IMU on rented property in Italy: what landlords pay
Letting a flat in Italy does not exempt it from IMU. The owner pays every year, and the comune’s schedule decides whether a let home pays more or less than an empty one.
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If you own a flat or house in Italy and let it, you, not the tenant, pay IMU on it every June and December. Law 160/2019 treats a let home exactly like a second home, with one exception: under a regulated canone concordato lease the tax is cut to 75 %. Everything else is up to each comune, which can set different rates in its official rate schedule for homes let at market rent, let to students, used for holiday lets or left empty. On a flat with €900 of cadastral income, at the 1.06 % rate most comuni apply, IMU is €1,603 a year. Among the schedules we read, 57 comuni have a line for market-rent leases, almost always below the ordinary rate, 264 have one for empty homes and 64 one for tourist use. Paying IMU from abroad follows the same rules as for any owner.
How much of the rent IMU takes
IMU at 1.06 %
€1,425
| Share of the rent | 15.8 % |
| Months of rent it absorbs | 1.9 |
The owner pays, whatever the lease says
Paragraph 743 of Law 160/2019 names who owes IMU: the owner and the holders of real rights such as usufruct. A tenant is not on that list. A clause asking the tenant to refund the IMU binds the two of you privately, but the comune will always chase the owner. The one case where the occupier pays is property leasing (locazione finanziaria), where the lessee is liable from the signature of the contract.
How much of the rent goes in IMU
IMU does not depend on the rent you charge. It is fixed by the cadastral income and the comune’s rate, so the cheaper the rent, the bigger the share the tax takes. On older flats in city centres, where cadastral values are often low compared with market rents, it can be a small slice; on a new flat let cheaply in a small town it can be much larger.
| Yearly rent | IMU | Share, market rent | Share, agreed rent |
|---|---|---|---|
| €6,000 | €1,603 | 26.7 % | 20.0 % |
| €9,000 | €1,603 | 17.8 % | 13.4 % |
| €12,000 | €1,603 | 13.4 % | 10.0 % |
| €18,000 | €1,603 | 8.9 % | 6.7 % |
| €24,000 | €1,603 | 6.7 % | 5.0 % |
Long lets at market rent
A standard four-plus-four lease (canone libero) gives no reduction under national law. Some comuni nonetheless charge a lower rate for homes let this way, to bring empty flats back onto the market. In 46 of the 57 schedules with such a line, the rate is below the ordinary one; the conditions often require the tenant to make it a main home. The agreed rent guide explains the regulated lease that brings the national 75 % reduction.
Holiday lets and short stays
Letting by the night or the week, directly or through a platform, does not change the cadastral category of a home. For IMU it remains a dwelling other than a main home. A growing number of comuni add a line for homes used as tourist accommodation, sometimes tied to an activity code such as bed and breakfast or holiday homes. Some charge them more, to protect housing for residents; others charge them less, to support small tourism.
| Comune | Ordinary rate | Tourist use rate | Compared |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Valentino in Abruzzo Citeriore | 0.86 % | 0.38 % | lower |
| Anacapri | 0.96 % | 1.06 % | higher |
| Capri | 0.86 % | 1.03 % | higher |
| Agropoli | 1.06 % | 0.91 % | lower |
| Vigolzone | 0.885 % | 1.025 % | higher |
| Guastalla | 1.06 % | 0.95 % | lower |
| Meldola | 0.94 % | 0 % | lower |
| Predappio | 1.03 % | 0 % | lower |
Student lets in university towns
Cities with large universities often give landlords who let to students a rate well below the second home rate, provided the lease follows the student contract of Law 431/1998, which refers to the local rent agreement. Florence, Pisa, Lucca and Bologna are among the comuni whose schedules carry such a line. The lower rate is the comune’s choice; it is not the national 75 % reduction, which is reserved for canone concordato leases, and the two should not be confused when you check your figures.
Co-owners letting together
When a flat belongs to several people, for example siblings who inherited it, each co-owner pays IMU on his or her share, with a separate payment, even if one of them collects the rent for all. The comune can pursue each co-owner only for his or her own share. Some comuni allow, through their regulations, one co-owner to pay for the others; check before relying on a single payment. The inherited property guide covers the first year after a death.
Empty homes
Comuni can also single out homes that are neither let nor lent (abitazioni a disposizione). Of the 264 schedules with such a line, 134 tax empty homes more than the ordinary rate. If you keep a flat for occasional stays, this is the line to look for in your comune’s schedule; the rates by comune page lists them all.
Leases must be registered
The notes to every rate schedule state that only registered leases count as leases. Any reduced rate for let homes requires a lease registered with the Agenzia delle Entrate; an unregistered let is treated as an empty home for IMU, besides the other risks it carries. When a lease starts or ends during the year, the tax is split by month, each month following the situation that lasted more than half of it.
Paying from abroad
Landlords living outside Italy pay like everyone else: tax code 3918 and the comune’s cadastral code, a first instalment by 16 June at last year’s rate and the balance by 16 December. Without an Italian bank account, a bank transfer to the comune’s treasury with the right references does the job. The non-residents guide lists what to quote, and the calculator gives the amounts for each instalment.