Calculating IRES and IRAP and balancing the worksheet in SamBooks

How to read the IRES/IRAP reconciliation worksheet computed from your accounting records, correct a value when needed, add a manual adjustment, and understand what "out of balance" means.

What it's for

The IRES/IRAP taxes page (/dichiarativi/imposte, reachable from the matching card in the Tax returns hub) computes IRES taxable income and IRAP net production value in real time from the accounting already recorded, presents them in two editable worksheets — one per tax — and flags whether the totals balance. This is not the tax return itself: it is an editable reconciliation draft meant to bring the numbers as close as possible to the real ones, so the next step — your accountant completing and filing the REDDITI SC form — starts from work already done. What SamBooks computes versus what stays with your accountant is described in The line between filings and your accountant; this guide covers how to use the worksheet itself.

Once the worksheet balances, the next step — locking it with finalisation and downloading the resulting documents (F24, XML, deferred tax) — is the companion guide Finalising the tax return and generating XML and deferred tax.

Before you start

• Viewing the worksheet needs no special permission; editing it (overrides, manual lines, finalisation) requires a Gestore or Amministrativo role — a Visualizzatore sees the same numbers but cannot save anything.
• You don't need to open or "create" anything beforehand: the computation is always visible for any selectable tax period, even while the fiscal year is still open — it only becomes Official once you close that year's year-end accounts (guide Closing the fiscal year).
• The computation reads the year's general ledger balances and the tax attributes assigned to the chart of accounts: if the chart of accounts is incomplete, or some accounts carry inconsistent tax attributes, what you see reflects that state, not what it should be.

Step by step

1. Open the page and choose the tax period

From the Tax returns hub, open the IRES/IRAP taxes card; the "Back to Tax returns" link at the top takes you back. The "Tax period" selector, top right, lists the last 6 years (current year included): the chosen year lives in the URL (?anno=2025), so you can bookmark or share it. It opens on last year by default — filings are retrospective — but the current year stays selectable for a provisional in-period estimate.

2. Read the status: Official/Provisional, Draft/Finalized

Below the company name and VAT number sit two independent badges:

• Official (green) or Provisional (amber) — depends solely on whether that year's fiscal year has already been closed: while the year is open the computation is an in-period estimate, once closed it becomes the official figure you can finalise. The info icon next to the badges opens a tooltip with the exact reason (for example "Fiscal year 2025 not yet closed: provisional in-period estimate, no F24 generated.").
• Draft or Finalized — follows the return's lifecycle: it always starts as Draft (editing lines keeps it Draft) and becomes Finalized only through the action covered in the companion guide. If you have edited or added lines, a "{n} changes" badge also appears, counting the overrides and manual lines currently active.

3. The four summary cards

Below the header, four tiles summarise the result: IRES taxable income, IRES due (with the applied rate as a subtitle), IRAP (with the regional rate as a subtitle) and Total taxes — the sum of IRES due (only if it's a liability; IRES in credit doesn't count towards the total) plus the IRAP due.

4. The two worksheets: IRES and IRAP

Below the cards you'll find two distinct sections, each with its own subtitle (the applied IRES rate; for IRAP, also the region — "National base" if no specific registered office is configured, labelled "base rate" whenever it falls back to the national 3.90% instead of a region-specific rate).

The IRES — business income worksheet has four sections in sequence: Increases (the non-deductible share of every cost, one line per account, code "RF"), Decreases (the non-taxable share of every item of income), Taxable income (starts from the statutory profit/loss, subtracts the adjustments, applies the loss carryforwards used and any residual ACE allowance, arrives at the final taxable income) and IRES tax (gross IRES, the withholding tax offset, advance payments made, the final balance due or in credit).

The IRAP — production value worksheet has three sections: Positive components (the revenue relevant for IRAP, per account, with the relevance percentage applied), Negative components (the deductible costs, same principle) and Net production value and tax (the net figure, the article-11 deductions — permanent-contract staff and the flat-rate one — the taxable base and the IRAP due).

Each worksheet has one "Add adjustment" button at its top right — one for IRES and one for IRAP, not one per section (step 7); every line shows its own code, description and amount, with up to two actions on the right when applicable: the magnifier (drill-down, step 5) and the pencil (edit, step 6). Totals and subtotals are shown in bold; a line whose override no longer matches the recomputed sum of its components gets an amber background with an "Off balance" badge. One thing to expect in the English interface: the section headers are translated, but each line's own description is shown in Italian, in the wording of the REDDITI SC and IRAP form lines it maps to — "Utile o perdita risultante dal conto economico", "Ritenute d'acconto subite (scomputo)", "Acconti versati".

