When looking for a house in Italy, you need to know which taxes you will pay while you purchase and which you will pay annually after you move in. So, you’ll need to wrap your head around Italian property taxes.
During the purchase process Generally speaking, the main property taxes is any tax paid on your real estate. The sale taxes are the one you paid while you are buying a house and the property changes hands. In Italy, the buyer is responsible for the majority of the sales taxes, for these reasons it is important to consider these in the overall budget.
Taxes for foreigners in Italy could be higher in some categories, but it depending on other factor such as:
the municipality in which the house is located in;
whether the house is a first or second house, an investment, holiday home or the main residence,
the value and the property’s type.
The main taxes in Italy are as follows:
Registration tax (imposta di registro): this is a tax on registering the property at the Agenzia delle Entrate;
Land registry tax (imposta catastale) and Mortgage tax (imposta ipotecaria): are taxes you have to pay based on cadastral value;
Stamp duty (imposta di bollo): tax that you have to pay, and you can pay it with a tax stamp;
VAT, in Italy is called IVA: VAT means value add tax and it is payable on some of the fees involved with property sales. In most cases, when you buy a house from a private seller you do not have to pay it, a different situation if you buy a house from an IVA-registered company;
Maintenance taxes If the purchase taxes are one-off tax, in Italy when you have a house you pay annually the maintenance taxes. The two main property taxes, you paid at the city hall, are:
property ownership tax (IMU - Imposta Municipale Unica): is a property ownership tax. If the property is the main residence you do not need to pay it, however if it is a luxury residence you have to pay IMU. IMU is calculated from the cadastral value of the property;
waste collection tax (TARI - tassa sui Rifiuti): this tax covers the costs of services like rubbish collection and street cleaning. This tax is calculated on how many people live in the property and the size of it. Unlike IMU, the TARI is paid by the tenant - if there’s one - and not by the owner.
Other expenses, could be:
home insurance: it’s recommended to underwrite home and contents insurance. The cost depends by the size of the house, the feature and from which situation you want protected your home, your family and you;
home administrator: if your house is part of a condo or residence, could be an administrator that manages paperwork and payments, so you have to reward him/her for their work.
