Letting a Tuscan Property When You Are Not There

Picture a house shut up for the winter and a calendar of summer weeks slowly filling. Each stay on that calendar carries its own duties: a code to display, equipment to install, a report to the police, a tax to collect. The rules below are as read on 30 September 2026. Short-let regulation in Italy has changed substantially in recent years and differs by region and municipality.

Which lets do these rules cover?

The rules described here concern residential property in Italy let to guests for short periods. For tax purposes a short let (locazione breve) is a lease of no more than 30 days, of residential property, made by an individual outside a business, including where linen and cleaning are provided. Letting for longer than 30 days for tourist purposes falls under Tuscan tourist-letting rules, but not under the short-let tax regime described below.

What does the law require?

The national code

Anyone who offers or lets a residential unit for tourist purposes or as a short let must display the national identification code (CIN, Codice Identificativo Nazionale) outside the building, respecting planning and landscape restrictions, and state it in every advertisement.^[1] Intermediaries and platforms must state it in listings.^[1] The Ministry of Tourism’s FAQ, updated to 23 April 2026, gives 2 November 2024 as the date of effective application of the national rules, 1 January 2025 as the deadline for holding a CIN and 2 January 2025 as the date from which the fines apply.^[2]

The table sets out the fines under the national rules, offence by offence.^[3]

Where an advertisement is published through an intermediary or platform, the Ministry states that the owner can be sanctioned for a missing code only if it emerges that the owner did not communicate the CIN to whoever published the advertisement.^[2] The CIN does not replace the regional code (CIR, Codice Identificativo Regionale): where the region provides one, both are displayed. Neither code is an authorisation to let.^[4]

The Ministry describes the order of steps for obtaining the CIN as follows. First comes any local step that applies (notice, SCIA or authorisation); then the regional code, where the region provides one; then the request for the CIN on the BDSR platform, the Ministry’s national database of accommodation facilities and of dwellings let for short or tourist purposes, using SPID or CIE (the Italian digital identity credentials).^[5] Where the region provides a code, the request is due within 30 days of its attribution; otherwise it is due when the activity starts.^[5]

The CIN is issued after the data are checked.^[5] If the region has not closed a check within 30 days of a report of a missing unit, the CIN can still be issued with the status “not verified”, usable at once, and is later confirmed or revoked.^[5] A delegate can act for the owner by uploading a signed delegation and a copy of the owner’s identity document.^[5] Foreign nationals without SPID can register for credentials supplied by the Ministry; the manual states that this registration is not immediate because the Ministry checks it.^[5] The Ministry also accepts means of displaying the CIN other than a plate where condominium rules limit signage, provided the code is evident to the public.^[2]

Safety equipment

Every dwelling let as a short let or for tourist purposes, whether or not the activity is a business, must have working detectors for combustible gas and carbon monoxide and portable extinguishers.^[6] The Ministry’s FAQ adds the following. The duty covers a single room let on its own, and the extinguishers of the building do not replace those of the unit.^[2] At least one extinguisher is required for every 200 square metres of floor or fraction thereof, and at least one per floor, with a rating of not less than 13A and a charge of not less than 6 kg or 6 litres.^[2] Detectors are not required where the unit has no gas system and the risk of a release of gas or carbon monoxide is excluded with certainty.^[2] Lets carried on as a business must also meet the safety requirements for systems under state and regional law.^[2]

The Ministry states that these duties run from the same date as the CIN.^[2]

Business lets

A short let by an individual is presumed to be a business when more than two apartments are let in a tax year; before 2026 the number was four.^[7] A business let is started by a SCIA, the certified notice of start of activity, filed electronically with the SUAP of the municipality, the one-stop business office.^[8] The Regione Toscana gives the current SCIA form as the one adopted in January 2025.^[9] According to the Ministry and to the Comune di Firenze, the SCIA duty is not retroactive: it does not apply to lets already carried on as a business before 2 November 2024.^[2][10]

The Tuscan rules

The Tuscan tourism code (Regional Law 61/2024) governs tourist letting.^[11] According to the Regione Toscana, a non-business short let (up to 30 days, by an individual who offers no more than two apartments) and a non-business tourist let of more than 30 days must be notified to the municipality at the start of the activity, electronically, through the municipality’s one-stop business office and the regional STAR portal; changes and suspension within 15 days and cessation within 30 days.^[12] The notice gives the property a regional code (CIR), which is a precondition for obtaining the national code.

