Owning as a Non-Resident: Filings, IMU and TARI, and Who Sets Them

Picture an owner abroad looking at a tax notice in Italian: a tax, a date, a way to pay. The first thing to know is who is asking: the State, the comune or the revenue agency.

This article sets out what is due, when, to whom, and where the governing act can be found. It draws on the pages of the Dipartimento Finanze (the Finance Department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance), the AdE, the Gazzetta Ufficiale, the text of the law on TARI and the pages of two comuni, Florence and Rimini, read on 30 September 2026.^[3] It does not calculate any owner’s tax and does not say what anyone should do. Rates and deadlines differ from one comune to another, and rates, deadlines and forms change from year to year. The figures are those found in the sources when they were read.

Who decides what an owner pays?

The statutory framework of IMU is the same everywhere, but the amounts and several practical rules depend on the comune. The table shows which level of government sets which matter, and where the act can be found.

The autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano apply their own taxes (IMIS and IMI), and Friuli Venezia Giulia applies ILIA from 2023, according to the AdE declaration instructions. They are outside the scope of this article.

What does IMU tax, and who owes it?

The Dipartimento Finanze states that IMU is due for the possession of buildings, excluding main homes other than those in cadastral categories A/1, A/8 and A/9, and for building land and agricultural land. It is due from the owner or the holder of another right in rem (usufruct, use, habitation, enfiteusi, surface right) or, in a financial lease, from the lessee. Where several persons hold rights in the same property, each owes his or her own share.^[6] A law of 2019 abolished the former IUC and TASI from 2020; TARI remained.^[7]

The main home is the unit in which the possessor habitually lives and is registered as resident.^[8] A municipal guide, that of Rimini, also states that IMU is due by everyone, Italian or foreign, who owns buildings, building land or agricultural land in Italy without being resident there.

How is the amount of IMU built?

For buildings recorded in the cadastre, the base is the rendita catastale, the cadastral income recorded in the cadastre for a building, revalued by 5 per cent and multiplied by a coefficient fixed by category.^[9] The coefficient depends on the group of categories.

For agricultural land, the base is the land income (reddito dominicale) revalued by 25 per cent and multiplied by 135. For building land it is the market value on 1 January. The tax is due for calendar years, in proportion to the share held and the months of possession. A month counts in full if possession covered more than half of its days, and the day of transfer counts for the buyer.^[10]

The rate is set by the comune. The Comune di Firenze’s table for 2026 gives an ordinary rate of 1.06 per cent, which applies except for the cases listed separately, such as main homes in A/1, A/8 and A/9, rented homes at agreed rent, and certain business uses. The table states that the rates are those of council resolution 89 of 23 December 2024, valid for the current year.^[11] The law sets a base rate of 0.86 per cent for buildings other than the main home, which a comune may vary between zero and 1.06 per cent.^[12] The Ministry of Economy and Finance table, read on 1 October 2026, gives the same figures, and shows a ceiling of 1.14 per cent for comuni that use an option the law provides.^[13]

As an illustration of the arithmetic only: a unit in group A with a cadastral income of €1,000 has a base of €1,000 × 1.05 × 160 = €168,000. At Florence’s ordinary rate of 1.06 per cent the annual tax is €1,780.80, before any adjustment for share, months of possession or reductions. The cadastral income in this example is invented.

Where is the rate decided, and where is the act found?

Since 2025 a comune must prepare its rate resolution on the basis of the cases listed in a ministerial decree, and compile the prospetto delle aliquote, the standard table of rates, on the federalism portal of the Ministry.^[4] A decree of the Vice-Minister of 6 November 2025, supplementing the decree of 6 September 2024, was published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale of 12 November 2025 (no. 263).^[14]

The Dipartimento Finanze publishes the regulations and rate resolutions of every comune on a search page. It states that publication there is a condition for the act to take effect, and that an act takes effect for the year only if it is published by 28 October of that year.^[15] Otherwise the acts of the previous year apply, and acts published after 28 October are not to be taken into account.^[15]

When and how is IMU paid?

