Those who discover their score only once the tax return is already set have already lost the most important part of the advantage. The score is built in the accounting of the current financial year, and the 2026 year-end close is just ten weeks away.

While the 2025 tax returns are being filed, the score that will really matter in the coming years is not the one appearing in this year’s forms. It is the 2026 score, which is being shaped right now, in this period’s accounting entries and in the year-end decisions that will be made in December. The most significant benefits of the premium regime are in fact also tied to the two-year average: the 2026 score will be the second term of the 2025-2026 average and the first of the 2026-2027 average. A poorly managed financial year counts against you twice; a well-managed one pays off twice.

Three questions, and the answer should come immediately

The starting point is a check that every entrepreneur should be able to carry out in a few minutes. What score did I achieve in the last two financial years? What two-year average does this produce, and which threshold does it place me in? At year-end close, does someone verify the consistency between the accounting data and the data feeding the indicators, or is the score only discovered once the tax return has already been drawn up? If the answers don’t come immediately, the problem is not the score itself: it’s that this variable has never been actively managed.

What each threshold is worth

Italian Revenue Agency measure no. 123160 of 10 April 2026 confirmed the structure of the premium regime for the 2025 tax period, and its threshold-based architecture makes the return measurable. With a score of at least 8, the taxpayer is exempt from the compliance visa requirement for offsetting VAT credits up to €50,000 per year and direct tax and IRAP credits up to €20,000, and the statute of limitations for tax assessments is reduced by one year for the period the score refers to. With a score of at least 8.5, or a two-year average of at least 9, the tax offices cannot proceed with assessments based on simple presumptions. With a score of at least 9, whether for the year or as a two-year average, the compliance visa exemption thresholds rise to €70,000 for VAT and €50,000 for direct taxes and IRAP, the company is excluded from the non-operating companies regime — a decisive factor for real estate management companies — and remains excluded from synthetic (lifestyle-based) assessment, provided the assessable income does not exceed the declared income by more than two-thirds.

At the opposite extreme, a score below 6, especially if combined with failure to join the two-year preventive tax agreement, is the profile the Agency has identified as a priority for its audit activities. Between these two extremes there is no neutral zone: every tenth of a point shifts the company either toward protection or toward closer scrutiny from the tax offices.

What really makes a low score dangerous

On its own, a low score is a clue, not proof. It becomes dangerous when combined with other elements, such as implausible inventory levels, markups far removed from those typical of the sector, repeated losses, or a narrow shareholder base, because it is in that combination that the tax office finds grounds to override the accounting records. Protection, therefore, does not lie in disputing the indicator after the fact, but in being able to explain the deviation with documents produced at the time the facts occurred: a justification reconstructed years later is rarely convincing.

Safeguarding belongs to the year-end close

Safeguarding the score, consequently, belongs to the year-end close and not to the tax return, and the weeks remaining until December should be used in three stages. Immediately, a projection of the 2026 score based on available accounting data, to understand where the company will stand and how far it is from the next threshold. Before 31 December, the choices that affect the indicators and are still possible: accurate recording of inventory, correct allocation of costs and revenues to the right period, and documentation of the objective causes behind a weak result — such as a suspended project, the loss of a major client, or an investment not yet at full capacity — while they can still be proven. At the financial statement and tax return stage, verifying the grounds for exclusion before resigning oneself to the score, and assessing voluntary adjustment as a cost-benefit calculation, comparing the tax cost of the additional declared components with the value of the thresholds it allows the company to reach. None of these steps can be recovered afterward.

The limit of the premium regime

On one point it is essential to be explicit, because this is where expectations stray furthest from reality: a score built on inaccurate data protects nothing. The tax authorities cross-reference the indicator data with tax register and e-invoicing data, and any resulting inconsistency is itself a red flag. The premium regime rules out certain forms of assessment; it does not cover the underlying business facts. The goal is not a high score at any cost, but a score that faithfully reflects a well-run company.

Who else reads the score

Moreover, the score is not confined to the relationship with the tax authorities. It affects the appeal of the two-year preventive tax agreement, whose proposal is built on the same data feeding the indicators and whose acceptance extends the benefits of the premium regime to the company. And it is increasingly read by those assessing the company from the outside: in a business sale, when a new partner comes on board, or during a generational transition, the history of scores is one of the first signals of the tax risk being inherited. A company with a series of high, consistent scores has a tax history that speaks for itself; one with fluctuating scores must explain it, and the valuation suffers as a result.

Why it is a position

It is in this sense that the ISA score is a position, not merely a compliance formality. It takes shape in the accounting, influences planning decisions, exposure to audits, and the very value of the company, and the moment it generates value comes before the tax return is filed. Those who treat it as two separate compartments — accounting on one side, tax strategy on the other — always discover this too late. The 2026 score is still open: this is the last moment in which it can be shaped, rather than simply endured.