How much tax will I pay on an Italian property?
Cadastral value, registration tax and IMU — 2026

Calculate your own taxesEnter the rendita and how you will use the home: registration tax at the deed and IMU every year. →

Cadastral value for purchase tax

Rendita × 1.05 × 120 = rendita × 126 · with prima casa × 110 = rendita × 115.5

Cadastral value for IMU

Rendita × 1.05 × 160 = rendita × 168

Registration tax (private seller)

9% · 2% with prima casa · minimum €1,000 · plus €50 mortgage tax and €50 cadastral tax

New build from a developer

VAT 10% of the price · 4% prima casa · 22% luxury · plus €200 × 3 fixed taxes

IMU rate

0.86% base · up to 1.06% (1.14% where the former TASI surcharge survives) · set yearly by each Comune

Who is exempt from IMU

Only your main home, where you are resident and live — never a holiday home, never a non-resident's home · luxury A/1, A/8, A/9 always pay

Due dates

16 June and 16 December

What the cadastral value is, and where to find it

Every building unit in Italy is recorded in the catasto, the property register kept by the Agenzia delle Entrate. Each unit has a category — A/2 for an ordinary flat, A/7 for a small house, C/6 for a garage, and so on — and a rendita catastale: a notional annual income, set by the state, that has very little to do with today's market. The rendita is the starting point for almost every property tax in the country.

The cadastral value is not printed anywhere. It is calculated from the rendita, and the calculation changes with the tax you are computing. That is why the same flat has one cadastral value at the notary and a different, higher one on the IMU bill — and why guides online quote figures that seem to contradict each other.

The rendita and the category are on the visura catastale, the official extract for the property. Ask the seller or the agent for it before you sign a purchase offer; the notary will check it again before the deed, but by then the price is agreed. Because cadastral values are generally well below market prices, two flats at the same price can carry very different tax bills: an older flat in a central street may have a rendita set decades ago that is low for what it sells for today, while a recently registered unit has a rendita closer to current values.

How to calculate it: the three multipliers

The formula always has the same shape: rendita × 1.05 × multiplier. The 1.05 is a 5% revaluation that has applied since 1997; the multiplier depends on the tax.

If you have seen “rendita × 115.5” quoted as the formula, that is the prima casa figure. Applied to a second home it understates the tax by about 8%.

Registration tax: first or second home, private seller or developer

Who sells you the property decides which tax you pay. From a private seller you pay registration tax on the cadastral value; from a developer selling a new build you pay VAT on the price. Prima casa lowers both.

The cadastral value is the tax base only under the prezzo-valore rule, and three conditions apply: you buy as a private individual (not through a company, and not for a business), the property is residential — with its garage or cellar — and the sale is subject to registration tax rather than VAT, which is the normal case with a private seller. You ask for it in the deed and you still declare the full price you paid. Buy through a company and the 9% is charged on the price.

Prima casa itself has conditions — above all, residence in the Comune within 18 months of the deed — and luxury categories A/1, A/8 and A/9 never qualify. Who qualifies, and how much it is worth, is covered in the prima casa guide. The tax on the mortgage itself, the imposta sostitutiva, is a separate line, set out in the full breakdown of purchase and mortgage costs.

IMU: the tax you pay every year

IMU is the municipal property tax. It is due on every property you own in Italy except your main home — the unit where you are registered as resident and where you actually live, plus one garage, one cellar and one parking space attached to it. Luxury main homes in categories A/1, A/8 and A/9 pay anyway, at a reduced rate of 0.5% with a €200 deduction.

The calculation is the rendita × 168 multiplied by the rate set by the Comune. The national base rate is 0.86%; each Comune can lower it or raise it up to 1.06%, and to 1.14% in the few Comuni that kept the surcharge of the former TASI. Rates are set every year, so check the resolution of your Comune for the year you are paying. Homes let under a canone concordato agreement pay 25% less.

IMU is paid in two halves, by 16 June and by 16 December. From Italy it goes through an F24 form; owners abroad without an Italian bank account can pay by bank transfer to the Comune, using the IBAN and the payment reference the Comune publishes. Rubbish collection is a separate municipal charge, the TARI, billed directly by the Comune or its waste company.

