Fourteen and a half million vehicles, all motorcycles and, according to the first estimates released by Palazzo Chigi, over 70 percent of cars affected by the power band identified by the Government. The abolition of car tax, at least for a very large part of the Italian fleet, is no longer just one of the hypotheses that have accompanied for years every discussion on the tax burden on motorists: the provision arrives today, 16 September, on the table of the Council of Ministers.
According to what was anticipated by sources at Palazzo Chigi, the exemption will concern “small and medium power” cars, those that the Government identifies as most used by families in daily travel, as well as all motorcycles. The benefit, however, will have a precise limit: each citizen will be able to benefit from it for only one vehicle. It is a detail that is anything but secondary, because it prevents the cancellation of the tax from turning into a multiplied benefit for those who own multiple cars or motorcycles and instead concentrates the intervention on one vehicle per taxpayer.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni defined the measure as the cancellation of “one of the most hated taxes by Italians”. The economic significance of the decision, however, goes far beyond its symbolic value, because the tax represents every year one of the main revenues linked to vehicle ownership and above all an important item in the regional budgets.
From discount to abolition: the change of pace arrived in a few hours
The news is even more relevant because until the morning of September 16th the scenario described by the rumors was decidedly more prudent. The hypotheses circulated in the previous weeks in fact spoke of a revision of the tax to be included in the next Budget law, with an increasing discount for less powerful cars and progressively more limited for SUVs and more powerful cars. Some reconstructions also indicated 2027 as a possible starting year for the new discipline.
The advance from Palazzo Chigi changes the scale of the intervention: no longer a simple tax reduction, but a real exemption for a very wide range of vehicles.
However, it remains essential to wait for the text approved by the Council of Ministers to find out where the boundary will be set between small and medium-powered cars and those that will continue to pay. The expression used in political previews, in fact, does not in itself correspond to a precise tax category.
Which cars could be excluded from tax
Today the tax is calculated mainly on the actual power of the vehicle expressed in kilowatts and its environmental class, while for more powerful cars there is also the so-called super tax. The ACI reminds you that the reference kilowatts are those indicated on the registration document or on the Single Document and that the tax surcharge is triggered for cars over 185 kW.
Furthermore, in the current system there is already an important watershed at an altitude of 100 kW. For a Euro 4, Euro 5 or Euro 6 car, using the national reference tariff, the tax is normally calculated at 2.58 euros per kW up to 100 kW, while on excess power it goes to 3.87 euros per kW, without prejudice to the possibility for the Regions to apply different disciplines.
This does not mean, at least for now, that the Government has necessarily chosen 100 kW as the exemption threshold. The distinction is important: until the provision is published it is not possible to say that a 99 kW car will automatically be exempt and a 101 kW one will continue to pay.
The definitive threshold is probably one of the most awaited elements, because it will concretely depend on which models will enter the new area without tax.
How much you could save
To understand the weight of the intervention, just look at the amounts paid today. Applying the national reference rate to a recent Euro 6 car, a 60 kW car pays around 155 euros per year, an 80 kW around 206 euros and a 100 kW around 258 euros, before any regional increases or concessions.
For a family that keeps the same car for ten years, therefore, the potential benefit can easily exceed 1,500 or 2,000 euros, while on cars placed in the upper part of the future exemption band the overall savings could be even higher.
However, the advantage will not be cumulative without limits within the same person: the principle announced by Palazzo Chigi is that of only one benefit per citizen. Anyone who owns two cars, or a car and a motorcycle, will therefore presumably have to indicate or be assigned only one exempt vehicle, even if it will be necessary to wait for the application rules to understand how the choice will be made.
All motorbikes within the exemption
The second big news concerns two wheels. The Government’s preview does not speak of engine capacity or power limits for motorcycles, but indicates an exemption extended to all.
Today, even for motorcycles, the car tax is normally determined on the basis of the power of the vehicle, while mopeds up to 50 cc and some light quadricycles follow a different discipline, with a circulation tax due only in case of use on public roads.
If the definitive text confirms the approach anticipated by Palazzo Chigi, the motorcycle sector will therefore be affected by a particularly large change.
The hub of 14.5 million vehicles
One of the aspects that the provision will have to clarify concerns the numbers released in the first previews. Palazzo Chigi in fact talks about approx A total of 14.5 million vehicles affected and, at the same time, he claims that the intervention will concern “over 70 percent of the cars currently in circulation”.
