The ISEE: the number that decides what you pay, and how to get it free

Sooner or later somebody tells you: «you need the ISEE». School meals, the school bus, book vouchers, the single allowance for children, nursery school, the rent bonus, exemption from health service charges: they all go through it.

The ISEE is not a benefit: it is the number that decides how much of each benefit you get. It is a snapshot of your family's economic situation, taken with the same rules for everybody. People who do not have one are almost always put in the highest band — that is, they pay the most.

It is free, and there are two ways

To get one you file the DSU, the single substitute declaration: a form where you state who is in your family, what income you had and what you own. INPS then works out the number.

• At a CAF or a patronato. For the ISEE they work under an agreement with INPS, so it is free for you. If someone asks you for money to «do your ISEE», you are paying for something that costs nothing.
• On your own, online, on the INPS portal or the INPS Mobile app, with SPID or an electronic ID card. Much of the data comes pre-filled.

The first time, the CAF is the sensible route: they are the ones who notice if a figure is missing or the household has been put together wrongly, which is the mistake that later brings everything down.

It takes ten days: this is the thing to remember

Between filing the DSU and getting the certificate, usually ten working days pass. Ten working days are two real weeks, holidays aside.

This is why so many applications arrive late: not because people do not know the deadline, but because on the 26th of the month they discover that without the ISEE they can do nothing. If a deadline asks for the ISEE, the first thing to do is not the application: it is the ISEE.

It expires on 31 December. Always

The ISEE is valid until 31 December of the year it is issued, not twelve months from the day you got it. One issued in November lasts two months; from 1 January it has expired, for everybody.

So it is redone every year. Those who renew it in January or February arrive ready for every deadline of the year; those who wait until they need it also wait ten days exactly when they do not have ten days.

It looks two years back

The ordinary ISEE does not photograph today: it looks at the income of two years earlier and assets as at 31 December of two years earlier. The 2026 one describes what 2024 was like.

If things have got worse in the meantime — you lost your job, your hours were cut, a contract was not renewed — the ordinary ISEE describes you as richer than you are, and makes you pay more. That is why the ISEE corrente exists: it updates the snapshot with recent income. It is not automatic: you ask for it, and you ask after doing the ordinary one. If your situation has changed for the worse, that is the question to put to the CAF: «would the ISEE corrente be better for me?»

The ISEE minorenni: when you need it

If you are claiming a benefit for a minor child and you and the other parent are not married to each other and do not live together, the ordinary ISEE is not enough: you need the form called ISEE minorenni, which also takes into account the parent who is not in the household.

It is one of the commonest reasons applications are refused, because nobody mentions it in advance. If this is your situation, tell the CAF yourself when you go to file the DSU.

What to bring

The CAF gives you the exact list, because it depends on what you have. What is needed almost always:

• Identity document and residence permit of whoever signs;
• tax codes of everyone in the family, children included;
• the income of two years earlier: single certification, tax return;
• balance and average holding of current accounts and savings books as at 31 December two years earlier — the average holding comes from the bank or the post office, and must be asked for specifically;
• the details of your home: registered rental contract, or the land registry details if you own it;
• the registration plates of cars and scooters.

Assets abroad must be declared

A bank account, a house or a piece of land in your country of origin must be declared: the ISEE looks at assets wherever they are, not only in Italy. Not declaring them is a false declaration, with the consequences false declarations have — and cross-checks between the Revenue Agency and INPS do exist.

If you are unsure how a house in another country is valued, that is exactly the question to ask the CAF before signing, not after.

Who counts as your «family», for the ISEE

The ISEE household is not whoever loves you: as a rule it is whoever appears on your registry family certificate, with some exceptions (a spouse, children, anyone who is a dependant for tax purposes).

Which has a practical consequence that affects many families in the community: if there are many of you in the house and not everyone is related, how you are registered at the registry office changes your ISEE. That is not something to fix by inventing: it is something to ask about, at the registry office and at the CAF, before filing the DSU.

If the number is wrong

Sometimes the certificate shows an omission or a discrepancy: it means what you declared does not match what the Revenue Agency or INPS holds. It is not an accusation, but an ISEE with that note on it is not accepted by many bodies.

It can be fixed: go back to the CAF, find which figure does not match, and file the DSU again. The sooner the better — especially with a deadline in the middle.

With Bahay Italia

The ISEE is a yearly deadline like the residence permit, and in the app it behaves the same way: you record it and it warns you in January, when redoing it only costs time, instead of in September, when it costs a lost reduction. We do not ask you for the certificate: we only keep the date.

This guide explains how the ISEE works, not how much you are entitled to: the thresholds change for every measure, every year and often from municipality to municipality, and they are written in that measure's own notice. The real calculation — equivalence scale, housing deductions, assets abroad — is the CAF's trade, and it is free: use it.