IMU on a holiday home in Italy: what a non-resident owner pays
Bought a flat in Tuscany, a trullo in Puglia or a house by a lake? Every year in June and December the comune expects its share.
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For anyone who lives abroad, a home in Italy is always a second home for IMU purposes, because the main home exemption requires Italian registered residence and actually living there. The tax is due every year whether the house is used, let or empty. It is worked out from the rendita catastale on the land registry record: add 5 %, multiply by 160 for a dwelling, and apply the rate your comune sets for “altri fabbricati”. A flat classed A/3 with €680 of rendita has a taxable value of €114,240; at 1.06 %, the rate most comuni charge, IMU comes to €1,211 a year, paid as €605 by 16 June and €605 by 16 December 2026, or in full by 16 June. The rate can be lower: 500 of the 7,357 comuni whose schedules we read charge less than the 0.86 % base rate. The owner pays, never the tenant, and each co-owner pays only his or her share.
What IMU costs on your second home
IMU 2026 for the full year
€1,425
| Taxable value | €134,400 |
| June instalment | €712 |
| December balance | €712 |
Why there is no exemption for you
Italy exempts the abitazione principale, the home where the owner is registered as resident and habitually lives. A foreign owner who spends the summer in Italy but is resident in London, Munich or Toronto does not meet both conditions, so the house is taxed as “altri fabbricati”, the class that also covers rented flats, shops and offices. Italians registered abroad with the AIRE are in the same position since 2020. Registering a residence in Italy without actually living there is not a solution: comuni check utility consumption and other records, and can reassess five years back with penalties.
There is one relief designed for people abroad: a pensioner who lives outside Italy and receives a pension earned under an international social security agreement with Italy pays half on one dwelling, provided it is not let or lent. The non-residents guide sets out the conditions.
A yearly budget for a typical holiday flat
Most foreign owners have a flat and a garage or parking space. Both pay, each on its own rendita. The example uses the 1.06 % rate and the €680 flat of this page.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| IMU on the flat (A/3) | €1,211 |
| IMU on the garage (C/6, rendita 95 euro) | €169 |
| Total per year | €1,380 |
| Paid by 16 June | €690 |
| Paid by 16 December | €690 |
If the comune raises its rate this year, the December figure will be higher than June’s, because June uses last year’s rate and December settles the difference. The calculator shows both instalments for your comune.
Same flat, different towns
The comune’s rate can matter more than the size of the property. Here is the IMU on the same A/3 flat with €680 of rendita in towns popular with foreign buyers, using each comune’s current schedule.
| Comune | Second home rate | IMU per year |
|---|---|---|
| Lucca, Tuscany | 1.06 % | €1,211 |
| Spoleto, Umbria | 1.06 % | €1,211 |
| Lecce, Puglia | 1.1 % | €1,257 |
| Menaggio, Lake Como | 0.86 % | €982 |
| Noto, Sicily | 1.06 % | €1,211 |
| Sorrento, Campania | 1.06 % | €1,211 |
Before buying, look up the rates of the towns you are considering in the rates by comune tool, or put two of them side by side with the comparison.
Buying part way through the year
IMU is shared month by month between seller and buyer. A month counts for whoever owned the property for more than half its days, and the day of the deed counts for the buyer, who also keeps the month if the days are equal. With a deed signed on 20 April 2026, April goes to the seller, so you pay 8 months: €807 on the flat of this page, all of it in December because you owned nothing in the first half. The guide on buying and selling has a calculator for any date.
Letting the house
Long or short lets do not change the IMU formula. The house keeps its category and pays the comune’s rate for other buildings, or a specific rate if the comune has one for let homes or tourist accommodation. Letting at the agreed rent (canone concordato) under a registered contract cuts the tax to 75 %, but that kind of contract is rare for holiday homes; see the rented property guide. Rental income is taxed separately through the Italian income tax return, not through IMU.
Paying from abroad
With an Italian bank account, you pay with the F24 form, tax code 3918 for a second home, and the comune’s four-character cadastral code in the field for the local authority. Without one, comuni publish bank details for transfers from abroad: the reference must include your codice fiscale, the comune code, the IMU tax code, the year and whether it is the June or December payment. Make a separate payment for each comune where you own property. If you miss a deadline, the ravvedimento operoso lets you pay late with a reduced penalty.
Three mistakes foreign owners make
Using the purchase price or the agent’s valuation instead of the rendita, which produces a wildly inflated figure. Paying once a year in December, when the first half is due in June. And assuming that the notary or the property manager pays automatically: unless you have arranged it, nobody pays IMU for you, and the comune will send the assessment to you, with interest and penalties, years later.