Third-quarter F24 deadlines: advance payment, VAT and what to do if you pay late

What happens in the third quarter with the F24

The F24 is the form Italy uses to pay almost every tax: you fill it in once and the total is taken from your bank account or handed over at the counter, with credits on the same line cancelling out debits. The third quarter is the stretch from July to September: for anyone who settles VAT every three months it is the quarter identified by code 09, and for anyone paying tax that stems from the annual return it is the quarter that squares the account with June.

The confusion comes from the dates. The money for the third quarter does not all leave your account in September: the first deadline of real weight comes even earlier, on 20 August for second-quarter VAT, and after that there are 16 October, 16 November and 30 November, with 16 December standing as the last stop for whoever decides to pay in instalments. In short, anyone who prepares the F24 with the September calendar in mind collects three surprises in the autumn.

The 2026 dates to write in your calendar

Here is the list of the days that matter for the third-quarter F24. The dates are those of 2026: when a deadline lands on a Saturday or a Sunday you may pay calmly on the next working day, with no penalty and no interest.

• 30 September 2026: final deadline for paying the 2025 balance and the first 2026 advance, with the 0.40% surcharge for every month or part of a month;
• 16 October 2026: F24 for September, with monthly VAT, IRPEF withholdings, regional and municipal surcharges and INPS contributions, plus the instalment of the 2025 VAT balance and the instalments already under way;
• 2 November 2026: VAT return form TR for the third quarter, for anyone with a credit to offset or to claim back as a refund, moved to the Monday because 31 October is a Saturday;
• 16 November 2026: payment of third-quarter VAT with the 1% surcharge, together with the F24 for October;
• 30 November 2026: second advance on IRPEF, IRES and VAT, LIPE communications for the third quarter and stamp duty on the electronic invoices of the first three quarters;
• 16 December 2026: last date to spread the second advance in instalments, and final instalment for anyone who split the June balance.

A detail that saves time: 30 November is a Monday, so nothing shifts, while the obligations of late October move to 2 November. Even so, better not to wait for the final day: a bank transfer started too late or an account momentarily in the red is the most frequent reason behind a payment that arrives after the term.

30 September: the closing deadline for balance and advance

The balance of the 2025 taxes and the first 2026 advance are normally paid by 30 June, or by 30 July with the 0.40% surcharge. 30 September is the third and last step: you can still settle everything in one go, but the 0.40% surcharge bites for every month or part of a month begun after 30 June. Whoever paid in July and later notices that the amount was short can regularise the difference on exactly this date, again with the surcharge applied.

16 October and 16 November: the two stops of the F24

The 16 October F24 carries the payments of September: monthly VAT for those who settle every month, withholdings on employed and self-employed work, regional and municipal surcharges, INPS contributions of employees and of the Separate Fund. On 16 November instead it is the turn of third-quarter VAT for quarterly filers, with the 1% interest added onto the tax: it is a small statutory addition, not a miscalculation, and it belongs on the same form.

The advance payment: who must pay it and how heavy it is

The advance payment is a kind of prepayment towards the taxes of the current year: it is calculated on what you paid the year before and is made in two tranches, 40% by 30 June and the remaining 60% by 30 November. It is the traditional route, the one almost everybody follows: if last year's tax came to €1,000, this year you pay €400 in June and €600 in November, without having to forecast anything.

• whoever is in the first year of activity pays no advance at all, because there is no earlier tax to work it out from;
• anyone whose tax for the previous year sits below the minimum threshold of €51.65 is not obliged to pay it;
• whoever files a 730 with a withholding agent sees the second advance withheld from the payslip, normally in November;
• whoever is entitled to a reduced advance may communicate it to the withholding agent by 12 October, without having to wait for the final settlement;
• the second advance cannot be instalmented in the classic sense: it can only be split by 16 December under the rules that govern payment in instalments.

Two figures help you find your bearings. If the overall advance does not exceed €257.52 the first instalment would be so small that it makes no sense: in that case everything goes in on 30 November, in a single payment. And if the previous year's tax does not exceed €51.65 the advance simply is not due. Take care as well not to confuse the advance on income taxes with the December VAT advance, which is a separate payment falling due on 27 December. And if the year went worse than expected the advance can be lowered: it is enough to have a serious calculation before paying, because paying less than owed exposes you to late-payment relief, while paying too much means lending money to the State until the following return.

