Garages, cellars and parking spaces: when a pertinenza pays IMU
In Italy a garage, a cellar or a parking space usually has its own cadastral record and its own rendita. Whether it pays IMU depends on the home it serves.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy
An Italian property often comes with separate units for the garage, the cellar or the parking space, each with its own entry in the land registry and its own cadastral income (rendita catastale). The tax treatment follows the home they serve. With a main home, one unit per category is exempt: one C/2 (cellar, loft, storeroom), one C/6 (garage, carport, parking space) and one C/7 (shed or canopy), under article 1, paragraph 741 b), of Law 160/2019. A second unit in the same category pays as an ordinary building. With a holiday home or any home where you are not resident, there is no exemption and no limit: every garage and cellar pays, on its rendita × 1.05 × 160, at the comune’s rate for other buildings. A garage with €150 of rendita costs €267 a year at 1.06 %, the rate most comuni apply, so a non-resident owner with a flat, a garage and a cellar pays three amounts on three lines of the same F24 code.
An extra garage or cellar: what it pays
IMU on a second garage (not a pertinenza)
€214
| As a pertinenza of the main home | €0 |
| Taxable value (×160) | €20,160 |
Why your garage has its own rendita
The Italian land registry (catasto) records each unit separately: the flat, the garage in the basement, the storeroom in the loft. Each has a category and a cadastral income. When you buy, the deed (rogito) usually lists all the units, and the IMU is calculated unit by unit. Check your visura catastale: if the garage appears with its own sub-number (subalterno) and category C/6, it is a separate unit for IMU purposes.
The three categories that can be pertinenze
Only three categories can share the main home exemption: C/2 for storerooms, cellars and lofts, C/6 for garages, stables and parking spaces, C/7 for open or closed sheds. One of each at most. A workshop (C/3) or a shop (C/1) is never a pertinenza for IMU, however you use it. The limit also counts a unit registered together with the flat: a loft included in the flat’s rendita uses up your C/2 allowance.
Common situations
Figures at 1.06 % for other buildings, with a garage of €150, a cellar of €55 and a parking space of €80 of rendita.
| Situation | IMU per year on the extra units | Each instalment |
|---|---|---|
| Resident: flat + garage C/6 + cellar C/2 | €0 | €0 |
| Resident: flat + garage C/6 + parking space C/6 | €142 | €71 |
| Not resident (holiday home): flat + garage + cellar | €365 | €183 |
| Resident: garage let to a neighbour | €267 | €134 |
Holiday homes: everything pays
Most foreign owners are in this case. Since a holiday home is not your main home, its garage and cellar are taxed too, each on its own rendita. The amounts are small compared with the flat, but they are due and comuni do check them: an owner who pays only on the flat leaves the other units unpaid, which can surface years later as an assessment with interest and penalties. The calculator handles each unit if you select the matching profile (garage, cellar or parking space not a pertinenza).
Garages let to someone else
The comuni’s rate schedules recall that pertinenze are not taxed autonomously because, under article 817 of the Civil Code, they share the regime of the property they serve. A garage you let to a neighbour no longer serves your home, so it pays as an ordinary building even if it is the only garage you own. Some comuni set a specific rate for category C units that are let: the calculator lists it under the result when the schedule has one.
Pertinenze of a luxury main home
If you live in an A/1, A/8 or A/9 home, its garage and cellar pay with the home, at the reduced main home rate, and the €200 deduction applies to the total. On the F24 they go under the same code as the home, 3912. Units beyond one per category pay at the ordinary rate under code 3918.
A garage bought separately or nearby
The law does not require the garage to be in the same building or bought with the flat. What counts is that it is permanently intended to serve the home. A garage a few streets away that you use for the family car can be your C/6 pertinenza; one in another town is hard to defend as serving the home, and the comune may challenge it.
Reading the deed and the visura together
Foreign buyers often receive a deed in Italian that lists several cadastral references: foglio, particella and subalterno for each unit. Each subalterno with its own category is a unit for IMU. A flat sold “with garage and cellar” may be three units, or one unit if the extras were merged into the flat’s record. Ask the notary or a geometra to list the units with their categories and rendite, and keep that list with your tax papers: it is the basis for every IMU payment and for any later check by the comune.
Mistakes we see most often
Paying nothing on two garages because both seem to be pertinenze; paying on the only cellar, which was exempt; forgetting the parking space on a holiday home because it was not mentioned in the agent’s description. Reading the visura and listing every unit with its category and rendita avoids all three. If a past year was missed, the ravvedimento operoso lets you pay with a reduced penalty before the comune contacts you.