Furniture Bonus: building permit expired, which start date for work to consider?

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Emma Potter

Furniture and renovation bonus

The question posed is more topical than ever, given that the government has announced the extension of the Furniture Bonus also for the year 2025. There is therefore still time available to take advantage of the relief on furnishings and large appliances that is available to those who benefit from the deduction for renovation.

The Furniture Bonus allows you to have one 50% tax discount over ten years on the expenses incurred for the purchase of all types of new factory furniture, and for large household appliances (i.e. those equipped with an energy label) intended for furnishing the property subject to the works.

Only traceable purchases

For the purposes of the benefit the payment must be carried out with traceable instrumentssuch as bank transfer (one for renovation is not mandatory), credit cards or debit cards. They are also needed invoice or receipt with the buyer’s tax code. If you pay by credit card, the receipt is sufficient even without the tax code, provided that the nature, quality and quantity of the goods purchased is indicated.

Spending ceiling

The jobs that give the right to the deduction and allow you to have the bonus must be started in the same year in which the Bonus is requested or in the previous year. Therefore, those who start the works this year will be able to deduct the expenses incurred between now and December 31st and any expenses to be carried out next year.

The eligible maximum is set at 5 thousand euros in total, therefore in the case of works and purchases carried out in 2024, for the purposes of the ceiling available in 2025 it will also be necessary to consider the sums spent in the current year regardless of whether the works have been completed or still in progress. The expenditure, in fact, can be made even before their conclusion, but must in any case occur after their start.

But what exactly is meant by the start date of the works? The answer is in the provision of the director of the Revenue Agency of 2 November 2011.

The start date of the works according to the indications of the Revenue

Here it was specified that the start date of works may be proven by any administrative authorizations or communications required by building regulations, by prior notification to the local health authority, if mandatory. However, if it is a question of free construction and therefore no communications or housing titles are necessary, the start date must be attested with a self-certification.

Completion of works and building title

As regards specifically the question posed to us, the start date of the works therefore corresponds to the one indicated in the SCIA which will soon be presented. In fact, it is necessary to consider that i Expired building permits cannot be extended beyond the expiry date set by the permit itself.

In essence, in the presence of an expired building permit there is no possibility of extension but only that of submitting a new application to the Municipality, i.e., a new SCIA, with a specific start date of the works. For the purposes of the possibility of using the Furniture Bonus it has no relevance the fact that the SCIA is presented to complete a renovation project begun over ten years ago. The only condition required to take advantage of the Bonus, in fact, is to be entitled to the deduction for renovation for work in progress or already carried out.