Italy's first-home tax rate: the deadlines and the 2027 change

Buy a home in Trieste as your prima casa and the registration tax falls from 9% to 2% of the cadastral value. The price of that saving is a set of clocks: 18 months to move your residence, five years before you can sell without losing it, one year to buy again.

The 2027 budget bill, now before Parliament, would stretch the 18 months and the one year to two years. It is a proposal, not yet law.

In short

• The rate: 2% instead of 9% when you buy from a private seller, with a €1,000 minimum, plus €50 each for the mortgage and cadastral taxes. Luxury categories A/1, A/8 and A/9 are excluded.
• No citizenship test: a foreign buyer qualifies, provided the home is in the comune where they live, or will live within 18 months.
• Five years: sell or give the home away within five years and you lose the relief, unless you buy another main home within one year.
• The penalty: losing it means paying the ordinary tax, interest and a 30% penalty. Withdraw before the deadline and the 30% is not charged.
• The 2027 proposal: bill A.C. 3174-bis, article 41, would move 18 months to two years and one year to two years, also for deadlines still running on 1 January 2027.

Who can buy at 2%, and on what conditions?

The conditions sit in note II-bis to article 1 of the registration tax tariff (Presidential Decree 131 of 1986). From 1 January 2027 the same wording moves to note I of the new registration tax code, Legislative Decree 123 of 2025.

You declare three things in the deed:

• the home is in the comune where you are resident, or where you will be resident within 18 months, or where you work;
• you own no other home in that comune, alone or jointly with your spouse;
• you own no other home anywhere in Italy bought with the same relief, or you will sell it within two years of the new deed.

Nationality and tax residence do not appear in the list. A German or American buyer who moves to Trieste qualifies on the same terms as an Italian. Registering is the hard part: see becoming resident in Italy after you buy for the Anagrafe, and who can buy in Italy for permits.

There is also an exception for anyone whose job took them abroad. If you moved abroad for work and lived or worked in Italy for at least five years, you can buy at 2% in your comune of birth, or where you lived or worked before leaving, without moving back.

When does the 18-month clock start, and what stops it?

It runs from the date of the deed. The revenue agency (Agenzia delle Entrate) treats your residence as transferred on the day you file the declaration with the Comune, not on the day the Comune completes its check.

The promise to move must be written in the deed itself. If you realise you cannot move, you can withdraw it before the 18 months are up: you file a request with the tax office that registered the deed and pay the difference in tax plus interest from the date of the deed. The 30% penalty is not applied.

Let the deadline pass without moving or withdrawing, and the relief is lost. Until a tax notice reaches you, you can still settle voluntarily (ravvedimento operoso) with a reduced penalty.

A worked example in Trieste

Example: a flat in Trieste with a cadastral income (rendita) of €800, bought from a private seller, with the tax charged on cadastral value (prezzo-valore). The figures are ours; the coefficients and rates are the law's.

	Prima casa	Ordinary
Taxable value	€800 × 1.05 × 110 = €92,400	€800 × 1.05 × 120 = €100,800
Registration tax	2% = €1,848	9% = €9,072
Mortgage and cadastral taxes	€50 + €50	€50 + €50
Total	€1,948	€9,172

The relief saves €7,224 here. If you lose it, you pay the ordinary tax instead, €7,224 more, plus interest and, after the deadline, the 30% penalty.

Now the clocks. Suppose the deed is signed on 15 March 2026. Today the residence deadline is 15 September 2027. Under the 2027 bill it would become 15 March 2028, because the 18 months would still be running on 1 January 2027.

Selling within five years: the one-year rule and the tax credit

Sell or donate the home within five years of buying it and the relief falls away. It survives if, within one year of the sale, you buy a new home and make it the place you live. A preliminary contract (compromesso) within the year is not enough; the new deed must be signed.

The new home need not be in Italy. The revenue agency accepts a home abroad, provided there are tools of administrative cooperation that let it check you actually live there.

Buy again within one year and you also earn a tax credit: the registration tax, or the VAT, you paid when you bought the first home. It is capped at what the second purchase owes, and it is never refunded. The notary can set it against the tax on the next deed; otherwise it reduces IRPEF in your next tax return, or offsets other taxes through an F24 payment.

The revenue agency also grants the credit when you buy the new home first and sell the old one afterwards, as long as you sell within two years of the new purchase.

What the 2027 budget bill would change

The bill was presented to the Chamber of Deputies on 30 October 2026; after a split on 4 November it became A.C. 3174-bis and is with the Budget Committee. Article 41 amends note I of the new registration tax code:

Deadline	Today	Proposed for 2027
Move your residence to the comune	18 months from the deed	2 years from the deed
Buy again after selling within five years	1 year from the sale	2 years from the sale
Buy again to earn the tax credit	1 year from the sale	2 years from the sale
Sell your previous prima casa	2 years from the deed (since 2025)	unchanged

It also writes into the law what is today an agency reading: the credit applies when the old home is sold after the new one is bought, within the two-year window.

The new terms would cover purchases and sales made before the law takes effect, if their old deadline has not yet expired by then. The bill sets 1 January 2027 as its start date.

Until the law is published in the Official Gazette (Gazzetta Ufficiale), Parliament can still change article 41 or drop it. Plan on 18 months.

What to do now

• Before the deed, check the category on the cadastral record (visura): A/1, A/8 and A/9 are excluded.
• Write the date 18 months after the deed in your diary, and file the residence declaration in Trieste before it.
• Selling within five years? Have the next deed signed within one year of the sale, not just a compromesso.
• If the move is off, file the withdrawal before the deadline: no 30% penalty that way.
• Revisit this guide when the budget law is published: the dates may move.

Frequently asked questions

Can a foreigner get the prima casa tax rate in Italy?

Yes. The conditions concern where you live and what else you own, not your passport. You must move your residence to the comune within 18 months, or already live or work there.

What happens if I don't move my residence within 18 months?

You pay the ordinary registration tax instead of 2%, interest and a 30% penalty. Withdraw the promise before the deadline and only the difference and interest are due.

Will the 18 months become two years in 2027?

Only if Parliament approves article 41 of the budget bill. As drafted it would also cover purchases whose 18 months are still running on 1 January 2027.

Do I lose the relief if I sell in Trieste and buy abroad?

Not necessarily. The revenue agency keeps it if, within a year, you buy a home abroad that becomes your habitual dwelling, where cooperation tools allow it to check.

Where this guide stops

It does not cover VAT purchases from builders in detail, inheritance or gifts, or the 2023 under-36 exemptions, now closed. Whether your case qualifies, and when to sign, your notary decides with you; for taxes, your commercialista. More numbers in purchase taxes in Italy, and the yearly bills in owning in Trieste.

Own in Trieste and may sell before the five years are up? The date of the next deed matters as much as the price: we plan the sale around your deadlines. Request a confidential valuation, in English or German.

These are the rules, not tax advice: on your position the commercialista, and for the deed the notary, have the last word. Write to richieste@triestevillas.com or WhatsApp +39 331 8940822.