The tax is paid in two instalments. The first is due by 16 June and equals the tax for the first half of the year at the rates of the previous year. The balance is due by 16 December, with any adjustment, on the basis of the rates published on the Dipartimento Finanze site by 28 October. The whole year’s tax may be paid in one payment by 16 June.^[15]

According to the Dipartimento Finanze, payment is made by form F24 or by a compatible postal payment slip, with the pagoPA platform to follow by ministerial decree.^[16] The page still carries text written in 2020, and the current methods of a given comune are found on its own site.

The Rimini guide describes a different route for those who cannot use form F24, reproducing an instruction of the Ministry’s press release of 31 May 2012. It is a bank transfer to the comune’s treasury account for the comune’s share, and a second transfer to the Banca d’Italia for the State’s share, with copies sent to the comune. The payment reference must give the codice fiscale or VAT number (or, failing that, the foreign tax identifier, if held), the word “IMU” with the name of the comune and the tax codes, the year, and “Acconto” or “Saldo”. The same guide states that the former option for non-residents to pay the older property tax (ICI) in a single payment in December no longer applies.

Three points qualify that description. The guide is one comune’s document and gives that comune’s bank details. The State’s reserved share now concerns buildings of group D, according to the AdE declaration instructions. The transfers described are those of the 2012 press release. The comune’s own instruction is the reference.

When is an IMU declaration due?

The IMU declaration is due by 30 June of the year after the year in which possession began or a relevant change occurred. A paragraph inserted into the law in August 2026, in force from 12 August 2026, provides that the declaration is filed by electronic means only, in the manner approved by a decree of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and that until that decree takes effect taxpayers continue to use the existing model.^[17][18] The declaration has effect for later years unless the data declared change in a way that alters the tax.

The AdE instructions state that the obligation arises only where there are variations from what was already declared, or variations that the comune cannot know from other data. They cite a Court of Cassation order under which failure to file in the cases where filing is required causes loss of the benefit concerned.^[19] The instructions were written before the change of August 2026, and the point at which electronic filing becomes the only route depends on the ministerial decree.

The cases named in the instructions include reductions (historic or artistic buildings, unfit buildings, free loan to a relative, and the concession for certain non-resident pensioners, below), a building held under financial lease, land that becomes building land, an area that becomes building land after demolition, and rights acquired or ended by operation of law. For a home let at an agreed rent (canone concordato) the instructions state that no national declaration is required, because the comuni hold the lease data. A comune may add requirements of its own. The Comune di Firenze requires a self-declaration on its own form, by 30 June of the following year, from owners claiming its specific rates or benefits, and its 2026 table lists the agreed-rent rates among them.

Where does the declaration go?

The declaration goes to the comune in which the property lies. The Rimini guide says that a property lying in several comuni is declared to each of them, while the AdE instructions note that the comune entitled to the tax is the one in which the property lies wholly or mainly.^[20]

The AdE instructions, issued before the August 2026 change, list delivery by hand, registered post, certified e-mail (PEC) and electronic transmission (Entratel or Fisconline, or an authorised intermediary), and add that a declaration may be posted from abroad by registered letter or equivalent showing the date of posting. A reader should check with the comune or an intermediary which route is accepted at the date of filing.

Persons not resident in Italy give, in the space for the fiscal domicile, the foreign State of residence with the place and address. A box is provided for a declarant who is not the taxpayer, and the list of codes includes code 6, “Rappresentante fiscale di soggetto non residente” (tax representative of a non-resident).

Which reductions might an owner of a Tuscan property meet?

The table gives the reductions, each with its rule and the declaration it calls for.

The concession for pensioners depends on the pension and on residence in another insurance State, not on non-residence alone.

How does TARI work?

