Simplified accounts and regime ordinario in Italy: how they work

Simplified accounts (contabilità semplificata) are how most partita IVA (Italian VAT number) holders outside the regime forfettario (Italy’s flat-rate tax regime) keep their books: you’re under the regime ordinario (the ordinary regime), you pay IRPEF (personal income tax) on your profit after deducting costs, you charge VAT on your invoices and pay it over, but there are few registers to keep. Here you’ll find who falls under the regime ordinario, when simplified accounts are enough and when ordinary accounts (contabilità ordinaria) are needed, how the taxes are calculated, which registers to keep and what happens when you move from the forfettario to the simplified regime.

The rules and figures are those in force in 2026, checked on Normattiva and on the Agenzia delle Entrate’s (the Italian Revenue Agency’s) pages on 30 September 2026.

Regime ordinario, simplified, ordinary: three words for two things

The words are often confused, so it’s worth pinning them down straight away:

• the regime ordinario is the tax regime of anyone who isn’t under the forfettario: IRPEF on profit, VAT charged and paid over;
• within the regime ordinario, your accounts can be simplified or ordinary. That’s the kind of bookkeeping you keep, not a different tax regime.

So when people talk about the simplified ordinary regime (regime ordinario semplificato), or a simplified partita IVA, they mean the regime ordinario with simplified accounts.

Who is under the regime ordinario

You enter it in three ways:

• you go over the forfettario limits: revenue or fees above €85,000 in the year (you leave the following year) or above €100,000 (you leave immediately);
• you meet one of the forfettario exclusion criteria, for example employment income above the year’s limit or a stake in a company carrying on a similar activity;
• you choose it, even if you’d qualify for the forfettario. This can pay off when your actual costs are high compared with the flat-rate coefficient, or when your clients want to deduct the VAT.

The forfettario requirements and exclusion criteria are explained in the guide to the regime forfettario.

Simplified or ordinary accounts: the thresholds

According to art. 18 of D.P.R. 600/1973, for businesses simplified accounts are the default as long as the previous year’s revenue stays below these thresholds:

If you carry on both services and other activities, the threshold of your main activity applies; if you don’t record revenue separately, the other activities are treated as the main one. Anyone opening a business who expects to stay below the threshold can keep simplified accounts from the first year. The regime renews itself from year to year until you go over the limits.

Above the threshold you move to ordinary accounts, with the general journal (libro giornale) and the inventory book (libro degli inventari). You can also choose them below the threshold: the option applies from the start of the year in which you exercise it and for at least the two following years.

For freelance professionals (liberi professionisti) art. 19 of D.P.R. 600/1973 provides records of their own, with no fee threshold: you record in chronological order the fees you’ve received and the expenses you deduct.

How taxes are calculated under the regime ordinario

The whole difference from the forfettario is here: you pay on your real profit, not on a fixed percentage of your takings.

1. Add up the year’s revenue or fees.
2. Subtract the costs related to the activity: goods, studio rent, software, consultancy, depreciation on business assets.
3. On the profit, together with your other income and net of deductible expenses such as social security contributions, IRPEF is calculated by brackets. Then the tax credits you’re entitled to are subtracted.
4. The regional and municipal surcharges (addizionali) are added, which vary with where you live.

With simplified accounts a business is taxed on a cash basis: what counts is the revenue received and the expenses paid in the year. A professional is also taxed on what they receive.

IRPEF rates in 2026

According to the Agenzia delle Entrate, the 2026 Budget Law cut the second rate from 35% to 33%.

For total income above €200,000 the law cancels out the benefit of the cut.

An example: with taxable income of €40,000, gross IRPEF is €6,440 + 33% of €12,000, that is €10,400, before tax credits and without the surcharges.

Under the forfettario the substitute tax (imposta sostitutiva) replaces IRPEF, the surcharges and IRAP (regional tax on productive activities). Under the regime ordinario the tax depends on the bracket rates and your tax credits, so two people with the same profit can pay different amounts.

VAT under the regime ordinario

Under the regime ordinario you charge VAT on your invoices and deduct the VAT you pay on purchases for the business. According to art. 16 of D.P.R. 633/1972, the standard rate is 22%; the reduced rates are 10%, 5% and 4% for the goods and services listed in Table A of the same decree.

Every period you do the settlement: VAT on sales minus deductible VAT on purchases. If the balance is payable you pay it with the F24 form (the unified payment form).

By 27 December you also pay the VAT advance. Every quarter you send the LIPE (the quarterly VAT settlement report) and every year the annual VAT return. Deadlines and how to fill them in are in the guide to the periodic VAT settlement.

