What It Really Costs to Buy a House in Tuscany: A US Buyer's Budget

Picture a buyer at a laptop, a Tuscan farmhouse on the screen and, beside it, a blank spreadsheet. The price goes into the first cell. The rest of the sheet has to be built, line by line.

This article lists the categories, gives the dated Italian figures from the Agenzia delle Entrate (AdE), the Italian revenue agency, shows how a dollar figure is built on one stated euro rate, and ends with a blank budget the reader can fill in. It gives no average, because no reliable published average exists.

What does the price leave out?

A purchase budget in Italy has five groups of items. The first is the price, with any deposit paid before the deed. The second is the taxes on the transfer, collected by the notary. The third is professional fees: the notary, and whichever of a lawyer, a technician and a buyer’s advisor the buyer engages. The fourth, for a buyer abroad, is currency conversion, transfer charges and the cost of any signing through an agent. The fifth is the cost after the deed: annual local taxes, utilities, insurance and upkeep, and work on the property.

Any commission owed to an estate agent belongs in the third group when an agent is involved. Under the Civil Code a mediator, the legal term for the estate agent, is entitled to a commission from each party, in an amount set by agreement, tariffs or usage.^[1] There is no fixed legal percentage.^[1]

What do the taxes come to on the Italian side?

The AdE pages read on 30 September 2026 give these figures for a resale of a home.^[2] They are the same figures as in “The True Cost of Buying a Home in Tuscany”, which gives the conditions in full. The seller decides which column applies.

With the prima casa benefits

The prima casa is the reduced-rate treatment for a first Italian home. With its benefits the AdE gives registration tax of 2% (minimum €1,000) plus €50 and €50 for a sale without VAT. For a sale with VAT it gives VAT at 4% plus €200 for each of the three other taxes.^[2]

The benefits are for certain cadastral categories, A/2 to A/7 and A/11 but not A/1, A/8 and A/9. They depend on conditions about where the buyer lives or works, about other homes owned, and about selling within five years. Whether a given buyer meets them is for the notary or an adviser to say. This article does not apply them to any nationality.

The cadastral-value option

On a residential sale by a seller not charging VAT to a private buyer, the buyer may ask in the deed for registration tax to be calculated on the cadastral value, the prezzo-valore option. The value is the rendita catastale, the income value recorded in the cadastre, × 1.05 × 120, or × 110 with the prima casa benefits. The real price is still stated. The AdE adds a 30% reduction in the notary’s fees where the rule is applied.^[2]

Agricultural land

The transfer of agricultural land to a buyer who is not a coltivatore diretto, a farmer who works the land personally, or a professional agricultural entrepreneur is subject to registration tax at 15%, as stated in “The True Cost of Buying a Home in Tuscany”, citing an AdE ruling. Farmhouses are often sold with land, so the deed, the land and the buyer’s status need to be looked at together.

The preliminary contract and the payment declaration

The preliminary contract must be registered within 30 days. Fixed registration tax is €200 plus stamp duty, which is €16 for each sheet, a sheet being at most four pages and at most 100 lines. A 0.5% tax applies to the confirmatory deposit and to payments on account not subject to VAT, and 3% to a penitential deposit (AdE, page updated 22 December 2025). The proportional tax is credited at the deed.^[3]

The deed must also state how the price was paid and whether a mediator was used. An omitted or false declaration carries a fine of €500 to €10,000.^[4]

Timing of the rules

A new consolidated text on indirect taxes applies from 1 January 2027.^[5] The rates, amounts and prima casa conditions above are the same in it, as read in the Gazzetta Ufficiale on 2 October 2026.^[6] The figures given here are those applied in 2026. The rates and conditions change, and they depend on the property, the seller and the buyer.

Who else charges a fee, and how is it set?

No national tariff fixes any of these fees, and this article gives no amount for any of them.

The notary comes first. Professional tariffs were abolished in 2012, and the notary must give the client a written or digital estimate of the fee when the engagement is given.^[7] The fee is separate from the taxes the notary collects. A buyer can ask for the estimate before the preliminary contract.

A lawyer’s review of the contracts and the title is paid by the buyer at the rate the lawyer quotes, with a written estimate. The check of the cadastral and building position by a technician, a surveyor, is paid by the buyer at the technician’s quoted rate. A buyer who engages an advisor pays a fee agreed with the advisor, in addition to any commission owed to an agent. Whether the written-estimate rule applies to a given advisor depends on the advisor’s status. The estate agent’s commission is described above.