A short let by an individual with more than two apartments, and any let carried out as a business, must be started by a SCIA.^[13] The property must meet the structural and hygiene requirements for ordinary dwellings and the safety conditions of buildings and systems.^[14] Municipalities may adopt a regulation setting criteria and limits for short lets in certain zones and, in those municipalities, make short lets subject to a five-year authorisation for each unit, with a transitional period of three to five years for units already let in 2024.^[15]

A regional law of 16 June 2026 amended the article on the notice.^[16] The Regione Toscana states that, in the first phase of application, the notice must be sent to the SUAP through STAR, which the law makes mandatory (a pecuniary sanction is provided for failure), and must also be entered through the regional self-registration portal, which is what issues the regional code.^[16] The regional pages were last updated on 28 July 2026.^[17] The Florence regime is described below as an example.

Guest reporting

Anyone letting property for less than 30 days must check the identity of guests and report their details to the police through Alloggiati Web, the police online system, within 24 hours of arrival and within 6 hours for stays under 24 hours.^[18][19] Breach is punished with imprisonment for up to three months or a fine of up to €206.^[20] According to the Alloggiati Web FAQ, access credentials are requested from the Questura competent for the area, the manner of reporting is set by the Interior Minister’s decree of 7 January 2013 as amended on 16 September 2021,^[21] and the digital receipts are kept for five years (they can be downloaded for 30 days).^[22] For a tourist let of more than 30 days, the Ministry of Tourism states that the registration of the lease with the Agenzia delle Entrate takes the place of the communication to the police.^[2]

European rules

Regulation (EU) 2024/1028 on data collection and sharing for short-term accommodation rental has applied since 20 May 2026. The European Commission states that Member States are not obliged to apply it, but that those which introduce a registration system for short-term rentals, or ask platforms for data, must do so through the Regulation. Where they do, hosts receive a unique registration number for each property; platforms display and check the numbers and pass monthly data on stays and nights to a national single digital entry point; and public authorities can ask for non-compliant listings to be removed.

What does a municipal regime look like? The example of Florence

The Comune di Firenze applies a regulation on short tourist lets, adopted on 5 May 2025, in force from 31 May 2025 and amended on 4 June 2026.^[23] The regulation, the Comune’s FAQ (updated 21 September 2026) and its service pages provide the following.^[10]

Authorisation

A five-year authorisation is required for each unit let, applied for online with SPID, CIE or CNS (Italian digital identity credentials).^[24] The application includes a plan of the unit certified by a qualified technician, the energy performance certificate (APE), the CIR and CIN if already held, and declarations on planning, systems, hygiene, fire prevention, noise and the way the activity is managed.^[24] The authorisation is a condition for entry in the municipal register of tourist lets.^[24] It is decided within 60 days of a complete application.^[24]

A new owner who acquires the unit for consideration must apply again; for a non-business let, the authorisation can pass to a successor when the transfer is without consideration, such as succession.^[24] It lapses if the unit is not used for more than 12 consecutive months (unless let for more than 30 days), after three sanctions in five years, or in the case of unpaid tourist tax (payment ends the procedure).^[24] An owner living abroad can act through a representative holding a power of attorney.^[10]

Where new lets are barred

In the historic nucleus (Zone A, subzone A1, the UNESCO area) the number of short lets is limited to the units lawfully used for that purpose in 2024.^[25] In subzones A3 and A4 (the nineteenth- and twentieth-century expansions) it is limited to the units lawfully let when the relevant article came into force.^[26] The Comune’s page states that since 21 June 2026 no new short-let activity can be started in subzones A1, A3 and A4.^[10] The zone of an address can be checked on the Comune’s planning map.^[10]

