Edited by the International Tax Services Team
In brief
On December 6, 2024, the Italian Government approved the Decree implementing the penalty protection regime for hybrid mismatch arrangements (“Decree”) based on anti-hybrid documentation as set forth by Decree no. 209 published in December 2023.
Following the approval of the Law Decree no. 84 by the Council of Ministers on 12 June 2025, published in the Official Gazette on June 17, 2025 and entered into force the next day, the deadline for the preparation of the anti-hybrid documentation relating to all fiscal years from 2020 to 2024 has been set at the deadline for filing the income tax return for the fiscal year in progress as of 6 December 2024, i.e. October 31 for calendar year taxpayers.
In detail
Implementation of the Italian Penalty Protection regime for Hybrid Mismatches
The preparation of a proper documentation in accordance with the provisions of the Decree is of critical importance for Italian taxpayers’ part of multinational groups, as the penalty-protection regime:
- protects them against the application of administrative penalties.
- ensures that they have ready-to-exhibit and adequate supporting documentation against the application of anti-hybrid rules in case of a tax audit.
- proves to be beneficial in the context of a due diligence process, and
- is evidence of proper management of internal tax risks, also in case of taxpayers entering the cooperative compliance regime.
Please refer to our dedicated tax insight for more details.
Deadlines and postponement
For calendar year taxpayers, the Decree of December 2024 stated that the deadline to prepare, sign and timestamp the anti-hybrid documentation is:
- June 2025, for fiscal years closing on December 31, 2020-2022 (6 month-window from the approval of the Decree);
- October 31, 2025 for fiscal years closing on December 31, 2023-2024 (deadline to file fiscal year 2024 tax return).
- the deadline for filing the tax return for the tax period under documentation for fiscal years closing from December 31, 2025 onwards.
The deadlines above refer to calendar year taxpayers, while slight changes apply to taxpayers closing the fiscal year at different times.
In this respect, as a recent update the Law Decree approved by the Council of Ministers on June 12, 2025 (published in the Official Gazette of 17 June 2025) amended the provision of Article 61(3) of Legislative Decree no. 209/2023, eliminating the clause that required preparing the anti-hybrid documentation for 2020-2022 within June 2025.
Consequently, the deadline to prepare, sign and timestamp the anti-hybrid documentation is now set, for all fiscal years from 2020 to 2024, at the deadline for filing the income tax return for the fiscal year in progress as of 6 December 2024, return in which the possession of the documentation must be flagged.
The amendment provided by Law Decree no. 84 is therefore granting Italian taxpayers an extended timeframe to prepare the documentation and get the penalty protection.
See below a summary table with the new deadlines based on the black letter of law.
| Fiscal year end | Fiscal years in scope for anti-hybrid documentation | Deadline for communicating the possession, timestamp and digitally sign of the anti-hybrid documentation |
| 31-Dec | From Dec-20 to Dec 24 | 31 Oct-25 |
| 31-Jan | From Jan-21 to Jan 25 | 30 Nov-25 |
| 28-Feb | From Feb-21 to Feb 25 | 31 Dec-25 |
| 31-Mar | From Mar-21 to Mar 25 | 31 Jan-26 |
| 30-Apr | From Apr-21 to Apr 25 | 28 Feb-26 |
| 31-May | From May-21 to May 25 | 31 Mar-26 |
| 30-Jun | From Jun-21 to Jun 25 | 30 Apr-26 |
| 31-Jul | From Jul-21 to Jul 25 | 31 May-26 |
| 31-Aug | From Aug-21 to Aug 25 | 30 Jun-26 |
| 30-Sep | From Sep-21 to Sep 25 | 31 Jul-26 |
| 31-Oct | From Oct-21 to Oct 25 | 31 Aug-26 |
| 30-Nov | From Nov-21 to Nov 25 | 30 Sep-26 |
Conclusions
The protection from administrative penalties (also with possible effects regarding the potential criminal liability of the signatories of the Italian tax returns, although not expressly provided by the law) is a significant opportunity of risk management.
The extension of the deadline allows taxpayers to duly analyze their group structure and benefit from the penalty protection to the extent the documentation will be prepared in compliance with the Decree. In addition, the documentation allows taxpayers to have sufficient supporting documentation and information to reply any requst from the Italian Tax Authorities in case of a tax audit.
Let’s Talk
For a deeper discussion on the possible implications of the Hybrid Rules, please contact:
Contatta Alessandro Di Stefano – Partner, PwC TLS Avvocati e Commercialisti
Contatta Dario Sencar – Partner, PwC TLS Avvocati e Commercialisti
Contatta Franco Boga – Partner, PwC TLS Avvocati e Commercialisti
Contatta Ugo Cannavale – Partner, PwC TLS Avvocati e Commercialisti
Contatta Giorgio Massa – Partner, PwC TLS Avvocati e Commercialisti
Contatta Paolo Francesco Tripoli – Partner, PwC TLS Avvocati e Commercialisti
Contatta Davide Guerini – Partner, PwC TLS Avvocati e Commercialisti
Contatta Lina Jukneviciute – Partner, PwC TLS Avvocati e Commercialisti