Italy: 90 CFP Per Triennium, and No Annual Minimum

Italian search results will tell you that a dottore commercialista needs 20 training credits a year. They are wrong, and the error is worth correcting carefully because it is repeated almost everywhere. The regulation governing continuing education for Italian chartered accountants sets a triennial total and no annual minimum at all. The 20-credit figure people are thinking of belongs to a different regime entirely — the one for statutory auditors on the MEF register.

Who sets the rules

The body is the Consiglio Nazionale dei Dottori Commercialisti e degli Esperti Contabili (CNDCEC), with the local Ordini administering compliance. Supervision sits with the Ministero della Giustizia — the Ministry of Justice — which approves the CNDCEC’s regulation and publishes it in its own Bollettino Ufficiale. That ministerial role is routinely left out of English-language summaries, and it matters: the regulation is not simply a professional body’s internal rule.

The statutory basis is D.Lgs. 28 giugno 2005, n. 139, the profession’s ordinamento, together with article 7 of D.P.R. 137/2012, which the CNDCEC cites as its enabling provision.

The numbers under the 2023 regulation

The regulation in force from 1 October 2023 was approved by the CNDCEC on 3 May 2023, received the favourable opinion of the Minister of Justice on 12 July 2023, and was published in Bollettino Ufficiale del Ministero della Giustizia n. 18 of 30 September 2023.

• Article 5, comma 2: 90 crediti formativi professionali (CFP) per triennium.
• At least 9 of those CFP must come from training in a defined block: ordinamento and deontologia, organisation of the professional practice, anti-money-laundering rules, and mediation techniques.
• Article 6: 30 CFP per triennium for members aged 65 or over, with the same 9 obligatory credits.

That 9-credit block is as close as Italy gets to an ethics minimum, and note what it actually is: a combined requirement covering five subject areas, not an ethics-only quota. A member could in principle satisfy it entirely with anti-money-laundering training. Describing it as “9 ethics credits” overstates it.

The trienni are fixed, not rolling

Article 4 is explicit: I trienni formativi sono fissi a decorrere dal 1° gennaio 2008. The three-year periods are fixed calendar blocks running from 1 January 2008 — so 2023 to 2025, and the current one is 2026 to 2028. This is different from the rolling triennial period used in France, and it means every Italian member is on the same clock.

New members start on the first day of the month after registration, with a proportional reduction.

Why there is no annual minimum

We checked this specifically, because the claim is so widespread. The regulation sets no per-member annual floor, and article 19, comma 1 makes the verification itself triennial: Tale verifica è svolta al termine di ogni triennio — the check is carried out at the end of each three-year period.

The CNDCEC’s own Vademecum obblighi formativi of 28 March 2025 says the same thing by omission: it gives the triennial total for members under 65 as 90 and states no annual figure.

So an Italian commercialista who does nothing in year one and year two and 90 credits in year three has, on the face of the regulation, complied. That is not advisable, but it is the rule. If a cross-border CPD table lists Italy as “20 credits per year” for commercialisti, it has imported the statutory auditor figure.

Exemptions and reductions

Article 8 provides for several, and they are more generous than most European regimes:

• Maternity: a 45-CFP reduction, which the member may apportion.
• Interruption of professional activity of at least six months for reasons other than discipline.
• Holding elective public office.
• Accident, illness and other impediments, with the reduction set in misura proporzionale — proportionally to the period of actual interruption.
• Non-practising members and those on the Elenco Speciale are exempt.

Separately, pari opportunità — equal opportunities — credits became obligatory from 22 February 2024.

Records and reporting: the Ordine does the work

There is no member-filed annual declaration. The Ordine verifies compliance by 31 January following the end of the triennium and prepares the credit summary by 31 March; non-compliant members are referred to the Consiglio di Disciplina.

Record retention has no fixed number of years. Article 5, comma 5 requires members to keep documentation until the limitation period for disciplinary action expires, and to produce it to their Ordine on request. That is an unusual formulation and a practical argument for keeping records longer rather than shorter.

What changed on 1 January 2026

A new regulation replaced the 2023 text entirely with effect from 1 January 2026. It was adopted by the CNDCEC on 30 July 2025, approved by the Minister of Justice on 25 September 2025, and published in Bollettino Ufficiale n. 19 of 15 October 2025. Articles 11 and 16 applied immediately from publication, which means article 16 already affected the 2023–2025 triennium before it closed.

The structural changes we can confirm:

• Article 5 adds compulsory pari opportunità credits.
• Article 6 replaces the reduced 30-CFP obligation for over-65s with a full exemption for members who are, or turn, 65 during the triennium. Critically, that exemption does not extend to training needed to join or remain on external registers such as the Registro dei Revisori Legali.
• Article 7 updates the equivalence rules.
• Article 8 adds a parenthood exemption: a 45-credit reduction usable between the child’s first and sixth year, by one or both parents.
• Article 9 expands CNDCEC supervisory powers, including requesting copies of attendance certificates and event documentation.
• Article 11 revises provider authorisation: authorisations and renewals valid to 31 December 2028, a €300 fee via PagoPA, a CNDCEC decision within 60 days followed by a binding ministerial opinion and then 15 days.
• Article 16 moves the caps on credits from particular activity types from an annual to a triennial basis.

What we are deliberately not telling you: the new regulation’s total CFP per triennium, whether the 9-credit obligatory block survives unchanged, and how many pari opportunità credits article 5 now requires. The CNDCEC’s own announcement and regulation pages returned server errors on repeated attempts, so those figures are unverified. Do not assume 90 CFP carries into 2026–2028. The structural changes above are confirmed; the credit totals need checking against the new text.

The second regime, and why it stacks

Most Italian commercialisti are also registered as revisori legali, and that register has its own, separate, annual obligation administered by the Ministry of Economy and Finance — 20 credits a year, 60 over three years. The two obligations are additive, not alternative. The new regulation makes the point explicitly in its over-65 exemption, which covers CNDCEC training only.

So the honest answer to “what does an Italian accountant need?” is: it depends which registers they are on, and many are on both. Across Europe the same question has very different answers — the EU Statutory Audit Directive sets no hours of its own, which is why. Compare Germany, where the headline figure is a target rather than a requirement, and France, where there is no figure in law at all for general professional accountants.

Frequently asked questions

How many CFP does an Italian commercialista need? Under the 2023 regulation, 90 per triennium, with at least 9 in a combined block covering ordinamento, deontologia, practice organisation, anti-money-laundering and mediation.

Is there an annual minimum? No. Verification is triennial. The widely quoted 20 credits a year belongs to the separate statutory auditor regime.

What are the current trienni? Fixed calendar blocks from 1 January 2008, so 2023–2025 and now 2026–2028.

Do I file a declaration? No. Your Ordine verifies by 31 January after the triennium closes.

Did the figures change in 2026? The regulation was fully replaced on 1 January 2026 and several structural rules changed. The credit totals under the new text should be checked directly rather than assumed.

Plan a triennium properly with Learnsignal

A triennial total with no annual floor is easy to leave until late and awkward to catch up on, particularly for members also carrying the annual statutory auditor obligation. Our CPD courses are certificated and cover the technical and ethics-adjacent subjects both regimes count. The CNDCEC publishes its regulation and vademecum at commercialisti.it.