How much is the annual power plant license fee and when is it due?

Art. 63(3) TUA sets two amounts: €23.24 for production plants, substations and take-off points serving a single establishment of the operating firm for its own use, and for operators who resell energy wholesale to other producers (letter a); €77.47 for plants, substations and take-off points operated commercially (letter b). Payment falls between December 1 and 16 of the year before the one the fee covers (Art. 63(4) TUA). New plants, and plants changing owner, pay before the license is issued.

What is the difference between tax code 2813 and tax code 2806?

2813 pays the license fee, the annual charge for holding the permit: a fixed amount, a single December deadline, no link to consumption. 2806 pays the electricity excise duty itself: a variable amount calculated on quantities invoiced or consumed, paid through monthly advance payments due by the end of each month and closed by the settlement of the semiannual AD-1 declaration. They are two separate obligations that travel on the same F24 ACCISE form.

What happens if the license fee is not paid by December 16?

Art. 63(4) TUA provides an administrative penalty of one to three times the amount of the fee for an operator who misses the deadline. Because the fee is small and fixed, the penalty stays modest in absolute terms, but non-payment is an irregularity attached to the license and shows up in an ADM inspection. Voluntary correction before any challenge follows the general rules of ravvedimento operoso (Art. 13 D.Lgs. 472/1997).

Does an excise-exempt photovoltaic plant still owe the license fee?

Yes, if it holds an operating license. The Art. 52(3)(b) TUA exemption for renewable plants above 20 kW in self-production covers the excise duty on consumption, not the permit. The plant still has to file the notice, hold the license and submit the declaration, so the annual license fee under tax code 2813 is due even when the excise assessed is zero. Operators working under an authorization pursuant to Art. 53-bis TUA, without a power plant, do not owe the fee.

F24 ACCISE: tax code 2813 and the annual license fee

Q: What is tax code 2813?

Codice tributo 2813 identifies license fees on excise duties and consumption taxes. It was created by Italian Revenue Agency Resolution no. 22/E of February 14, 2001. For electricity it pays the annual operating license fee under Art. 63 of the Italian Excise Code (TUA, D.Lgs. 504/1995). It goes in the F24 ACCISE section named Accise/Monopoli e altri versamenti non ammessi in compensazione, with ente D and the codice ditta of the license in the codice identificativo field.

Q: How does the F24 ACCISE differ from the ordinary F24?

The F24 ACCISE is a distinct form with its own section, Accise/Monopoli e altri versamenti non ammessi in compensazione. Compared with the ordinary F24, the identifying data changes: you fill in the ente field (D for Dogane, customs), the prov. field with the code of the province of the competent office, and the codice identificativo field with the operator's codice ditta or excise code. The payer's tax number alone is not enough to identify the position.

Q: Does ravvedimento operoso apply to electricity excise duty?

Yes, as long as ADM has not opened a formal assessment. The voluntary payment is made on an F24 ACCISE using three codes: 2806 for the excise duty, 2820 for the indennità di mora and default interest, and 2821 for the penalty. For violations committed from September 1, 2024, the base penalty for late payment is 25%, halved to 12.5% within 90 days of delay (D.Lgs. 87/2024). Interest accrues daily at the statutory rate: 2% until December 31, 2025 and 1.60% from January 1, 2026 (DM MEF of December 10, 2025). The indennità di mora under Art. 3(4) TUA also applies: the Italian Supreme Court treated it as punitive in judgment no. 30034 of November 21, 2018, but in judgments nos. 19338, 19339 and 19340 of June 16, 2022 it returned to classifying it as compensatory, and therefore cumulable with the penalty under Art. 13 D.Lgs. 471/1997.

Codice tributo 2813 (tax code 2813) identifies license fees on excise duties and consumption taxes and is paid on the F24 ACCISE form, not the ordinary F24. For anyone operating a power plant it settles the diritto annuale di licenza, the annual license fee under Art. 63 of the Italian Excise Code (TUA, D.Lgs. 504/1995): €23.24 for plants serving own use and for wholesale resale, €77.47 for plants operated commercially. Payment falls between December 1 and 16 of the year before the one the fee covers (Art. 63(4) TUA). It is a separate obligation from the excise duty itself, which runs on tax code 2806 through monthly advance payments and the semiannual settlement of the AD-1 cycle. Two codes, two deadlines, one form. For the full picture of filing obligations, start from the complete guide to the AD-1 declaration.

