With the reopening of the terms for the 2026-2027 biennium, many entrepreneurs and professionals find themselves asking the same question that accompanied the last two years: is it worth accepting the income proposal formulated by the Italian Revenue Agency, or is it more prudent to stay out? The answer is never automatic: it depends on the taxpayer’s tax reliability profile, the income prospects for the next two years, and the risk tolerance for a commitment that, by its nature, is undertaken before knowing the outcome.

The Concordato Preventivo Biennale (CPB), governed by Legislative Decree no. 13/2024 and most recently amended by Decree-Law no. 38/2026 (converted by Law no. 88/2026), allows businesses and self-employed workers subject to ISA to agree in advance with the tax authorities on their income and net production value for IRAP purposes for the following two-year period, benefiting from a series of protections in exchange for waiving the right to declare an income different from the agreed one, except in cases of forfeiture.

The advantage of crystallization: when excess income does not count

The most immediate benefit concerns the tax irrelevance of excess income: those who agree on a certain amount and produce a higher income during the two-year period do not pay taxes on the difference. For a business with growth prospects, this mechanism can translate into significant savings.

This is accompanied by the possibility of applying a substitute tax — with rates ranging between 10% and 15% depending on the relevant ISA score, within a tax base cap of 85,000 euros — on the higher agreed income compared to what was declared in the year prior to the biennium, in place of the ordinary IRPEF or IRES rates.

Participation also entails automatic access to the reward scheme provided for the highest ISA scores, regardless of the score actually achieved: greater offsets, reduction of tax assessment terms, and other benefits otherwise reserved for those who reach a high level of tax reliability.

No less relevant is the protection from analytical-inductive tax assessments based on presumptions, which represent the most common investigative tool in auditing activities. However, it should be clarified that this protection is not absolute: VAT audits, site visits, and ordinary investigative requests remain fully exercisable. Among the regulatory updates for the biennium, we also highlight the inclusion of the new hyper-depreciation among the adjustments to the agreed income, which allows the relative tax benefit to be preserved even in the event of participation.

The other side of the agreement: two-year commitment, forfeiture, and effects on the future

The first structural limit stems from the two-year nature of the commitment: while for the first year the taxpayer already has concrete elements regarding the performance of their business, for the second year it is a projection. An agreed income higher than that actually realized remains due, except for the limited cases of termination due to exceptional circumstances provided for by the implementing ministerial decree, which are also subject to an income drop of more than 30% compared to the agreement.

Even more delicate is the scenario of forfeiture from the agreement, which involves the recalculation of taxes for both years based on the higher of the agreed and actual income: an outcome that can transform an instrument designed for tax stability into a significant burden.

It should also be considered that the income actually declared during the agreed two-year period will constitute the calculation base for the proposal relating to the following biennium: those who benefited from significant savings in the last two-year period could receive a more demanding proposal for 2026-2027, calibrated on the income actually achieved.

Finally, for taxpayers who already structurally boast a high ISA score, the reward benefits of the agreement are largely already acquired independently, reducing the marginal benefit of participation.

Three profiles for which the evaluation is particularly relevant

The cost-benefit analysis can be traced back to three typical situations. The first concerns those who expect a significantly higher income for the first year of the biennium compared to that inferable from the proposal, a situation in which the benefit of crystallization produces a direct and quantifiable advantage.

The second concerns taxpayers with a low ISA score, or who in the last tax period recorded an unexpected drop in their level of tax reliability: for them, the agreement represents a way to access assessment protection and the reward scheme without necessarily having to improve their real indicators.

The third concerns those accessing the instrument for the first time, either because a cause for exclusion operating in previous years — such as multi-activity or an ongoing extraordinary transaction — has ceased, or because exiting the flat-rate scheme due to exceeding the revenue threshold has made the subject, for the first time, an ordinary ISA taxpayer. In these cases, the evaluation requires an analysis that takes into account not only the immediate tax data but also the corporate context and any extraordinary transactions planned or already carried out — a profile where the joint reading of tax and legal-corporate aspects becomes decisive.

A decision that requires more than an arithmetic calculation

The decision on the Concordato Preventivo Biennale is not limited to an arithmetic calculation: it requires a personalized simulation based on the taxpayer’s real data, the verification of applicable adjustments, the evaluation of any usable prior losses and, last but not least, an analysis of the overall context of the activity — including extraordinary transactions, changes in tax regimes, or corporate reorganizations that may affect the cause of exclusion or the convenience of participation.

It is in this intersection between the tax profile and the legal-corporate profile that the value of integrated assistance is measured. Santoro & Partners supports its clients in evaluating the convenience of the Concordato Preventivo Biennale with a multidisciplinary approach, combining the expertise of the firm’s lawyers with that of the chartered accountants, also utilizing the qualification of authorized intermediary for the direct management of the participation.

Contact us for a personalized evaluation of your position in view of the deadline of November 2, 2026.