Units already let in 2024 are excluded from the regulation for three years, from 31 May 2025 to 31 May 2028 (for the UNESCO area the Comune’s FAQ sets the qualifying date at 30 July 2024),^[10] but the quality standards on guest reception, waste instructions, emergency contacts, the house-rules notice and the CIN plate apply to them at once.^[27] A variant to the Operational Plan adopted on 30 July 2024 introduces “temporary residence” as a use, which includes short lets, and bars the use of homes in the UNESCO nucleus as such, unless the home was already registered on the tourist-tax portal.^[28]

A room in the owner’s own home

No authorisation is required for the short let of a portion of, or a single room in, the unit where the landlord has residence and domicile.^[10] The other duties remain, and the Comune states that the ban in the UNESCO area described above is unchanged for such lets.^[10] Since 26 June 2026 the start, changes, suspension and cessation of such a let are first notified to the SUAP through STAR by a notice (CIA), and only then on the tourist-tax portal.^[29]

Standards, operating rules and sanctions

The unit standards are a minimum dwelling area of 28 square metres; room minima of 9 square metres for a room with one bed and 14 for a room with two; a habitable kitchen of 9 square metres; and gas and carbon monoxide detectors and extinguishers, at least one per 200 square metres of floor.^[30] The operating rules are written waste-sorting instructions and a house-rules notice, both at least in Italian and English, including quiet hours of 23:00 to 08:00 and 12:00 to 15:00; emergency numbers and a telephone contact for the owner or manager reachable at all hours; and the CIN plate at most 6 × 2 cm, integrated in the doorbell panel, with black characters, and not made of paper or tape.^[31]

Breach of these rules carries a fine of €1,000 to €10,000 per unit, in addition to the national fines, for which the owner and the manager are jointly liable.^[32]

The courts

On 14 May 2026 the Comune announced that the regional administrative court (TAR Toscana) had rejected 18 appeals against the regulation, the ban on key boxes and the planning variant that bars new tourist-letting uses in the UNESCO area.^[33] The association of short-let operators AIGAB stated on 18 May 2026 that it was considering an appeal to the Consiglio di Stato.^[34]

How does the tourist tax work?

Whether a tourist tax applies, at what rate and who collects it is decided by each municipality. The imposta di soggiorno is a municipal tax on overnight stays, charged per person and per night. At national level, the person who collects the rent or takes part in its payment (for example a platform) is responsible for paying the tax, filing the declaration and the municipal formalities, with a right of recourse against the guests.^[35] That declaration is filed electronically, cumulatively, by 30 June of the year after the stay.^[35]

In Florence the tax applies to guests not resident in the municipality, for up to 7 consecutive nights, and has applied to tourist lets since 1 October 2014.^[36] The Comune’s notice to hosts using the Airbnb platform refers to a rate of €6.00 per night from 1 February 2025 (up from €5.50).^[36] The manager of the tourist let registers on the municipal tourist-tax portal before starting the activity, collects the tax from the guests, and files a monthly declaration and pays by the 15th of the following month, through the portal and PagoPA.^[36]

Where a platform collects and remits the tax for the Comune (the Comune’s form names Airbnb), a manager who used only that platform in the month declares only the platform’s data; where the manager handled a let directly or through another platform, the manager declares and pays.^[36] Guests must be informed by a notice, and the documents on stays, payments and exemptions are kept for five years.^[36]

How is the income taxed?