5. See which account a line comes from

For every adjustment or component computed from an account (not for totals, and not for summary lines such as the one for advance payments made) a magnifier icon "View the underlying account" appears. It opens the read-only "Adjustment detail" dialog: the account code, the statutory reference that produced that line, its nature (Permanent or Temporary — the latter feeds the deferred tax in the companion guide; this row only appears on IRES adjustments, because IRAP components carry no nature), the value computed by the engine, the final value (if different, it means it was edited) and, when present, the reason given for the override.

6. Edit a line

The pencil "Edit line" opens a dialog with: the value computed by the engine, shown as a read-only reference; the "Final value (€)" field where you type the amount you want to apply; for account-based adjustments/components and for manual lines only, an "Adjustment side" selector to move the line between increase and decrease (IRES) or between positive and negative component (IRAP) — not available on totals and subtotals, which have no "side" of their own; and finally "Reason (optional)", a free-text field to record why.

"Save" applies only the fields you actually changed: if you move only the side without touching the amount, any value you'd already forced stays as it was, and vice versa. The edited line gets an "Edited" badge in the list, with the original computed value shown struck through next to the new one.

At the bottom of the dialog, if the line already has an active override, you'll find "Reset to computed value": it cancels the edit and returns to what the engine would have computed on its own, no need to type it back in.

7. Add a manual adjustment

"Add adjustment", at the top right of the worksheet, opens the "Add IRES adjustment" or "Add IRAP adjustment" dialog for a line the engine doesn't generate on its own — for example an adjustment you know about but that doesn't come from a specific account. Which section the line ends up in is decided by the Side field (same two options as step 6, depending on the tax), not by where on the page you opened the dialog: Side comes preselected on the first option, so check it. Description and Value (€) are both required: without them the save stops with a message under the field. Optional: Statutory reference (free text, e.g. "art. 109 TUIR"), Account (optional: if you fill it in, the manual line also gets the drill-down magnifier from step 5) and Reason. The added line gets a "Manual" badge; reopen it with the pencil and at the bottom of the dialog you'll find "Delete line" in place of "Reset to computed value" — the two are alternatives, never both: a manual line is deleted (with the explicit "Delete this line?" confirmation), a computed line is reset to the engine's figure.

8. Read the balancing bar

At the bottom of the page, always visible (it stays anchored while you scroll), the bar shows a binary status: "The return balances" (green) or "{n} lines do not balance" (amber, with a count) and, when out of balance, the total variance. "Details" opens a popover listing the checks — one for every structural total in the worksheet (for IRES: taxable income, gross IRES and net IRES; for IRAP: net production value, taxable base and IRAP due): each compares the value you declared against the one recomputed from its components, and if they don't match it shows the declared amount and the variance in amber.

Why a line might be out of balance

The most common case: you overrode a total with "Edit line" (for example IRES taxable income) without also updating the adjustments that make it up. SamBooks doesn't prevent the override — your professional judgement takes precedence — but it flags the mismatch until you resolve it: either correct the forced amount so it matches the sum of its components again, or update the components themselves, or press "Reset to computed value" to go back to the engine's figure. The worksheet stays saveable and viewable even while out of balance: only finalisation (companion guide) is blocked as long as a variance remains.

Where the computation comes from

The engine starts from the year's general ledger balances (excluding year-end closing entries) and cross-references them with four tax attributes every account in the chart of accounts carries: IRES deductibility, IRES taxability, IRAP relevance, and the nature of the adjustment (permanent or temporary). These attributes are set at the system level on the account template, with a possible per-company override — they aren't edited from this page, but you can always correct their effect with a line override.

Some figures the worksheet proposes are already computed for you; others deliberately start at zero because SamBooks doesn't yet have a reliable data source to populate them — knowing which is which keeps you from trusting a number that doesn't actually mean "already correct":

• IRES rate: fixed at 24%, not configurable.
• IRAP rate: the rate for the region of the office recorded in the company profile, for the selected tax year; if the office carries no region, or no region-specific rate exists, SamBooks falls back to the national base (3.90%) and flags it with the "base rate" label in the IRAP worksheet subtitle. It isn't a rate you pick from this page.
• Loss carryforwards (RN4): computed automatically from the company's previous closed fiscal years (full use for losses from the first three tax periods, otherwise ordinary use up to 80% of income) — still an editable line.
• Withholding tax suffered (RN20): summed automatically from the entries recorded on "withholding tax suffered" accounts during the year — also an editable line.
• Advance payments made (RN38): the line exists but always starts at zero, it isn't linked to direct-tax F24 forms already paid: if you want net IRES to reflect an advance already paid, update it yourself with "Edit line".
• IRAP deduction for permanent-contract staff: starts at zero because SamBooks doesn't yet have an automatic link to staff cost data (payslips) — enter it manually on the same line if it applies.
• ACE (residual): only the pre-existing stock can still reduce income (the allowance was repealed from 2024): the line starts at zero and should be filled in by your advisor if the company still has a residual to use.