Quick definitions

F24 ACCISE: The variant of the F24 form used for payments owed to the Italian Customs Agency (ADM), with its own section named "Accise/Monopoli e altri versamenti non ammessi in compensazione" (excise, monopolies and other payments that cannot be offset).
Ente field: Identifies the authority the payment is destined for. For excise duties you enter the letter D (Dogane, customs).
Codice identificativo: The codice ditta (firm code, also called excise code) shown on the operating license or on the consumption declaration. It is not the VAT number.
Codice tributo 2813: License fees on excise duties and consumption taxes. Created by Italian Revenue Agency Resolution no. 22/E of February 14, 2001.
Codice tributo 2806: Electricity excise duty, self-assessed. This is the code used for monthly advance payments and for the semiannual settlement.
Codici tributo 2820 and 2821: Indennità di mora and default interest on late or deferred excise payments (2820), and administrative penalties owed on excise duties and consumption taxes (2821). Both are used when filing a ravvedimento operoso.
Diritto annuale di licenza: The annual license fee, a fixed amount owed every year for each operating license, in the amounts set by Art. 63(3) TUA.
Operating license and authorization: Two different permits. The licenza di esercizio covers operators running a power plant and carries the annual fee; the authorization under Art. 53-bis TUA covers those who invoice final consumers without running a plant, and carries no fee.
Ambito territoriale: One of the seven accounting zones into which electricity excise payments have been split since 2022: the ordinary zone, four special-statute regions and the two autonomous provinces.
Indennità di mora: The 6% late-payment surcharge under Art. 3(4) TUA, reduced to 2% if payment is made within 5 days of the deadline.

What tax code 2813 is and when you use it

Tax code 2813 does not pay a tax. It pays for a permit. Its official description is "Diritti di licenza sulle accise e imposte di consumo", and it covers the annual charge an operator pays ADM to keep its operating license valid. The amount does not depend on the kWh produced, sold or consumed, and it does not shrink when the energy is exempt.

The legal basis is Art. 63 TUA. Paragraph 3 establishes that, in the field of the electricity consumption tax, operating licenses are subject to an annual fee; paragraph 4 sets the payment window and the penalty for missing it. In practice this means 2813 concerns only those who hold a license. Operators working under the authorization provided by Art. 53-bis TUA, typically a vendor invoicing final consumers without running a plant, do not owe this fee.

The fee is owed per license. An operator with three power plants, and therefore three licenses, makes three separate payments, each carrying its own codice ditta in the codice identificativo field.

Annual license fee: amounts and deadline

There are two amounts, and neither depends on capacity or on consumption. Art. 63(3) TUA distinguishes:

€23.24 (letter a) - production plants, substations and take-off points serving a single establishment of the operating firm for its own use, plus production plants and buyers who resell wholesale the energy they produced or purchased to other producers.
€77.47 (letter b) - production plants, substations and take-off points operated commercially.

The dividing line between the two is scopo commerciale, commercial purpose, which ADM reads as retail supply of energy to final consumers. Selling surplus production for consideration to an electricity market operator other than a final consumer counts instead as wholesale resale, and stays at €23.24. It is worth checking this classification case by case with the competent office, because it also affects which declarant category the plant uses in its declaration.

The deadline is December 16, and payment runs one year ahead. Art. 63(4) TUA requires the fee to be paid between December 1 and 16 of the year preceding the one it covers, so the fee for 2027 is paid by December 16, 2026. New plants, and plants changing owner, pay before the license is issued and fall outside the ordinary calendar.

How to fill in the F24 ACCISE with code 2813

Filling in the form is quick, but there are as many fields to leave blank as fields to complete. Everything happens in the "Accise/Monopoli e altri versamenti non ammessi in compensazione" section.

Check which amount applies- €23.24 or €77.47 under Art. 63(3)(a) or 63(3)(b), for each license.
Open the F24 ACCISE form - not the ordinary F24, not the simplified one.
Ente field - enter D (Dogane).
Prov. field - the code of the province of the competent customs office.
Codice tributo and codice identificativo - 2813 in the first, the codice ditta of the license in the second.
Fields to leave blank- for 2813, installment, reference month and reference year all stay empty; office code and act code stay empty too unless you are settling a specific act. The amount goes in the "importi a debito versati" column.

The form is submitted through the ordinary electronic payment channels. Keep the receipt in the plant compliance file: it is the document that proves the license is in order if you are inspected.

F24 ACCISE and ordinary F24: the differences that matter

The difference is not cosmetic, it is in the identifiers. On the ordinary F24, a payment is identified by the taxpayer number and the tax year. The F24 ACCISE needs considerably more, because ADM reconciles the payment against a territorial position and a permit, not against an income tax return.

