Italy scraps car tax for 2027: who is exempt

On the afternoon of 16 September 2026, Italy's Council of Ministers approved a decree law that scraps the car ownership tax, the bollo, for millions of vehicles. It is one of the most anticipated tax changes in years for anyone who owns or is shopping for a used car in Italy, but the text comes with thresholds, exceptions and a hard time limit that are worth understanding before celebrating.

What the government actually decided

Under Article 2 of the draft decree, the exemption covers petrol and diesel cars, including hybrids that combine one of those fuels with another power source, with an output no higher than 80 kW. For motorcycles and scooters the exemption covers the entire category, with no power threshold at all. Sources close to the Prime Minister's office put the total at more than 70 percent of cars currently on the road and roughly 14.5 million vehicles overall, cars and motorcycles combined [1][3]. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described the move as scrapping one of the most hated taxes among Italians [3].

The 80 kW threshold: which cars qualify

Eighty kilowatts is roughly 109 horsepower, a threshold that in practice covers the vast majority of city cars, superminis and a good share of mid-range saloons and crossovers sold in Italy over the past two decades [2]. Fully electric cars fall outside the new exemption, though many already pay little or no bollo under separate regional rules, and so do higher-power cars: performance saloons, upmarket SUVs and anything above roughly 109 hp [2].

Working out whether your own car qualifies does not require guesswork: power in kW is printed on the Italian registration document, the libretto, in the field labelled P.2. If that figure is 80 or below, the car qualifies; if the document only lists horsepower, multiply kW by 1.36 to get hp, or divide hp by 1.36 to get kW.

Motorcycles and scooters: a blanket exemption

For two-wheelers the measure is more generous still: every motorcycle and scooter, from a 125cc commuter bike to a large-displacement tourer, is exempt from the bollo in 2027, with no engine size or power limit. That matters for a used market where the annual tax bites proportionally harder than on cars, especially on the small-displacement models most common among new riders and city commuters.

One vehicle per owner, and only for 2027

Two limits change the arithmetic considerably for anyone who owns more than one vehicle. First, the exemption applies to a single vehicle per person. Owners of several small-displacement cars get the discount only on the one with the lowest power output; owners of both a qualifying car and a qualifying motorcycle get the exemption on the car, and the motorcycle only stays exempt if the benefit has not already been used on another household vehicle [1]. Second, for now the measure covers only ordinary payments due between 1 January and 31 December 2027 [1][5]. There is currently no guarantee of an extension into 2028: the decree is written as a one-off intervention, not a structural reform, and the state has already earmarked a compensation transfer to Italy's regions of roughly 2,293.5 million euro to cover their lost 2027 revenue [5]. To qualify, a vehicle must also carry valid insurance [2].

How much this is actually worth

Early estimates put the average annual saving at between 129 and 206 euro, depending on the car's power output and the region of residence, since the bollo rate varies by region and sometimes carries a local surcharge [4]. That is not a life-changing sum, but on a small car that is already cheap to run, it is a real, immediate saving that, as the measure has been described so far, applies automatically at payment time rather than requiring an application.

What it means if you are buying or selling a used vehicle

For anyone shopping for a used car in the coming months, this adds one more thing worth checking alongside price, mileage and condition: the kW figure on the libretto before signing. Two otherwise near-identical cars, same price bracket and trim, can carry different engine outputs, and the gap between staying under or going over the 80 kW line is worth, by current estimates, a couple of hundred euro a year for 2027. For sellers, it is a small extra talking point on lower and mid-range models: a modestly powered car becomes, for one year at least, slightly cheaper to run than a more powerful version of the same model line.

What is still unclear

What was approved is still a decree law, which Parliament must convert into ordinary law within sixty days; thresholds, amounts and the pool of beneficiaries can all be amended during that process, as often happens with Italian tax measures. It is also not yet clear whether Italy's regions, which handle the actual collection of the bollo, will apply the exemption uniformly or on different timelines from one another. Before treating the saving as locked in, it is worth waiting for publication in the Gazzetta Ufficiale and operational guidance from ACI and the individual regions.

The practical takeaway

If you own or are about to buy a petrol, diesel or hybrid car rated at up to roughly 109 hp, or any motorcycle or scooter regardless of engine size, check the P.2 field on your libretto: chances are you will pay a lower, or zero, bollo in 2027. Just keep in mind this is, for now, a one-year measure rather than the structural end of Italy's most complained-about tax; it is a truce with an expiry date, not a repeal.

Sources

1. Il Cdm approva il decreto, via il bollo sulle auto piccole e medie e sui motocicli, ANSA, 16 Sep 2026
2. Bollo auto abolito, per quali modelli non si pagherà più, Il Messaggero, 16 Sep 2026
3. Bollo auto 2027, stop al pagamento per milioni di veicoli: chi sarà esentato, Quattroruote, 16 Sep 2026
4. Bollo auto abolito, quanto si risparmia davvero all'anno?, Il Messaggero, 16 Sep 2026
5. Il Governo ha abolito il bollo auto, ma solo per il 2027, PublicPolicy, 16 Sep 2026
6. Il Consiglio dei ministri abolisce il bollo auto: ecco quali veicoli riguarda, Open, 16 Sep 2026