Ask Sam

You can ask Sam to read the worksheet ("where do the 2025 IRES and IRAP taxes stand?", "does this year's IRAP balance?"), to edit a line or add a manual adjustment under the same rules as this page — same service, same balancing recomputation. Sam doesn't open a confirmation window for these edits: it applies them straight away, because they all stay undoable from its action history. Any change Sam makes shows up in the page as soon as you reopen it, and it's the exact same change you'd have made from the dialog: there is no chat-only path for these actions.

If something goes wrong

• The badge says "Provisional" and I can't finalise — normal until that year's fiscal year is closed: the computation stays an estimate. Close the year-end accounts first (guide).
• A line has an amber background with "Off balance" — see "Why a line might be out of balance" above: almost always an overridden total whose components weren't updated too.
• I edited a line by mistake — reopen "Edit line" and press "Reset to computed value" (for a computed line) or "Delete line" (for a manual line you had added).
• I can't find the edit icon on a line — not every line is editable: totals such as "Totale variazioni in aumento/diminuzione" and "Utile o perdita risultante dal conto economico" are read-only, they always reflect the computation of their components.
• The IRAP rate isn't the one for my region — the region comes from the office recorded in the company profile, populated at onboarding from business-register data: Settings has no "region" field to fill in. If it's missing, SamBooks uses the national base of 3.90% and says so with the "base rate" label; in the meantime you can bring the amount to the right figure with "Edit line" on the IRAP line (or on the taxable base), leaving your reason on record.
• I pressed "Save" and it told me the return is finalised — the pencil stays visible on a finalised return, but the save is rejected: press "Reopen" in the bottom bar first (companion guide), then edit.

Frequently asked questions

How do I calculate IRES and IRAP with SamBooks? There's nothing to start: open Tax returns → IRES/IRAP taxes, pick the year, the worksheet is already computed from that fiscal year's accounting data.

Where does the tax computation get its numbers from? From the year's general ledger balances and the tax attributes (deductibility, taxability, IRAP relevance, nature) assigned to each account in the chart of accounts.

Why does the return show as provisional? Because that year's fiscal year hasn't been closed yet: as long as it stays open every number can still change, so the computation is an estimate and doesn't generate F24 forms.

What does "the worksheet is out of balance" mean? That at least one of the totals (taxable income, gross/net IRES, production value, taxable base or IRAP) no longer matches the recomputed sum of its components — usually because of an override applied only to the total.

How do I edit a line in the tax worksheet? Pencil icon on the line → "Edit line" → new value and, where allowed, new side → Save.

Can I add a tax adjustment by hand? Yes, with "Add adjustment" at the top right of the worksheet: description and value are required, statutory reference and account are optional; the "Side" field decides which section the line lands in.

How do I go back to the computed value after editing it? Reopen "Edit line" on that line and press "Reset to computed value".

Which IRAP rate is SamBooks using? The rate for the region of the office recorded in the company profile, for the selected year; if the region is missing, the national base of 3.90% (flagged with the "base rate" badge).

Does the computation account for the withholding tax I've had deducted? Yes, the "Ritenute d'acconto subite" line sums it from the accounting entries recorded during the year and offsets it against gross IRES; it's still a value you can correct.

Can I calculate taxes before closing the year-end accounts? Yes: the computation is always visible, even for the current year, but it stays "Provisional" until that year's accounts are closed.

Does the total taxes figure include both IRES and IRAP? Yes: it's IRES due (only if it's a liability) plus the IRAP due.

Related features

• Finalising the tax return and generating XML and deferred tax — the next step, once the worksheet balances.
• Generating IRES and IRAP F24 forms with balance and advances — paying the taxes computed here.
• The line between filings and your accountant — what SamBooks computes and what stays with the professional.
• Closing the fiscal year in SamBooks — the prerequisite for making the computation official.