Dedicated section- amounts go in the "Accise/Monopoli e altri versamenti non ammessi in compensazione" section. The name states the rule: those debts cannot be offset against credits shown elsewhere on the form.
Ente field - absent from the ordinary F24. For excise duties it is always D.
Prov. field - identifies the competent office. For electricity excise, payments have been split by ambito territorialerather than by province since 2022: ADM publishes the correspondence table of codes to use on the F24 in the section on payments by territorial zone (path: Home > Accise > Pagamenti).
Codice identificativo - the codice ditta of the license. This is the most common mistake: entering the VAT number breaks the link between the payment and the ADM position.
Fields that vary by tax code - reference year and installment are completed for some codes and not for others. For 2813 they stay blank.

How the payment connects to the AD-1 cycle

From 2026 the electricity excise payment cycle is monthly, and the declaration that closes it is semiannual. That is the effect of the reform introduced by D.Lgs. 43/2025 and implemented by the DM of March 10, 2026. All of it runs on tax code 2806.

Monthly advance payments - Art. 7 of the DM of March 10, 2026 calculates them on the quantities invoiced to final consumers, or consumed for own use, in the previous calendar month. They are due by the end of each month: the advance on January consumption is paid by February 28.
Settlement - Art. 9 of the DM makes it due by the end of the same month in which the semiannual declaration is filed. For H1 2026 that means September 30, 2026; for H2, March 31, 2027.
Split by zone - vendors pay separately for each ambito territoriale in which they supplied energy, up to seven payments.
Credits - where the advance payments exceed the tax actually due, the difference is deducted from later payments or claimed as a refund under Art. 14 TUA.

The license fee sits outside this rhythm. It does not enter the settlement, it cannot be offset against excise credits, and it does not follow the semiannual cadence: it is a deadline of its own, always in December. The full calendar of dates is in the AD-1 deadlines for 2026.

Late payment: ravvedimento operoso and indennità di mora

Until ADM opens a formal assessment, a late payment can still be corrected voluntarily. Ravvedimento operoso, the voluntary self-correction procedure under Art. 13 D.Lgs. 472/1997, applies to excise duties as well. You do it on an F24 ACCISE, ente D, using three separate codes: 2806 for the excise duty, 2820 for the indennità di mora and default interest, and 2821 for the penalty.

For violations committed from September 1, 2024, the penalty regime is the one rewritten by D.Lgs. 87/2024: a base penalty of 25% of the unpaid amount, halved to 12.5% where the delay does not exceed 90 days, and further reduced to one fifteenth per day where the delay does not exceed 15 days (Art. 13(1) D.Lgs. 471/1997). The ravvedimento reductions apply on top of that base.

When you correct	Base penalty	Reduction	Reduced penalty
Within 15 days	0.833% per day	1/10	0.083% per day
Day 16 to day 30	12.5%	1/10	1.25%
Day 31 to day 90	12.5%	1/9	1.39%
Day 91 to one year	25%	1/8	3.125%
Beyond one year	25%	1/7	3.57%

Interest accrues daily at the statutory rate, following the formula tax × rate × days / 36500. If the delay crosses the turn of the year, split the calculation: the rate is 2% until December 31, 2025 and 1.60% from January 1, 2026, as set by the DM MEF of December 10, 2025 (GU no. 289 of December 13, 2025).

Late payment of excise duty also triggers a special rule with no equivalent on the ordinary F24: the indennità di mora under Art. 3(4) TUA, a late-payment surcharge of 6% reduced to 2% if payment is made within five days of the deadline, plus interest at the rate set for deferred payment of customs duties. How this charge should be classified has swung back and forth at the Italian Supreme Court: judgment no. 30034 of November 21, 2018 held it to be punitive in nature and therefore not cumulable with the penalty under Art. 13 D.Lgs. 471/1997; with judgments nos. 19338, 19339 and 19340 of June 16, 2022 the Court returned to its earlier position, treating the surcharge as compensatory and so cumulable with the penalty. Before filing a substantial ravvedimento, agree the calculation with the competent Customs Office and document it in the compliance file.

For the license fee alone the rule is simpler, and it sits in Art. 63(4) TUA: an operator who fails to pay by the deadline faces an administrative penalty of one to three times the amount of the fee. In absolute terms that is a few tens of euros, but it remains an irregularity attached to the license, and it surfaces during an inspection.