Income from a short let is taxed either at ordinary IRPEF rates or, on option, under the cedolare secca, the flat-rate tax on rent, according to the AdE guide of April 2026.^[37] These are the rules in force for tax year 2026.^[38] A new consolidated income tax code (Legislative Decree 117/2026, published on 3 July 2026) restates them; the decree has been in force since 4 July 2026, but the code itself applies from 1 January 2027.^[38] The cedolare secca is an optional substitute tax on residential rental income, taken in place of ordinary IRPEF and its surcharges. The rate is 26 per cent; it is reduced to 21 per cent for the income from one unit chosen by the taxpayer in the income tax return.^[38][39]

The regime has a ceiling. From tax year 2026 the short-let regime is available only when no more than two apartments are let short-term in a tax year; until 2025 the limit was four.^[38][7] In other cases the activity is presumed to be carried out as a business, with the consequences that a business carries, which this article does not describe.^[38][40] Linen and cleaning services are allowed, as are the use of telephone lines and wi-fi.^[37] Breakfast, food and drink, car hire and guided visits are, according to the AdE, indicative of a business.^[37]

The option works as follows. Under cedolare secca the 5 per cent flat deduction available under ordinary rules does not apply, and the rate is applied to the whole rent stated in the contract.^[37] The option is exercised in the return for the year in which the rent accrues or is received (or, where the contract is registered voluntarily, at registration); the unit taxed at 21 per cent is identified in the return.^[37] Where separate portions (such as rooms) of one dwelling are let for overlapping periods, the option for the first contract also binds the later ones.^[37] Income under cedolare secca stays outside the IRPEF base but still counts when determining dependent-family status, deductions and benefits tied to income thresholds (such as ISEE).^[37] The 30-day limit is assessed for each contract, also where several contracts are made in the year between the same persons.^[37]

What do platforms withhold?

When a platform or agent collects the rent or takes part in its payment, it withholds 21 per cent on account; it also reports the contract data to the AdE by 30 June of the following year.^[38][41] The 21 per cent withholding is on account whichever regime the owner chooses: the tax due is worked out in the return and the balance is paid after deducting the amounts withheld.^[37][38][41]

According to the AdE guide, the withholding is calculated on the whole amount the guest pays to the owner, including any commission the owner owes to the intermediary and without the 5 per cent deduction; it is not applied to a deposit or penalty, to a payment by cheque made out to the owner, or by payment service providers that only carry out the card or transfer.^[37] If only one co-owner signed the contract, the withholding is applied and certified to that person alone; the other co-owners declare their shares in their own returns.^[37] The intermediary pays the withholding by form F24 by the 16th of the following month.^[37] A non-resident intermediary with a permanent establishment in Italy acts through it; one resident in the EU without an Italian establishment may act directly or appoint a tax representative; one resident outside the EU with no establishment in the EU must appoint a tax representative.^[37][38][42]

The AdE guide covers residential units in cadastral categories A/1 to A/11 (excluding A/10 offices).^[37] The tax treatment of a non-resident owner, in Italy and in the home country, and any relief under a double taxation treaty are separate matters for a tax adviser; the Italian filings of a non-resident owner are described in “Owning as a Non-Resident: Filings, IMU and TARI, and Who Sets Them”.

What does running a let involve?

The costs to be expected in a short let are those of any operating business of this kind: platform commission where one is used, cleaning and linen between stays, management or agency fees, utilities, servicing of any pool, garden upkeep, insurance that covers paying occupancy, repairs, the safety equipment, the registration and reporting duties described above and the taxes. No reliable published figure exists for typical net returns in Tuscany, and the article gives none.

What should be checked before a purchase?

Whether a given property can be let depends on:

– its cadastral category and legal status (see “Due Diligence: What Sinks a Purchase”);

– the regulation, if any, adopted by the municipality under the Tuscan tourism code, including any zone in which new lets are barred and any minimum area or unit standard (Florence, for example, requires 28 square metres);

– any limit in the condominium regulation, if the property is in a condominium; a limit on use binds later owners only if it is clear and specific and was transcribed in the property registers (see “Buying in a Historic Centre”);

– the building’s structural and hygiene requirements, and for rural properties, the planning rules on the use of buildings;

– whether the unit can carry the safety equipment and the CIN display described above.