The Internal Revenue Service uses current accounts, purchases, investments and expenses incurred as a thermometer. The tax authorities thus verify whether a taxpayer’s standard of living is compatible with the declared income. But what really triggers the investigations? The law provides for a double threshold.
Checks on current accounts: what data does the Tax Office know?
Banks, post offices and other financial operators communicate information relating to relationships with customers to the tax registry. The financial reports archive includes, among other data, the existence of the accounts, the balances, the average stock and the total amounts of credits and debits.
The Revenue Agency can use these elements, also by cross-referencing them with other tax databases, to identify financial availability, expenses or investments that are not consistent with what has been declared. Inclusion on a risk list, however, does not in itself equate to the detection of an evasion.
The double threshold of 20 percent and 71,011 euros: an example
The law establishes that the assessment can be carried out when the ascertainable income “exceeds the declared income by at least one fifth” and, in any case, the difference is equal to at least ten times the annual social allowance. What does it mean? Concretely, the deviation must be greater than 20 percent and, at the same time, must reach an absolute value which in 2026 corresponds to 71,011.20 euros.
Example: a taxpayer declares an income of 30 thousand euros*, while the taxman reconstructs one of 80 thousand. The difference is 50 thousand euros and well over 20 percent. However, the absolute threshold of 71,011.20 euros is not reached: the conditions required for the summary assessment are not both satisfied.
But if a taxpayer declares 100 thousand euros and the administration reconstructs 175 thousand, the gap is equal to 75 thousand euros, higher than both 20 percent and the absolute threshold: in this case the double condition is achieved.
Expenses used to reconstruct income
Article 38 allows the office to synthetically determine the overall income on the basis of “expenses of any kind” incurred during the tax period. Purchases of real estate, cars, investments, school expenses, insurance, travel and other documentable outlays can therefore become significant.
Financial data can also contribute, but it does not mean that every sum in the account is considered income: transfers between personal accounts, loans, donations, inheritances, disinvestments and sums already taxed can have a completely legitimate origin. The central point is the possibility of documenting its origin.
How the taxpayer can defend himself
Before issuing the summary assessment, the office must invite the taxpayer to appear and subsequently start the assessment procedure with acceptance. There is therefore no automatic switch from data processing to payment request.
The taxpayer can demonstrate that the expenses have been financed:
- with income produced in previous years;
- using already accumulated savings;
- through incomes that are exempt or already taxed at source;
- with sums provided by other people;
- with income that does not contribute to the formation of taxable income.
It can also prove that the amount of expenditure attributed by the tax authorities is different from that actually incurred. Bank documentation, contracts, donation or inheritance deeds and evidence relating to disinvestments therefore become decisive.
Folder notifications will stop in August 2026
Meanwhile, the Revenue Agency announced on 6 July 2026 a suspension, in the month of August, of the notification of payment orders, motivated by the desire to “avoid inconvenience to taxpayers during the summer holidays”.
The organization intervened after some articles reporting an alleged increase in foreclosures and foreclosures. The Revenue Agency has denied the existence of a peak, specifying that the numbers of the two activities are “absolutely ordinary” and in line with those of the previous year.
The summer stop therefore does not cancel the documents already notified and does not change the rules on checking current accounts. It is just a pause in the new tax assessment notifications, while tax assessment and collection activity remain governed by separate procedures and terms.