Common mistakes

Using the ordinary F24. The payment lands in a section ADM does not reconcile. It has to be redone on the correct form.
Swapping 2813 and 2806. Paying the excise duty with the license fee code, or the other way round, creates an overpayment on one chapter and an omission on the other. Both have to be put right.
Entering the VAT number in codice identificativo. The field wants the codice ditta of the license.
Completing the reference year for 2813. For this code the field stays blank, even though the fee refers to the following year.
Paying after December 16. The window is December 1 to 16 and the fee runs one year ahead. It is not a deadline that lines up with December 31.
Assuming an excise exemption removes the license fee. A photovoltaic plant above 20 kW in self-production, exempt under Art. 52(3)(b) TUA, still holds a license and still pays the fee.
Paying once for several plants. The fee is per license. Three licenses, three payments.
Ignoring the ambito territoriale on excise payments. Since 2022 advance payments are split across the seven zones, not across the provinces of supply.

Frequently asked questions

What is tax code 2813?

It identifies license fees on excise duties and consumption taxes (Italian Revenue Agency Resolution no. 22/E of February 14, 2001). For electricity it pays the annual license fee under Art. 63 TUA, in the Accise/Monopoli section of the F24 ACCISE form, with ente D and the codice ditta in the codice identificativo field.

How much is the annual fee and when is it due?

€23.24 for own use and wholesale resale (Art. 63(3)(a)), €77.47 for commercial operation (Art. 63(3)(b)), for each license. It is paid between December 1 and 16 of the year before the one it covers; for new plants, or plants changing owner, before the license is issued.

What is the difference between 2813 and 2806?

2813 pays for the permit: a fixed amount with a single December deadline. 2806 pays the excise duty: a variable amount on consumption or on quantities invoiced, with monthly advance payments due by month end and a settlement at the semiannual declaration.

How does the F24 ACCISE differ from the ordinary F24?

It has its own section ("Accise/Monopoli e altri versamenti non ammessi in compensazione") and asks for fields the ordinary F24 does not have: ente (D), prov. of the competent office, and a codice identificativo equal to the codice ditta or excise code.

What happens if I miss December 16?

Art. 63(4) TUA provides an administrative penalty of one to three times the amount of the fee. Voluntary correction before any challenge follows the rules of ravvedimento operoso.

Does an exempt plant still pay the license fee?

Yes, if it holds an operating license. The Art. 52(3) TUA exemption covers the excise duty on consumption, not the permit. Operators working under the Art. 53-bis TUA authorization alone, without a plant, do not owe the fee.

Does ravvedimento operoso apply to electricity excise?

Yes, before an ADM assessment, using codes 2806 (excise duty), 2820 (indennità di mora and default interest) and 2821 (penalty). Base penalty 25% for violations from September 1, 2024, 12.5% within 90 days; interest at the statutory rate (2% until December 31, 2025, 1.60% from January 1, 2026). The indennità di mora under Art. 3(4) TUA has to be factored in as well.

Next deadline

December 16, 2026 - annual license fee for 2027

Deklara keeps the deadline calendar for every power plant under management and prepares the payment data alongside the AD-1 cycle.

Deklara for tax advisors →

Sources

Written and verified by the Deklara editorial team as of the update date shown in the header. References used:

D.Lgs. no. 504 of October 26, 1995 (TUA), Arts. 3, 14, 52, 53-bis, 55, 63.
D.Lgs. 43/2025, excise reform in force from January 1, 2026.
DM 10 March 2026 (GU Serie Generale no. 66 of March 20, 2026), Arts. 7, 8, 9: monthly advance payments, semiannual declaration, settlement.
Italian Revenue Agency Resolution no. 22/E of February 14, 2001, which created tax code 2813, and the instructions for completing the Accise/Monopoli section of the F24 ACCISE form.
D.Lgs. no. 471 of December 18, 1997, Art. 13, and D.Lgs. no. 472 of December 18, 1997, Art. 13, as amended by D.Lgs. no. 87 of June 14, 2024.
DM MEF of December 10, 2025 (GU no. 289 of December 13, 2025): setting the statutory interest rate for 2026.
Italian Supreme Court, judgment no. 30034 of November 21, 2018 and judgments nos. 19338, 19339 and 19340 of June 16, 2022, on the legal nature of the indennità di mora in excise matters.
ADM Director's Determination prot. 264785/RU of July 23, 2021, which created the ambiti territoriali.

This content is provided for information purposes and does not replace an assessment of the specific case by the professional advisor engaged or by the competent Customs Office.

F24 ACCISE and tax code 2813: license fee and electricity excise