Property taxes (2024)

Home owners in Italy pay property taxes to the Comune. The tax components together are called IUC, Imposta Unica Comunale. Until 2014, property owners had to pay only IMU (Imposta Municipale Unica and waste disposal tax (TARI or Tassa sui Rifiuti). In 2014 a third tax was added, TASI or Tassa sui Servizi Indivisibili. Compared to IMU, TASI was only a small amount and in some municipalities it was zero. In 2020 the TASI amount was added to the IMU and TASI, which used to have a separate tax code, was abolished.

Calculation principles

The basis of the calculation for both IMU is the cadastre income value of your property. There are several cadastral categories of properties. Private property owners mostly have to deal with the building categories A (homes) and C (accessories) and with land. More precisely your home can be classified as A/1, A/2, …. A/9. The cadastre income value of a home is determined by the building category + the number of rooms (vani). This information can be found on the cadastral certificate (visura catastale). The most common accessories are garages (or car ports or private parking spaces) which are registered as C/6 and storage rooms, known as C/2. For these categories the basis of calculation of the cadastre income value is the total (gross) floor area, which is also indicated in the cadastral certificate.If you are officially residing in Italy, you have the right to consider one of your properties as your “first home” (prima casa), together with one accessory of the category C/2 and one of the category C/6. These properties are currently exempt from IMU. Your other properties, or if you are not residing in Italy, all your properties, will be considered non-resident (commonly called “seconda casa”) and will be subject to IMU. Properties in the category A/1, A/8 and A/9 are generally not exempt, even if you are residing in Italy.

Every year each Comune determines the tax percentage (aliquota) for the different building categories and the land on its territory. For building categories the IMU percentage is between 0,86% and maximum 1,06% (often expressed as 8,6‰ - 10,6‰) of the recalculated cadastre value. Because 2020 is a transition year, the maximum percentage in 2020 may still be up to 11,4‰.

Calculation of the Property Tax (IMU)
With the cadastre income value of your property, you can calculate the yearly amount of tax that you will have to pay online. If you prefer, you can also calculate it manually to double check.
Step 1: Calculate the taxable value of your properties,a) for homes and accessories: cadastre income value + 5%, multiplied by 160b) for land: land yield (R/D or Reddito Dominicale) + 25%, multiplied by 135.
Step 2: Find the actual tax percentage on the website of your Comune. In Italian it is called aliquota IMU.
Step 3: Multiply the taxable value by the tax percentage and the result is your yearly IMU value.

Calculation example:
This table shows the data as you find them on a cadastre certificate of an apartment (category A/2), a garage (C/6) and a cellar (C/2).

The IMU for non-residents of the property in the table is calculated as follows:
cadastre income value 87,49 + 387,34 + 40,90 = 515,73 euro
calculation of the taxable value 515,73 +5% = 541,52 x 160 = 86.642,64 euro

The table below shows the IMU tax percentages determined by a randomly chosen comune, where the percentage for homes of non-residents (usually called seconda casa) is 10,6‰ (1,06%).

IMU tax percentages

Payment of the Property Tax
Property tax is due two times per year. You will owe 50% on 16 June and 50% on 16 December. Please note that each owner of the properties has to pay the tax amount for the % that he owns. If you and your partner are co-owners for 50% each, you both have to pay 50% of the yearly IMU value, 25 % on 16 June and 25% on 16 December.In most towns/cities you will not receive a bill for your property tax. You will have to remember to pay it on time.

F24 Tax payment form

Payment of taxes, and also of the property tax, is to be done with a so-called F24 payment form. To fill in such a form (on paper, or in your online banking system) you will need the cadastre code of your comune (1 letter and 3 figures) which can be found on the visura catastale, and the tax codes (in Italian Codice Tributo) which can be found on the website of the comune. An example is 3918, which is the tax code to be used to pay IMU for your second home.

In Italy, if you do not pay your taxes on time, you will have to calculate the amount of your fine and include that amount with your tax payment. This is called ravvedimento operoso. For property tax purposes the amount of the fine can be calculated online on the website https://www.amministrazionicomunali.it/.

Here you can read more about ⇨ Waste disposal tax in Italy ⇦.