Italian tax

StephenBrown Modena Image
10/07/2012 - 15:55

I am about to complete the purchase of a home in Emilia Romagna. Lots of work to undertake on it but eventually we plan to live in the bottom two floors and use the top floor for holiday lets.I would like to find out whether I can set off any of my initial renovation costs against future rental income. If so, how far can these be carried forward?It would also be useful to find out whether a small holiday let business needs to be registered for IVA.I suspect the answer is 'get a Commercialista' but I thought there would be lots of you out there that run these types of small business that could offer me the benefit of your experience.Many thanks

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Yes, get a commercialista - but.  If you are resident and its your first home there are tax breaks on current year income on restoration or modernisation.  These cannot be offset against anything else other than your irpef for the current year - so what you propose would never work. in fact offsetting anything against future income is impossible here.  Whether you need IVA all depends on how you classify your business and what you do. 

An accountantis the best choice, in my website < www.lifeinitaly.it > - you can find a list of professionals who speak English - the laws on vacation rentals in Italy are different from region to region, but in principle if the income that you from your holiday home does not exceed 75% of your total income, you can rent without having to apply for a license and a  VAT  number

on whether you are B&B, casevacanze or affittacamere - with the services provided.  Some businesses require a partita IVA from scratch, others like B&B do not .... 

In reply to by Ram

  see : http://www.bed-and-breakfast.it/leggi_bed_and_breakfast_umbria.cfm Art. 16/bis (Servizio di alloggio e prima colazione "Bed and Breakfast") Costituisce servizio di alloggio e prima colazione "Bed And Breakfast" l'attività a conduzione familiare esercitata in modo saltuario e senza carattere di imprenditorialità all'interno dell'abitazione. Il servizio di prima colazione deve essere assicurato utilizzando prodotti tipici della zona confezionati, senza manipolazione. Please note > NON IMPRENDITORIALE = no business , no vat !! AFFITTACAMERE > http://www.tasse-fisco.com/case/affitta-camere-bed-breackfast-fiscale-licenza-adempimenti-aperturaivatura-partita-iva-licenze-adempimenti/6423/ gli affittacamere non possono dare in locazione stanze, case o appartamenti per meno di sette giorni tranne il caso che siano lavoratore del settore del cinema e spettacolo i am sorry , all articles are in italian :)        

In reply to by Ugo

A google translation...... (My Italian is poor but the translation seems reasonable Ugo ? S Constitute a service of bed and breakfast "Bed And Breakfast" the family business carried on in an intermittent way and without character of entrepreneurship within the home. The breakfast service must be secured using local products packaged without manipulation. Please note> NOT BUSINESS = no business, no vat! RENT the landlord can not lease rooms, houses or apartments for less than seven days, except when they are employed in the field of cinema and entertainment

The B &B is not a business, but only a small private gain, then you do not need a VAT - yes the traslation is ok  RENT  = B&B if the renting not  more than 7 days - EXCEPT for  <they are employed in the field of cinema and entertainment > this according an VERY OLD italian laws (when in italy have a " case di tolleranza  (= brothel ! ) " - on this activities , women where replaced every 7 days ..:)  MORE >>   http://www.bed-and-breakfast.it/leggi_bed_and_breakfast_nazionale.cfm italian Turist law - > even for B&B and Renting yet , you can't only traslate , is necessary even to understand ... - The italian language , some times, explain very little linear , expecialy for those who have not real knowledge of the language - You need an accountant specialized on this matter - maybe you can go to chambre of the commerce , turism section - or hotel association (search local section of AICA - associazione Italiana Compagnie alberghiere )         

I agree with Ugo, translation, particularly in the field of legal texts can be very tricky. The chances of misinterpreting the contents can be very high. Even amongst the translation professionals there are specialist in legal texts. The best advice is to get a commercialista to guide you. Money well spent.

It is normal to use them but not for me.  They can tell you what to do and then explain later why it didn't work. I remember some time ago in an old Italian colony called Argentina which has a horrendous bureacracy being able to go to a library and copy some rules to explain to a bureaucrat the correct procedure. If I had used a local lawyer I would probably still be there. However this renting out a place for a few hours at a time and not being considered as a landlord for tax purposes seems to have possibilities.wink

In reply to by cardi

cardi, Italy is a democratic and free country, anybody can interpret the law to their liking and pay for not being in line with the standards set by the regulations :)

The laws on affittacamere have changed - you can rent them like a B&B but each room must have cooking facilities, telephone etc - or you can rent them as a cas vacanza - without the cooking facilities but with everything else.  If you have a house full of what are basically bedsits - then you will need a partita IVA, if its a room off your garage you wont - it all depends how you want to run your businesss. 