How to fill in the F24 for the third quarter

The most delicate part of the form is not working out the amount but entering tax code, period and reference year correctly. They are three numbers the Revenue Agency uses to tie the payment back to the right deadline: if one of the three is wrong, the payment shows up as settled against a different line and the deadline is left uncovered.

The codes you need most often

• quarterly VAT: codes from 6031 to 6034, one for each quarter; for the third quarter the period to use is 09;
• monthly VAT: codes from 6001 to 6012, one for each reference month;
• December VAT advance: 6013 for monthly filers and 6035 for quarterly filers;
• annual VAT balance: 6099;
• IRPEF balance and advances: 4001 for the balance, 4033 for the first advance instalment and 4034 for the second instalment or for the advance paid in one go;
• penalties and interest of late-payment relief: 8904 and 1991 for VAT, 8901 and 1989 for IRPEF.

The columns that get filled in wrongly

In the Erario section of the form you enter tax code, reference year and period: the last of these is compulsory only for periodic payments, and for third-quarter VAT it is code 09. The credit amount columns, instead, are where you insert the credits you want to offset, such as surcharges paid in excess or tax credits. An F24 that offsets a credit which does not exist is rejected and the payment does not go through: the check comes back within a few days, but by then the deadline has already passed.

If you missed the deadline: voluntary late-payment relief

An F24 paid late is not a disaster, but it becomes one if you ignore it. Without any regularisation the standard penalty for the missing payment runs as high as 30% of the tax, on top of statutory interest. With ravvedimento operoso you instead pay a reduced penalty that grows with the days of delay, plus interest worked out at the statutory rate, which from 1 January 2026 stands at 1.6% a year.

• from 1 to 14 days of delay: the penalty starts at 0.08% on the first day and reaches 1.16% on the fourteenth;
• from 15 to 30 days: a penalty of 1.25% on the unpaid tax;
• from 31 to 90 days: a penalty of 1.39%;
• from 91 days to one year: a penalty of 3.12%;
• beyond one year: a penalty of 3.57%, with a far more concrete risk of an assessment arriving in your post.

The mistakes we see most often at the counter

Every week F24 forms reach our counter to be corrected or sorted out in a hurry. The mistakes are almost always the same, and steering clear of them takes a two-minute check before the form is sent.

• wrong reference period: the third quarter of VAT is 09, not 12 and not the month in which you pay;
• wrong reference year: third-quarter 2026 VAT is paid with year 2026, whereas the 2025 VAT balance carries a different year;
• forgetting the 1% surcharge on quarterly VAT payments;
• mixing up the ordinary, the simplified and the pre-filled F24: the first suits taxpayers with several taxes, the second suits the simpler payments, the third arrives already completed by the Revenue Agency;
• paying late and waiting for the demand to turn up: every day that goes by increases penalties and interest.

The payment you are allowed to make early

A piece of good news: nobody forbids you from paying an F24 ahead of its deadline. It may be sent several days in advance, provided the period and the year are the correct ones: the payment still goes through and does not lose its date. That is the right choice for whoever knows the account is lighter in the middle of the month, or for whoever wants the thought out of the way before leaving.

When the deadline lands on a Saturday

If the due date falls on a Saturday or on a public holiday, the payment counts as on time when it is made on the next working day. It happens often: in 2026, for instance, 31 October is a Saturday and the obligations of that day slide to Monday 2 November. It is better to look at the calendar every time than to trust your memory.

Frequently asked questions on F24 deadlines

The answers to the F24 questions you put to us most often at the counter. If yours is not here, call us or write on WhatsApp: the first consultation with us is free of charge, and the office receives by appointment only. Our patronato in Cinisello Balsamo is at Via Oreste Terenghi 21/23, 20092 Cinisello Balsamo (MI), and we look after the payments of workers, pensioners and small local businesses, from Cinisello to Sesto San Giovanni, Muggiò, Brugherio and Cologno Monzese: from checking the F24 to filling it in, all the way to the relief for a payment that was missed.