TARI is due from anyone who possesses or holds, in any capacity, premises or uncovered areas capable of producing municipal waste.^[26] Where there are several possessors or holders they are jointly liable.^[26] Where the holding is temporary and does not exceed six months in the same calendar year, TARI is due only from the possessor as owner, usufructuary or holder of a right of use, habitation or surface.^[27] Until cadastral surfaces are used, the taxable surface is the walkable area, and the comune may, when assessing, use 80 per cent of the cadastral surface.^[28]

The rest is set by the comune. Florence is the example. The Comune di Firenze’s page states that the tax is due from anyone who owns or holds premises likely to produce waste. Anyone who becomes the owner of a property (“even without residence”), who stops holding a home or who changes its surface has 60 days to notify it, in person or through a delegate, at the counters of Alia, the operator, or through its app. The declaration of start, end or change of an account is due within 60 days of the event.

In Florence the tax has a fixed and a variable part, calculated on the surface and, for homes, on the number of household members. For a non-resident, the regulation sets the number of members by reference to the surface. The tax for homes is payable in three instalments: 30 April and 31 July on account, for two-thirds of the previous year’s tax, and 2 December as balance, by PagoPA slips sent to the account holder’s address.

Those rules are Florence’s. The deadline, the method for setting the number of members and the instalments differ from comune to comune, and the regulation of the comune where the property lies is the governing text. Empty houses, houses without utilities and houses let for short periods are treated differently in different regulations (see “Letting a Tuscan Property When You Are Not There”).

Does IMU replace income tax?

For buildings not let, IMU replaces personal income tax (IRPEF) and surtaxes on the property income, according to an AdE circular of 2013 that concerned the years 2012–2014.^[29] The AdE press release of the same date adds that a taxpayer who has only income replaced by IMU is not required to file an income-tax return.^[30] It also lists income for which the substitution does not apply, among them the income of let buildings (other than those to which the flat-rate tax on rent, cedolare secca, applies), agricultural income and the income of buildings held by companies subject to corporate tax.^[30]

The AdE states that non-residents who have produced income in Italy file form Redditi PF, and only that form (not the 730), and that land and building income from property in Italy is among the income for which the form is used. The form is due by 31 October 2026 if filed electronically. A non-resident who is abroad and cannot file electronically may send it by registered post or equivalent by 30 November of the year after the tax year, to the AdE’s Centro Operativo di Venezia in Marghera. The income and the tax on rent are described in “Letting a Tuscan Property When You Are Not There”.

A resident abroad states a fiscal domicile in Italy. It is the place where the income is produced or, if it is produced in several comuni, where the highest income is produced.^[31]

How can an owner abroad get a codice fiscale?

The codice fiscale, the Italian tax code, is used in the IMU payment reference, in the IMU declaration and in the purchase. A person without one requests it from the AdE on form AA4/8, which may be presented at any AdE office, in person or through a delegate. The delegate shows his or her own identity document and a copy of the delegator’s, with the delegation section of the form signed. The AA4/8 instructions add that residents abroad may also present the form to the Italian diplomatic or consular representation in the country of residence.

The Italian Consulate General in Marseille states that a foreign citizen who is not resident in Italy must appoint a delegate to file the request with an AdE office in Italy.^[32] The consulate itself forwards a request only for a person resident in its district, and only where the code is needed for online procedures or where a delegate cannot be appointed.^[32] Foreign citizens who need a code to buy property may delegate a representative. The consular page and the form’s instructions therefore describe the consular route differently, and the consular page applies to that consulate’s district. The purchase itself is described in “How a Foreigner Buys Property in Italy”.

What falls due, and when?

The calendar below gathers, as the sources state them, the dates that run through the year.

What this article does not cover

It does not cover the tax on rent beyond a pointer (see “Letting a Tuscan Property When You Are Not There”), the taxes on purchase (see “The Taxes on Buying a Home in Italy, 2026: Line by Line”), taxes in the country of residence on foreign property, inheritance, condominium charges, utilities, or the position of any individual owner.