Is a company website tax deductible in Italy, or amortized?

It depends on the website type, not the invoice. A showcase site, purely informational or promotional, counts as an advertising expense and is deducted in full in the year you incur it. An e-commerce site that generates online sales can instead become an intangible asset, amortized over several years: depending on the balance-sheet item, a tax ceiling can require at least two fiscal years to deduct its cost. Deciding which case applies to your site is up to whoever prepares the accounts, not whoever builds it.

It all comes down to one question: does the site sell, or just show?

The distinction that matters for tax purposes isn't how much you paid for the site, but what that site does. Whoever keeps the books draws a fairly sharp line between three cases: a showcase site, which presents the business without selling anything online; an e-commerce site, which generates real transactions; and a mixed site, which does both at once, maybe a catalogue with direct purchase sitting alongside presentation pages. No rule treats the website as its own category: neither Italy's national accounting standard on intangible assets, OIC 24, nor the income tax code (TUIR) names it explicitly. The general rules on intangible assets apply instead, and classifying the specific case is up to whoever keeps the books.

A showcase site is an advertising expense: deducted in the year

Since January 1, 2016, under the accounting reform of Legislative Decree 139/2015, Italy's Civil Code dropped advertising expenses from the list of capitalizable items: article 2426, paragraph 1, number 5, of the Civil Code now mentions only start-up and expansion costs and development costs, no longer advertising, in the version in force as checked on November 6, 2026. That means a purely informational or promotional site, with no sales function, can no longer be spread across several years of accounts: it goes entirely to the income statement, as a cost of the year in which you incur it, alongside other advertising and promotional expenses.

An e-commerce site is an intangible asset, amortized over several years

If the site generates online sales, the picture changes: it produces a benefit that extends beyond the year you pay for it, and that's the requirement OIC 24 sets for booking a cost among intangible assets rather than the income statement. In accounting practice, e-commerce development costs can land in one of two different balance-sheet items, and which one applies isn't automatic: it depends on how the site was developed and what the contract with whoever built it says. If the site, written specifically for the business, is protected as an intellectual work just like a program, it falls under item B.I.3, rights to use intellectual works, the same category software falls under (source: an accounting reference on website costs, updated September 19, 2026, checked November 6, 2026). If instead it counts as development costs in the strict sense, it falls under item B.I.2. The underlying principle doesn't change either way: the cost is spread across several years of accounts, not written off entirely in the year you pay the supplier. What does change, as the next section shows, is how fast you can deduct it for tax purposes.

The tax ceiling: where it applies, it's never more than 50% a year

For costs booked under item B.I.3, rights to use intellectual works, the rule is written down with a precise figure. Article 103, paragraph 1, of the TUIR sets the tax amortization quota for that item at no more than 50% of the cost per fiscal year, in the text checked on November 6, 2026. In practice, even if the accounting amortization follows a longer useful life, often three to five years under accounting practice, you cannot deduct more than half the cost in a single year for tax purposes: it takes at least two fiscal years to deduct it all. For costs booked instead under item B.I.2, development costs, that fixed ceiling doesn't apply: the tax deduction simply follows the share allocated to each year in the accounts, under article 108, paragraph 1, of the TUIR. It's another reason the classification isn't a minor detail: it also decides how fast you recover the cost through taxes.

One warning about timing, because it matters here: starting January 1, 2027, a new Italian income tax code takes effect, Legislative Decree 117/2026 of June 19, 2026, published in the Official Gazette on July 3, 2026, which reorganizes and renumbers the TUIR's articles (source: ecnews on the new income tax code, checked November 6, 2026). For the 2026 tax year, the references in this article still hold; from 2027 onward, check the new numbering before citing them.

Maintenance, domain and small fixes always stay costs of the year

Whatever the site's classification, not everything you pay after launch follows the same path. Domain renewal, hosting fees, security updates and small content fixes don't produce a benefit lasting beyond one fiscal year: they remain ordinary running costs, fully deductible in the year you pay them, regardless of how the site itself is classified. That changes only if a change adds a substantial new function, such as turning a showcase site into an online shop: at that point, that part of the spend follows the capitalization rules, not the maintenance ones.

This only applies if you're under the ordinary or simplified regime

Everything above concerns deducting costs you actually incurred, and that mechanism only exists under two regimes, the ordinary one and the simplified one. Anyone with a VAT number under Italy's flat-rate regime (regime forfettario) calculates taxable income by applying a fixed profitability coefficient to revenue based on the business activity code, not by subtracting real expenses, as I explain in flat tax or standard regime: which is better: for anyone in that regime, the website's cost doesn't lower the tax bill, whatever its accounting classification.

A table to find your case

Who decides, and what to do next

This article explains the mechanism, it doesn't replace whoever prepares your accounts: classifying your specific case, showcase or e-commerce, depends on what your site actually does and on how your business keeps its books, not on a rule that applies itself. Before you file the supplier's invoice, bring this framework to whoever handles your taxes, with the right question already in hand: does my site generate sales, or just an online presence?

If you're still at the stage of figuring out what a website costs to build, the market ranges are in how much does a website cost and, for anyone selling online, in how much does an e-commerce cost. If you already have the site and want an opinion on how it's performing, there's the digital check-up. Otherwise get in touch: tell me what type of site you have, and we'll work out together where to start.