 31 May and the refund shows up in your July payslip (for pensioners, in the August pension slip); file in September and you receive it in November, and pensioners in December. The refund comes through your payslip or pension slip; if you have no withholding agent, it comes from the Revenue Agency into the bank account you give.

The five mistakes that cost the most

These are the mistakes we see most often at the counter, the ones that turn a refund into a smaller figure:

• filing without checking: if an expense is missing from the pre-filled form, you lose it
• thinking cash and bank transfers are the same: many deductions, medical costs included, require a traceable payment (cash is only fine for medicines and medical devices with a detailed receipt)
• forgetting the rent: it is one of the most commonly lost deductions of all
• leaving out dependent children or getting their details wrong: they change the deductions you are entitled to
• waiting until September: filing late pushes the refund back by months and fills the diary up to the last day

Questions we get most often

The answers to the five questions that land most often on the counter of our CAF and patronato. If yours is not there, call us or drop in at the office: we tell you straight away how to proceed, with no obligation.

Pre-filled or ordinary: the difference that actually matters

The pre-filled and the ordinary 730 contain the same sections and produce the same numbers; only the starting point differs. In the pre-filled version the Revenue Agency has already entered income, bank interest and part of the expenses, fed by intermediaries and banks. In the ordinary version you start from a blank form and declare everything yourself.

The practical consequence: with the pre-filled form your job is verification rather than compilation, and it is much faster; with the ordinary one the risk is forgetting an income, because you have to remember it. For the vast majority of employees the pre-filled return, checked properly, is both the quickest route and the hardest one to get wrong.

One detail that confuses people: both models can only be transmitted through an authorised intermediary, the CAF or an accountant. There is no self-service filing for the 730 — transmission is always done by whoever assisted you, which is why the intermediary's signature is indispensable.

The expenses that are usually missing (and what forgetting them costs)

The three most frequent are out-of-pocket medical costs, school and university fees, and mortgage or rent interest. To these come donations, contributions to a private pension fund and veterinary costs: none of them appear in the pre-filled form unless the recipient reported the payment.

The mechanism is always the same: an expense enters the return only if someone communicates it. A doctor paid by the national health service reports nothing, a private school often sends no data, and a pharmacy sends nothing at all. That is why the envelope of receipts is not a formality — it is the only part of the return you can genuinely check before sending.

The same applies to family members: an adult child studying, a parent on a low income, a spouse working abroad. Each case needs its own document, and when it is missing the deduction disappears with it, with no warning anywhere.

After filing: F24, refund and Revenue Agency checks

Once transmitted, if you have a withholding agent the account is closed for you: instalments of debit or credit appear in the payslip in the following months and you do nothing further. Without a withholding agent the balance is settled with the F24 form by the November dates — that is the only case in which the 730 asks you for a direct payment.

On checks, people hear all sorts of things: the Revenue Agency does not audit every return, but returns with inconsistent figures or undocumented expenses are more likely to receive a letter. A letter is not a fine: it is a request to show the documents you already have. Having the receipts to hand turns an enquiry into a reply, and nothing more.