If you live abroad

A home owned by someone who lives abroad is not a main home for IMU, even if it is the only property they own anywhere. Foreign owners of a holiday home pay IMU every year, at the full rate of the Comune.

The same applies, as a rule, to Italians registered with AIRE: since 2020 a home in Italy owned by an AIRE-registered Italian is no longer treated as a main home. The one stable relief is a 50% reduction on a single residential unit, not let and not lent, for owners who live abroad and receive a pension under an international agreement with Italy. Wider exemptions for AIRE owners have been discussed in Parliament; check your Comune's IMU resolution for the current year before you count on one. Italians abroad planning a return will find the purchase side in the prima casa guide for AIRE (in Italian).

Calculate it

What you pay, by profile

Two things follow for buyers who finance the purchase. The purchase taxes are paid in cash at the deed — banks lend against the property, not against the taxes — so they belong in the budget alongside the deposit, and the 7–13% of the price that total closing costs usually come to. And IMU on a second home is a fixed annual cost that counts when you work out what the property really yields, or what it costs you to keep empty.

Frequently asked questions

How is the cadastral value of an Italian property calculated? ↓

Take the rendita catastale shown on the visura, multiply it by 1.05, then by a multiplier that depends on the tax: 120 for registration tax on a home (110 with prima casa) and 160 for IMU. In one step that is rendita × 126 for registration tax, × 115.5 with prima casa, and × 168 for IMU. A flat with a rendita of €1,000 therefore has a cadastral value of €126,000 for the purchase and €168,000 for IMU.

Is registration tax charged on the price or on the cadastral value? ↓

On the cadastral value, if you buy a home as a private individual from a seller whose sale is subject to registration tax — normally a private seller. This is the prezzo-valore rule: you ask for it in the deed, you still declare the real price, and the 9% (or 2%) is charged on the cadastral value. It does not apply if you buy through a company, and it is irrelevant on a new build from a developer, where VAT is charged on the price.

Do non-residents pay IMU in Italy? ↓

Yes. IMU is exempt only on the owner's main home, meaning the place where you are registered as resident and actually live. A holiday home owned by someone who lives abroad is never a main home in this sense, so IMU is due every year at the rate set by the Comune — 0.86% of the IMU cadastral value as a base, up to 1.06%, and 1.14% in the few Comuni that kept the former TASI surcharge.

Do Italians registered with AIRE pay IMU on their home in Italy? ↓

Yes, as a rule. Since 2020 a home in Italy owned by an Italian registered with AIRE is no longer treated as a main home, so IMU is due. The one stable relief is a 50% reduction on a single residential unit, not let or lent, for owners who live abroad and receive a pension under an international agreement with Italy. Wider exemptions for AIRE owners have been discussed in Parliament: check your Comune's IMU resolution for the current year before you count on one.

How much is IMU on a second home in Italy? ↓

IMU is the rendita catastale × 168 multiplied by the Comune's rate. With a rendita of €1,000 the IMU base is €168,000: at the 0.86% base rate that is €1,445 a year, at 1.06% it is €1,781. It is paid in two halves, by 16 June and by 16 December. Owners abroad without an Italian bank account can pay by bank transfer to the Comune.

What taxes do I pay when buying a new build from a developer? ↓

VAT instead of registration tax: 10% of the price for a standard home, 4% if you qualify for prima casa, 22% for the luxury categories A/1, A/8 and A/9. On top come registration, mortgage and cadastral taxes at a fixed €200 each, €600 in total. Because VAT is charged on the price, the cadastral value does not reduce the tax on a new build.

Where do I find the rendita catastale before I buy? ↓

On the visura catastale of the property. You can ask the seller or the agent for it before signing the purchase offer, or request it from the Agenzia delle Entrate with the property's cadastral identifiers. The notary will check it again before the deed, but you want the number before you agree the price, because it decides most of the tax you will pay.

Rules and rates as in force in 2026: registration tax under DPR 131/1986 and the prezzo-valore rule of Law 266/2005; IMU under Law 160/2019, with the reduction for pensioners abroad under Law 178/2020. IMU rates are set every year by each Comune. This page explains how the taxes work; it is not tax advice on a specific purchase, which the notary and an accountant should confirm before the deed.