The 55% tax reductions for building retrofitting in Italy: the results of the ENEA’s five-years activities

The tax deductions of 55%, in force since January 2007, represents the most generous system of incentives ever established by the Government to promote energy efficiency and sustainable economic development in the Italian real estate system. By the Finance Act 2007 and the subsequent implementation, all efforts were addressed to limit the energy consumption during winter heating period. The results have been successful. In 2007, the first year, 106,000 requests for deduction were submitted at once. In the following years the public acceptance for this type of incentives has been further confirmed and strengthened. In late 2008, about 248,000 people had taken advantage of deductions. The following year the situation stabilized with 238,000 interventions, confirming the validity of the measure and the users’ satisfaction. In 2010 all records were broken with 406,000 works performed. A year later, finally, the first results confirmed the same levels of the previous years with about 280,000 interventions. During the last five years about 15 billion € were spent by taxpayers, over 7,600 GWh of energy per year saved, roughly 1.6 million tons of CO2 emissions avoided. The validity of the incentives has been extended until the end of December 2012. The ENEA working group, appointed to manage the incentives, supports the renewal as it represents benefits for the citizens and for the government in terms of tax return, energy saved and increase of employment.