Work progress reports for tax breaks: how does the system work?

The Superbonus and Sisma Bonus tax break schemes require work progress to be checked, with reports prepared separately. According to the Italian revenue agency’s statement on 27 January 2022, the two tax breaks require different measures and different technical expertise to certify the effectiveness of the work and reasonableness of costs.

How is work progress checked?

The Italian revenue agency explains the procedure in its response to this question, no. 53 dated 27 January 2022. For the work to qualify for the tax break with a discount on the invoice, each work progress report must refer to at least 30% of the total work.

The Superbonus and Sisma Bonus schemes require different measures, as well as different technical expertise, that attest to the effectiveness of the work and reasonableness of costs.

Find out how the Sisma Bonus seismic work tax break scheme works in Italy in 2022

The agency’s explanation stemmed from a question submitted by a resident who wanted to demolish two buildings to build a single living unit, with energy efficiency improvement and earthquake strengthening work. The two initial buildings are independent units with their own separate entries. The user asked whether, in order to claim the tax break indirectly via a discount on the invoice, two different work progress reports were needed.

The revenue agency clarified by stating that work progress reports must be prepared separately for each category of work eligible for the tax break and highlighted that:

“The two different types of work (“energy efficiency improvement” and “seismic risk reduction”) thus require different technical expertise to certify the effectiveness of the work in question, as well as to certify compliance with technical requirements and the reasonableness of costs.”

Work progress report on 30% of work for a discount on the invoice.

Based on another piece of recent legislation, each work progress report must refer to at least 30% of the total work in order to claim the jumbo tax credit via a discount on the invoice, and no more than two work progress reports are allowed.
In 2020, Italian law (article 121 of DL 34) stated in this regard:
“The option set out under section 1 can be exercised in connection to each work progress report. For the purposes of this section, for work contemplated under article 119, there can be no more than two work progress reports for each project, and each work progress report must refer to at least 30% of said project.”
To claim tax credit under the Superbonus and Sisma Bonus schemes, qualified engineers must check the work as set out in the relevant legislation.
Because reporting concerns different materials (relating to energy efficiency improvement and seismic risk reduction), the relevant checks must be carried out separately as they require different specific expertise.

Learn more about how the invoice discount works

To sum up, the Italian revenue agency explains that:

“This means that where — as in the case in question — both energy efficiency and seismic improvement work eligible under the Superbonus scheme is carried out on the same building, work progress must be reported on separately for each category of work eligible for the tax break.”