Whoever is engaged, the questions are the same: what the fee is, what it covers, when it falls due and what is excluded, in writing, before the engagement.

What changes for a buyer paying from the United States?

The extra layer is made of the currency, the transfer charges, the timing and form of the payments and the signing from abroad.

Currency

The price, the taxes and the fees are in euros. A buyer whose money is in dollars pays for the conversion whichever route is used, and the amount in dollars depends on the rate on the day of each payment.

For scale only, the euro reference rate of the European Central Bank (ECB) for 1 October 2026 was 1 EUR = 1.1298 USD.^[8] The ECB series shows 1.1403 on 25 September, 1.1378 on 28 September, 1.1355 on 29 and 30 September and 1.1298 on 1 October, so the rate moves from day to day. Applied to the figures above, the rate of 1 October gives the following, as arithmetic only. It is neither a quotation nor a forecast.

These conversions are not what a bank would charge or what a payment would cost: banks and payment providers apply their own rates and charges. No forecast is made.

Transfer charges

Banks and money-transfer providers set their own charges for sending dollars to an Italian account or paying in euros. These are the questions to put to the bank or provider:

– What exchange rate will be applied, and how does it compare with the ECB reference rate on the same day?

– What fees does each bank in the chain charge (sending, intermediary, receiving)?

– Is there a daily or per-transfer limit, and what happens above it?

– How long does a transfer take, and is the amount guaranteed to arrive in full?

– Can the rate be fixed in advance for a payment due on a known date, and at what cost?

Timing of the payments

The buyer makes payments at different points: a deposit at the offer or the preliminary contract, the balance at the deed, and the taxes and the notary’s fee, which the notary collects. A buyer who converts money early fixes the rate early, and one who converts late leaves the rate open. This article does not choose between the two.

The price may be paid through the notary’s dedicated account, held until registration and transcription, at the request of at least one party.^[9] Payment must be by traceable means, described in the deed. Transfers of cash of €5,000 or more between different persons are prohibited.^[10] The notary and the bank apply anti-money-laundering checks, including on the origin of the funds, and funds sent from an account in another person’s name are more likely to prompt questions. See “The Bank Account and the Source of Funds”.

Signing from the United States

A buyer who signs through an agent needs a power of attorney in the form the law requires. If it is made abroad it normally needs an Apostille or legalisation and an Italian translation. These carry costs (the notary or public official abroad, the Apostille, the translation) that vary.

Whether a purchase, a holding or a later sale has tax consequences in the United States is for a US tax professional. This article does not cover it.

What does the house cost once the deed is signed?

Annual charges follow ownership. IMU, the municipal property tax, applies to second homes and other buildings, and a main home is exempt unless it is in category A/1, A/8 or A/9. For buildings other than the main home the statutory base rate is 0.86%, and a comune may set it between 0% and 1.06%, or up to 1.14% under an option the law provides, according to the rates table of the Dipartimento Finanze, the Finance Department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance.^[11] The rate for agricultural land is 0.76%, which a comune may set between 0% and 1.06%.^[12] The table does not provide for the higher ceiling on agricultural land.

TARI, the municipal waste charge, is set by each comune. Utilities, insurance and upkeep add further costs, and none of these is due at the deed. “The True Cost of Buying a Home in Tuscany” covers them. The tax base and the rate in a given comune must be read in that comune’s own decision.

Is there a budget I can copy?

Fill in every line, in euros, from written quotes or from the rule that applies. Convert at the end, on the day, at the rate the bank gives.

One worked line, using only the AdE’s own example, shows how the rules turn the same price into different figures. It is a resale of a home by a private seller, at a price of €200,000 and with a rendita catastale of €900. Mortgage and cadastral taxes are €50 + €50.

These are the AdE’s illustrations of how the rules work. They are not a forecast for any purchase, and the prima casa figures apply only if the conditions are met.

What should be asked before a budget is fixed?

These questions come before the number:

– Who is the seller: a private person or a company, and is the sale with or without VAT?

– What is the cadastral category and the rendita of the property?

– Does any benefit (prima casa, cadastral-value option) apply to this buyer, and who will confirm it?

– Is the land agricultural, and what is the buyer’s status for that purpose?

– What do the notary, lawyer, technician and any advisor charge, in writing?

– Which payments are due before the deed, in which currency and from which account?

– What is the plan for converting dollars, and what will the bank or provider charge?

– What does the property cost each year once the deed is signed?

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