If you are wondering how does it cost to buy and own a property in Italy, the following analysis may hopefully clarify the property taxation system in Italy at the moment.
There are basically 2 categories of levies that everyone, resident or otherwise, must pay after purchasing a home in Italy:
1) Levies dealing with transfer of property such as stamp duty (imposta di registro), land registry tax (imposta ipotecaria), cadastral tax (imposta catastale) and VAT (IVA). VAT is generally levied on the purchase for property bought from a renovation company or a developer within 5 years after completion of work on the property. The other three taxes (stamp duty, land registry and cadastral tax) are usually based on the property’s “cadastral declared value” of the deed of sale called the “Rogito”. Notably, the cadastral value is lower than the property’s market price since it is based on appraisals which in most cases were done several years back.
If one buys his or her principal home, also called prima casa, from a company or a private seller without applying VAT, whereby you can move into the property within 8 months after signing the final contract, live in the property for more than 6 months a year and if the home is not categorized as luxury property, then the stamp duty, also known as ‘imposta di registro’ is 2% of the property’s cadastral value. The cadastral tax (imposta catastale) and the land registry tax (imposta ipotecaria) are of € 50 each.
For second homes (seconda casa) the stamp duty is 9% and is applied on the cadastral value in case the buyer is a private entity, or on the purchase price if is a business entity. Land registry and cadastral taxes are € 50 in each case.
Stamp duty comes with a minimum payment due of 1000 Euros.
2) Ownership taxes include the NUOVA IMU (tax on the ownership of the property) and TARI (waste tax).
Only owners of primary residences are exempted from Nuova Imu for properties that are not classified as luxury homes. However, they will have to pay Tari according to the house’s square metres and the number of people living in that place.
Anyway, we recommend you to check thoroughly the exact amount of the taxes you have to pay for your property in Italy since the situation can change from town to town and depending on political events.