What is Italy's 2026 iperammortamento incentive?

Iperammortamento 2026 (Law 199/2025, implementing decree) is the Italian tax incentive that replaced Transizione 5.0, whose tax credit closed to new investments on 1 January 2026. Its Allegato V explicitly subsidizes software, platforms and digital models of advanced artificial intelligence (letter dd): it is no longer just an incentive for machinery, but covers the software and AI layer of a digitalization investment. Compared to Transizione 5.0, tied to a measurable energy-consumption reduction that excluded many purely software projects, it shifts the focus to investment in capital goods and software supporting digital transformation: a scope that lines up, almost literally, with what a data and AI consultancy delivers every day. Some conditions, though, rule out projects that would seem eligible at first glance: the asset must be connected to the company's systems, and the bonus only increases the cost the company depreciates over the years, so it applies to spend booked as an asset and not to a fee expensed as a service.

See also: Startup innovativa (Italian innovative startup) · Italian legal status under art. 25 of D.L. 179/2012, obtained by registering in the special section of the business register.

The traps to know before investing

In detail, there are two conditions. First, interconnection is mandatory: the asset must automatically exchange data with the company's management or production system, not simply be purchased and installed. Second, and this trap is an accounting one rather than an architectural one, the law increases the purchase cost on which the tax saving is computed, but solely for the purpose of determining depreciation charges and finance lease payments: a SaaS subscription expensed as a service generates no depreciation charges, so there is nothing to uplift, while a cloud platform capitalized as a new fixed asset and interconnected is squarely eligible, and Allegato V funds cloud computing explicitly at letter m). The question to put to the accountant is how that spend is booked, and it has to be settled before signing the contract, not after.

This entry is informational and does not constitute tax advice: before planning an investment on this basis, involve your accountant or tax advisor.