ACI data shows that by the end of 2024 they were almost circulating in Italy 41.3 million carswith a ratio of 701 cars per thousand inhabitants.
Given this order of magnitude, the reference to 14.5 million cannot simply be read as 70 percent of the entire national car park, because the result would be much higher. It is therefore possible that the estimate takes into account the limit of only one subsidized vehicle per owner, already exempt categories or a different statistical perimeter, but it will be the technical text of the law that will have to explain exactly how the beneficiaries were calculated.
It is also a fundamental step to estimate the actual cost of the measure.
How much is car tax worth for public coffers
In fact, the stamp duty is not a marginal item. According to the latest available reconstruction from Anfia, in 2024 car tax payments generated approximately 7.48 billion euroscompared to 7.26 billion the previous year. The revenue linked to vehicle ownership thus represented approximately 9 percent of the over 83 billion in total taxation linked to motorisation.
Naturally, the abolition announced today does not concern all that revenue, because owners of cars outside the expected range will continue to pay and the numerous special disciplines that already exist will remain to be considered. But even a partial reduction in current revenues means moving several billion or in any case a figure high enough to make the coverage chapter decisive.
Because the Regions are decisive
The main problem is that the car tax, for most of the national territory, directly finances the Regions.
The Regions with ordinary statute have been responsible for the revenue from the car tax since 1993 and since 1999 have also had powers in matters of assessment, collection, recovery of sums, sanctions, reimbursements and litigation. For special autonomies the picture is more complex: in some cases the tax remains formally state-owned with sharing quotas, while Sicily and the autonomous provinces have their own regulations.
This is why canceling the stamp duty does not just mean giving up a national tax and closing an item in the state budget. The Government will have to establish how to compensate the territorial administrations for the lower revenue or redesign part of the financial relations between the State and the Regions.
And this is probably one of the most technically delicate steps of the provision.
What happens to those who have already paid the tax in 2026
Another question concerns the effective date.
Most owners pay the tax with deadlines linked to registration and regional rules, and many motorists have therefore already paid the tax for 2026. The rumors circulating before Palazzo Chigi’s announcement placed the reform within the Budget law and indicated 2027 as the possible first year of application.
However, the arrival of the measure directly in the Council of Ministers opens up various scenarios. The text could provide for application from the next tax period, an effective date from 1 January 2027 or a different system.
Until the provision is published, talking about refunds for those who have already paid the 2026 tax would be premature.
Electric, hybrid and old exemptions: what can change
The current system is already full of benefits that differ from region to region.
For fully electric cars, for example, the general regulations normally provide for an exemption in the first five years after registration, followed by a reduced regime, but some Regions apply more favorable conditions. In Lombardy the exemption for exclusively electric cars is permanent.
There are also regional concessions for certain hybrid vehicles, specific regimes for historic vehicles and exemptions linked to disability.
The new discipline will therefore have to be coordinated with a system that is already far from uniform. The question is not only who will be exempted for the first time, but also what will happen to those who already enjoy a reduction or exemption based on regional rules.
A tax that always weighs less than the total cost of the car, but which remains very visible
The paradox of the tax is that, in the overall cost of private mobility, it does not represent the largest tax item.
In 2024, overall taxes related to motorization exceeded 83 billion euros, and almost 40 billion came from taxation on fuel, while over 14 billion came from VAT on maintenance, repairs, spare parts, accessories and tyres. The stamp duty, at around 7.5 billion, was worth a significantly smaller portion of the overall bill.
However, it is one of the taxes most immediately perceived by motorists, because it comes as an independent payment and is not incorporated into the price of a good or service. And it is precisely this visibility that has transformed its abolition into a recurring theme of the tax debate over the years.
The five things that still need to be clarified
The political direction announced by Palazzo Chigi is therefore clear, but the definitive text will have to answer at least five decisive questions: what is the power threshold that distinguishes exempt cars from those that will continue to pay; when will the abolition start; how the limit of only one benefit per citizen will work; how the Regions will be compensated; and how we will arrive at the estimate of 14.5 million vehicles indicated by the Government.
Only once these details are available will it be possible to build a precise map of the models involved and quantify the savings family by family.
Certainly, compared to the hypotheses of a simple reduction circulated until a few hours ago, the measure brought to the Council of Ministers today has a much broader scope. And for millions of car and motorbike owners the point will no longer be knowing how much their next tax bill will decrease, but whether they will still have to pay it.
