A Guide on the IMU Tax in Italy

If you own an Italian property and it is:

  • A vacation home
  • A second home
  • A luxury property

Then you will need to pay a yearly property tax called IMU on your property. The amount can be difficult to determine as you will not receive a bill or any other notice. There is nowhere you can call to ask for the amount either. The good news is that the amount is typically not a very high amount. 

There is an agent who will calculate and pay your IMU on your behalf. She has given permission to list her here. Tracey Nicholas property@abruzzoreality.com

To figure the IMU there are two important things you need from your Property Deed. 

  • Your property Classification (Quite often you will find this to be in the A4 category you will find this where the legal description of the property is on you deed. On mine it is in Bold type. – Castasto Fabbricata del Commune …… Via Del such and such, N.xx, some more stuff and then Cat. A/4
  • Your Cadastral Rental Value (On my deed this is listed as  R.C. € 180,76) 
IMU

IMU Calculator Help --->>>>>

This calculator is in Italian so I include some guidance. This calculator is for 2022. If you are needing to calculate for 2021, there is one on this page as well. But as there is penalty and interest, you may find it easier to use a service. The links in this post offer one. I don't know the cost. Hopefully not much as the tax is not much. You might want to use them anyway. If you don't have an online Italian bank it can be hard to find a way to pay the F24 Form from outside Italy.

Cadastral categories in Italy

GROUP A

A / 1 – Luxury homes.
Real estate units belonging to buildings located in prestigious areas with building characteristics,
technological and finishing of a higher level than that of the buildings of
residential type.

A / 2 – Civilian Homes.
Real estate units belonging to buildings with construction features,
technological and finishing level responding to local market demands for
residential buildings

A / 3 – Economic Homes.
Real estate units belonging to buildings with economy characteristics both for i
materials used for finishing, and with technological systems limited to the
indispensable.
 

A / 4 – Popular homes
Real estate units belonging to buildings with construction and construction characteristics
finishes of modest level. Limited supply of systems, although essential

A / 5 – Ultra-popular homes.
Real estate units belonging to buildings with construction and construction characteristics of
very low level finishes. Normally not equipped with sanitary facilities 

A/6 – Rural Homes.
A/7 – Small Villa.

A Small villa must be understood as a building, even if divided into real estate units,
having constructive, technological and finishing characteristics of a building
civil or economic and be equipped, for all or part of the real estate units,
of outdoor areas for exclusive use.

A/8 – Villa
For villas are meant those properties essentially characterized by
presence of park and / or garden, built in urban areas intended for such
constructions or in prestigious areas with constructive and finishing features, of high level
higher than the ordinary.

A / 9 – Castles, eminent palaces.
This category includes castles and eminent palaces which, due to their structure,
the distribution of internal spaces and built volumes are not comparable with the
Standard units of the other categories; they ordinarily constitute a single unit
real estate. The presence of others is compatible with the attribution of category A / 9
units, functionally independent, censurable in the other categories.

A / 10 – Offices and private practice.
This category includes real estate units that by type, endowment of
systems and finishes are intended for professional activity.

A / 11 – Houses and accommodation typical of the places
Mountain huts, huts, trulli, stones, etc …

GROUP B

B / 1 Boarding schools and boarding schools; admissions; orphanages; hospices; convents, seminaries;barracks
B / 2 Nursing homes and hospitals (non-profit) B / 3 Prisons and reformers
B / 4 Public offices
B / 5 Schools and scientific laboratories
B / 6 Libraries, art galleries, museums, galleries, academies that are not based in
buildings of category A / 9
B / 7 Chapels and oratories not intended for the public exercise of worship
B / 8 Underground warehouses for food storage

GROUP C

C / 1 Shops and workshops
C / 2 Warehouses and storage rooms
C / 3 Workshops for arts and crafts
C / 4 Buildings and premises for sports activities (non-profit)
C / 5 Bathing establishments and healing waters (non-profit)
C / 6 Stables, stables, remittances, garages (non-profit)
C / 7 Canopies closed or open

