In Italy, the size of your property defines its category. The Corte Di Cassazione 2010/2018 judgment relating to the calculation of the property surface brings an important news.
As we already know, if you are going to purchase a property and enjoy of the “first home” benefits, you will have the possibility to obtain important tax breaks: the registration fee decreases from 9% to 2%, the VAT from 10% to 4%, the mortgage and cadastral fees identified as the 168 € fixed amount ( 200 € since 2014) from 2% to 1% of the property cadastral value. It is clear that, being them some very important fiscal benefits, i.e. a source of savings for you, they will take a fundamental role while evaluating the real estate investments opportunities or the purchasing of a property in general.
The “first home” tax benefits request will concern:
- Residential properties;
- “non-luxury” properties, i.e. the ones under the A1, A8 and A9 categories.
Benefits will concern a house only. This has to be located in the municipality where the purchaser/taxpayer owns or want to transfer his/her own residence within the next 18 months and where the property for sale stands.
According to the Italian DM of August, 2nd1969 the real estate units owing a surface of more than 240 sqm will be considered as luxury properties so, even if purchased as first homes, they will not be included under the related fiscal benefits: the buyer will have to pay the registration, mortgage and cadastral fees in full. During the surface calculation, balconies, terraces, cellars, garrets, staircases and car parking are not included.
For this reason, the property surface evaluation is needed to establish if a property is a luxury or non-luxury one. During the specific litigation between the Italian Agenzia Delle Entrate and the new-owner of a property considered as a luxury one because including into its surface calculation both garrets and basements, the Italian Corte Di Cassazione intervened with an important judgment on this matter:
According to the 2010/2018 judgment, all the rooms/places not provided for in D.M. 1969 have to be computed into the surface needed to the property classification.
So, it was an important decision which you should bear in mind when thinking about the purchasing of a prestigious property as a large country estate, a beautiful villa at the sea or other charming residences as the ones proposed by Great Estate.
We remember you that our professionals are always at your disposal for any technical, fiscal or legal information regarding the sale and purchase of a property. Visit our website or call at our head office.
