Municipal property tax IMU

The annual municipal property tax on real estate previously consisted of two parts: the IMU (Imposta Municipale), which must be paid by all property owners provided they do not live in the property themselves and it is not classified as a luxury property (cadastral categories A1, A8, and A9), and the TASI (Tassa sui Servizi Indivisibili), through which municipalities billed residents for indivisible and non-visible services such as street lighting and road maintenance.

 With the 2020 budget law, TASI was abolished as of January 1, 2020, and integrated directly into the IMU. The abolition of TASI particularly benefits tenants in long-term rental agreements, since depending on the municipality they had to cover between 10% and 30% of the tax burden. As a result of the abolition, the IMU rate increased from 7.6 ‰ to 8.6 ‰. Municipalities also have the option of raising the rate by a further 2.8 ‰ up to a maximum of 11.4 ‰, but they are now also allowed to reduce the rate or even eliminate it completely.

The tax base of the IMU is the cadastral income of the property, which can be found in the purchase contract or cadastral extract. This amount is increased by a revaluation factor of 5% and then multiplied by a correction coefficient depending on the property type: 160 for residential properties (Cat. A1–A9; A11; C2–C7), 140 for workshops (Cat. B1–B8; C3–C5), 80 for office buildings (Cat. A10; D5), 65 for warehouses, industrial buildings, and hotels (Cat. D1–D4; D6–D10), and 55 for retail premises (Cat. C1). For example, cadastral income × 1.05 (5% revaluation factor), result × 160 (multiplier for residential properties), result × tax rate (e.g. 8.6 ‰), result (minus any deductions) = IMU payable. For agricultural land, the tax base is the cadastral income, revalued by 25% and multiplied as follows: 75 for agricultural land owned by registered farmers and 135 for all other agricultural land.

The IMU is payable in two installments, on June 16 and December 16. Normally, property owners receive a notice from the municipality before each due date, indicating both the exact amount and the available payment methods. If you only use your Lake Garda property as a holiday home, make sure to provide the municipality with your home address so that all notices are sent to you directly and you are informed of deadlines in good time. Today, IMU can also be paid easily via bank transfer to the municipality. 

In Italy, however, it is more common to pay taxes using the so-called Modulo F24 or via a payment slip at the post office, available both in print and online. With the Modulo F24, municipal taxes for several properties in different municipalities can be paid at once, whereas using a postal slip or a simple bank transfer requires a separate payment for each municipality. For all payment methods, amounts must be rounded up to the nearest euro, which is simplified on the postal slip thanks to pre-filled decimal fields.