Under the regime ordinario, as under the forfettario, invoices are issued as e-invoices through the SdI (Sistema di Interscambio, the state’s e-invoicing exchange system). Your client’s SdI code is the detail to ask for before you issue.

The registers to keep

With simplified accounts you keep the VAT registers, provided for by art. 23 and art. 25 of D.P.R. 633/1972:

• the register of invoices issued, where you record invoices in numbering order by the 15th of the month after the transaction;
• the purchase register, where you record the invoices you receive before the settlement in which you deduct the VAT;
• the daily takings register (registro dei corrispettivi), if you sell to private individuals without an invoice.

For income tax purposes a business with simplified accounts records receipts and payments. It can do so in two dedicated chronological registers, or in the VAT registers, noting separately the transactions not subject to VAT. With an option that lasts at least three years, it can keep only the VAT registers without recording receipts and payments: in that case the recording date counts as the date of receipt or payment.

With ordinary accounts come the general journal, the inventory book and the other records required by the Civil Code.

Moving from forfettario to simplified

This is the most common case: the business grows and the forfettario is no longer enough. According to the Agenzia delle Entrate on the consequences of leaving the regime, what happens depends on how you leave.

From your first day under the regime ordinario:

• put VAT on your invoices and remove the forfettario notice;
• set up the VAT registers and do the periodic settlements;
• if you’re a professional, clients who are withholding agents (sostituti d’imposta) apply withholding tax (ritenuta d’acconto) to your fees;
• deduct your real costs instead of applying the coefficient.

If you go over €100,000 during the year, the invoice whose payment takes you over the threshold must already carry VAT. If you issued it earlier without VAT, you add the VAT with a debit note (nota di debito). The earlier invoices without VAT remain valid.

Two rules stop a payment from being taxed twice or never. Revenue that has already counted under the previous regime doesn’t count again under the new one, and vice versa. And the VAT you couldn’t deduct as a forfettario on goods not yet used and on recent business assets is recovered with a one-off adjustment (rettifica), in the first VAT return under the regime ordinario.

If you choose the regime ordinario while still qualifying for the forfettario, you report it in the first annual VAT return that follows. If you don’t report it the option stays valid, but you risk a penalty of €250 to €2,000.

Forfettario or regime ordinario: which pays off

The forfettario assumes your expenses are a fixed percentage of your takings: 22% for a professional with a 78% coefficient, 60% for a trader at 40%. If you spend less, the forfettario almost always pays off. If you spend much more, or if you invoice almost only businesses that deduct VAT, the regime ordinario can cost you less. Your coefficient is in the guide to the profitability coefficient.

From 1 January 2027 the rules on registers and filings move into the Testo unico adempimenti e accertamento (D.Lgs. 5 agosto 2026, n. 141), those on income tax into the new Testo unico (D.Lgs. 19 giugno 2026, n. 117) and those on VAT into the Testo unico IVA (D.Lgs. 19 gennaio 2026, n. 10). These are consolidating codes that reorganise existing rules: the articles cited here will change number.

Growing until you leave the forfettario is good news: with clear rules, the move is just a new way of keeping your books.
💜💙 Your BravoLisa Team

This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute professional tax, legal, or accounting advice. Every situation is different — consult a qualified professional (tax adviser, accountant, or lawyer) for advice specific to your circumstances. BravoLisa does not accept liability for decisions made based on this information.

Last updated: September 2026. Rates and thresholds can change: always check with the Agenzia delle Entrate, INPS or the relevant authority.

Sources (11)

Verified on 30 September 2026

1. Normattiva — D.P.R. 29 settembre 1973, n. 600, art. 18 (Contabilità semplificata per le imprese minori)
2. Normattiva — D.P.R. 29 settembre 1973, n. 600, art. 19 (Scritture contabili degli esercenti arti e professioni)
3. Normattiva — D.P.R. 26 ottobre 1972, n. 633, art. 16 (Aliquote dell'imposta)
4. Normattiva — D.P.R. 26 ottobre 1972, n. 633, art. 23 (Registrazione delle fatture)
5. Normattiva — D.P.R. 26 ottobre 1972, n. 633, art. 25 (Registrazione degli acquisti)
6. Agenzia delle Entrate — Aliquote e calcolo dell'Irpef
7. Agenzia delle Entrate — Come pagare l'Iva
8. Agenzia delle Entrate — Regime forfetario: Modalità di accesso al regime
9. Agenzia delle Entrate — Regime forfetario: Conseguenze della fuoriuscita
10. Agenzia delle Entrate — Redditi Persone fisiche 2026, Fascicolo 3, istruzioni
11. FiscoOggi (Agenzia delle Entrate) — Approvato il Testo unico su adempimenti e accertamento