In reply to by Ram

  Spostoni , Bed& Breakfast, in Italian means UN POSTO LETTO E UNA COLAZIONE ,  ed UN POSTO LETTO ED UNA COLAZIONE NOT  is an apartment consisting of bedroom, living room, kitchen, bathroom, terrace and garage - the Italian way to write the laws and to interpret them is certainly different from all other countries in the world - it may be for this reason that it was made a law that requires, for all those who want to live in Italy, the Italian language - this is to make it clear to all that this forum who is not in able to understand the Italian language, if you interpret it in line with the thinking of his country, then this is likely to pay dearly for his actions

In reply to by Ugo

Ugo, Agreed, sadly, as much as I am prepared to try, I will never understand the Italian language as well as the English language. The simple online translations that are available are a great help to me, especially as I can tweak the proposed translation to suit my own understanding. In cases of dealing with anything serious, I would always look for a more experienced translator. S

In reply to by sprostoni

Spostoni , quiet, most of the time, sometimes to understand what the legislature meant is difficult even for Italians :)

 the Italian way to write the laws and to interpret them is certainly different from all other countries in the world -

And so we need to hire professionals and pay them lots of money to deal with this due to our inability to understand these extremely complicated things, is that it?

Thanks to all that have contributed to my question. I am very slowly getting to grips with my Italian language skills and thoroughly enjoying the experience. I will not be providing Bed and breakfast. Just a three bedroom top floor apartment with its own cooking facilities and hopefully a pool in time. Any rent would not reach 75% of total income. If I have understood correctly, this means that I will not need to apply for registration or be VAT registered. As it would appear that I can not set off any initial capital expentiduture against future rental income, is there a % limit of annual expenditure that can be set off each year or does this depend upon the locality? I will be looking up Commercialistas in my area with ex pat experience. Thanks to all once again

Stephen, a lot of the rules are Regional so will differ from area to area. Generally though you could rent as 'appartamento amobiliato per uso turistico' so long as it is not rented for more that 30 days or available for more than 6 months of the year (these are the rules in Marche). Even if the rules in your area are slightly different then the classification is the same. It requires no P.IVA nor any particular size, facilities etc. so long as you have less than 4 units. You can just put the income on your Italian tax return and you will pay IRPEF on it. You can choose a special scheme whereby you hand over 21% to the tax man, no more tax is due but you cannot offset any of the expenses of running the appartment. You would need advice to see if this is better for you. It sounds like the 'appartamento amobiliato per uso turistico' would apply to you and it is the simplest, least beurocratic way to do it that I have found. Usually you need to give a notification to the comune (details will vary) and keep statistics for the regional tourist board and complete the Polizia dello Stato tourist registration forms for each new guest. You can offset certain renovation costs against your Italian tax bill but there are procedures that need to be complied with and the offset will take place over 10 years so you might decide it's not worth it. Your geometra should know about the procedures and ask the accountant about whether it is worth it. I would say find a GOOD accountant - forget whether they speak English or not and then use a GOOD translator. A bit more expensive but, certainly in Marche and I imagine it is the same everywhere, there have been plenty of incompetent (or just dishonest) professionals who have got work just because they speak English! Better to have someone with a good reputation and pay for the translation.

Thanks Ram, It is becoming obvious that there is no 'one size fits all' solution due either to the over complex legislation in the first place or that local Communes can adjust the legislation to suit themselves. This appears to result in fear all round resulting in most resorting to a Commercialista to prevent any nasty surprises or worse still trying to avoid their responsibilies through other means. Once I have invested my money and got my advice I will return to this subject for the benefit of others that want to suppliment their incomes by letting part of their house out for holiday use. I hope that I will also learn to relax which is the whole point of moving to this beautiful country in the first place!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Stephen, it would be good if you would pass on what you glean form your commercialista.. Someone made the point on this forum that the bext way of finding the 'best' way with the tax rules is to present to a commercialista all the different advice you will be given on these sort of forums and then they are quite happy to shift through and explore the correct solution for you. If you don't present multiple possibilities for how your situation might be managed you might just get the easiest way for them...they also apparently welcome this method if they are a good commercialista as it keeps them up to speed with the  chameleon -like taxation laws of Italy!

Unfortunately, the 'interpretation' of pretty much everything in Italy is here on this mag...................take it all as advice and check things out for yourself................there is SO MUCH help here, but it is often down to Interpretation !! S