II – SPECIAL DESTINATION PROPERTY

GROUP D

D / 1 Factory
D / 2 Hotels and pensions (for-profit)
D / 3 Theaters, cinemas, concert halls and shows and the like (for profit)
D / 4 Nursing homes and hospitals (for profit)
D / 5 Credit, exchange and insurance institution (for-profit)
D / 6 Buildings and premises for sports activities (for profit)
D / 7 Buildings built or adapted for the special needs of an activity
industrial and not susceptible of different destination without radical transformations.
D / 8 Buildings built or adapted for the special needs of an activity
commercial and not susceptible of different destination without radicals
transformations.
D / 9 Floating or suspended buildings secured to fixed points on the ground, private bridges
subject to toll.
D / 10 Buildings for production functions related to agricultural activities.

III – PROPERTY FOR PARTICULAR DESTINATION

GROUP E

E / 1 Stations for transport, land, sea and air services.
E / 2 Municipal and provincial bridges subject to tolls.
E / 3 Buildings and buildings for special public needs
E / 4 Paddocks for special public needs.
E / 5 Buildings constituting fortifications and their dependencies.
E / 6 Lighthouses, traffic lights, towers to make the municipal clock public
E / 7 Buildings intended for the public exercise of cults.
E / 8 Buildings and constructions in cemeteries, excluding columbaria, sepulchres and family tombs.
E / 9 Buildings for special use not included in the previous categories of
group E.

 

The Calculator is in Italian, but not too complicated. Here is a breakdown

  • Seleziona categoria/tipologia: You will put in your Comune from the drop down and the Codice Castale will fill itself. 
  • Percentuale di possesso: What percent do you own. (If a property is owned by two or more people, each as an individual obligation to make their own IMU payment for their respective ownership. This applies to spouses as well, if both their names are on the title.
  • Mese inizio possesso. and Mese fine possesso: Applies if you have been owners for only part of the year. 
  • Aliquota IMU acconto: This is the rate. It was prefilled for me, and was the correct rate. Here is a like to a site where you can lookup the various IMU rates for any Comune in Italy. The PDF’s are in Italian but by scanning to the bottom sections, you can look and see if the rate that prefilled for you is also listed on the document. (Aliquota IMU Saldo same. Acconto means on account, or deposit, and Salso means remaining balance)
  • Immobile storico/inagibile (Historical or artistic interest – Probably NO
  • To the RIGHT of that is a little checkbox. Very hard to see with text. Riduz. immobile pensionato estero in conv. internaz. This is important to you. It is for property that is owned by pensioners who live outside of Italy. This is probably you. It means you have a 37.5 percent discount. (This was changed for 2022. prior years it was 50%  Make sure you check it. 
  • Riferimento Immobile: Other references. Leave this blank unless you know what you are doing, in which case you would probably not be here to begin with. 

Links to sites where you can get information and/or engage someone to handle the whole thing for you. 

F24 IMU
Example of IMU Section of the Modello F24

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR F24 IMU PAYMENT
For the payment of the Municipal Tax (IMU), in the “REASON FOR PAYMENT” section, the “EL” code is indicated in the “Section” column, while in each row the taxpayer must:
– in the “Codice ente” space, enter the cadastral code of the Municipality in whose territory the buildings are located, consisting of four characters;
– in the “rev.” Space tick the box if the payment refers to the repentance;
– in the “immobil. changed “tick if there have been changes to one or more properties that require the presentation of the declaration of change;
– in the space “acc.” tick if the payment refers to the deposit;
– in the “balance” space, tick if the payment refers to the balance. If the payment is made in a single installment for down payment and balance, please tick
both boxes;
– in the space “number of properties” indicate the number of properties (maximum 3 digits);
– in the “reference year” space indicate the tax year to which the payment refers. If the space “rev.” Is crossed, specify
the year in which the tax should have been paid;
– in the space “amounts due paid” indicate the amount due. If the taxpayer is entitled to the deduction (shown in column
“Deduction”) must indicate the tax net of the same.
The “installment” space must be filled in only if the financial administration provides the relevant instructions, for example with circulars or resolutions.