Purchase taxes in Italy: the honest numbers

Italian purchase taxes have a reputation for opacity they don't entirely deserve. The rates are public, they haven't moved in years, and the one genuine peculiarity — the prezzo-valore — usually works in the buyer's favour. What follows are the numbers as they stand in 2026, checked against the Agenzia delle Entrate's own guidance. For where the taxes sit in the overall journey, see how buying a home in Italy works.

The short version

Who sells, and how, decides which regime you're in (figures as of 2026):

	From a private seller — or a company selling VAT-exempt	From a company, with VAT
Registration tax	9%, or 2% with prima casa relief — minimum €1,000	€200 fixed
Mortgage + cadastral taxes	€50 + €50 fixed	€200 + €200 fixed
VAT	none	10% (4% prima casa; 22% for categories A/1, A/8, A/9) — on the price

Most resale purchases — which is to say, most purchases — sit in the first column. And in that column, the percentage rarely applies to the price you actually pay. Which brings us to the interesting part.

Prezzo-valore: taxed on the cadastral value, not the price

Since 2006 (art. 1, comma 497, Law 266/2005), a private buyer of residential property can ask for the registration tax to be calculated on the cadastral value instead of the price:

• Second home: cadastral income × 1.05 × 120
• Prima casa: cadastral income × 1.05 × 110

The cadastral income (rendita catastale) is a notional figure, set long ago and rarely updated. In Trieste it usually sits well below anything resembling market value. The result is a taxable base far under the price — by design, and entirely legal.

The conditions, precisely:

• The buyer must be a private individual, not acting in the course of a business, art or profession. That is the whole list. No residence requirement, no nationality requirement — a non-resident buyer qualifies like anyone else.
• The seller can be anyone — a private individual, a foundation, even a company — provided the sale is subject to registration tax rather than VAT.
• The property must be residential, appurtenances included: cellar (C/2), garage (C/6), carport (C/7) are covered too, with no limit on their number, as long as each has its own cadastral income and the deed ties it to the home.
• You must ask. The request goes to the notary and into the deed itself. It cannot be added afterwards.

One thing the prezzo-valore is not: a way to declare less. The real price still goes in the deed, in full. Conceal any part of it and the benefit collapses, with a penalty of 50 to 100% of the extra tax. Declared honestly, the mechanism brings two side benefits: the notary's fee drops by 30% by law, and the tax office cannot challenge the property's value afterwards.

Buying from a company: VAT, sometimes

A common misreading: "company seller = VAT". The general rule is the opposite. Company sales of residential property are normally VAT-exempt, which sends you back to the first column above — registration tax at 9% or 2%, €50 + €50, prezzo-valore available.

VAT applies only when the seller is the builder (or the firm that renovated the property) selling within five years of completing the works — or later, if it expressly opts for VAT in the deed. Then the rates are 4% (prima casa), 10% (other non-luxury homes) or 22% (A/1, A/8, A/9), calculated on the price — the prezzo-valore is never available on a VAT sale — plus €200 each of registration, mortgage and cadastral tax.

One trap worth naming: on a VAT sale, the buyer is jointly liable for VAT evaded on any undeclared part of the price. One more reason the full figure belongs in the deed.

The 2% rate: yes, non-residents can have it

There is no citizenship condition and no requirement to be resident in Italy already. The ordinary route: you commit in the deed — on pain of losing the relief — to move your registered residence to the comune of the property within 18 months of purchase, or to carry out your activity there. The term is still 18 months in 2026; the move counts from the day you file the transfer declaration with the comune.

The other conditions:

• the property is not in a luxury category (A/1, A/8, A/9);
• you hold no rights over another home in the same comune;
• you have not used the relief before — or, if you own a previous prima casa, you sell it within two years of the new purchase (extended from one year as of 1 January 2025).

If life intervenes and the move becomes impossible, you can withdraw the commitment before the deadline passes: you pay the difference plus interest, without the 30% penalty.

The old AIRE route is gone. Until June 2023, an Italian citizen registered as resident abroad could claim the 2% anywhere in Italy with no obligation to move. That rule was abrogated on 14 June 2023 (DL 69/2023), after an EU infringement procedure found it discriminated by nationality. The current rule is citizenship-blind. You get the 2% with no 18-month obligation if all three hold: you moved abroad for work (of any kind, and already before the purchase); you previously lived or worked in Italy for at least five years, not necessarily consecutive; and you buy in the comune where you were born, or where you lived or worked. It serves a returning Berliner who spent six years in Trieste as well as an emigrated triestino. AIRE registration by itself now counts for nothing.

Whether you can buy at all is a separate question — relevant to some non-EU nationals — covered in who can buy in Italy.

A worked example, Trieste

A flat in Trieste. Price €350,000; cadastral income €900 — the figure the Agenzia delle Entrate uses in its own worked example, and a plausible one for a good-sized city flat.

As a second home: base = €900 × 1.05 × 120 = €113,400. Registration tax at 9% = €10,206, plus €50 + €50. Total: €10,306 — just under 3% of the price.

As a prima casa: base = €900 × 1.05 × 110 = €103,950. Tax at 2% = €2,079, plus €100. Total: €2,179.

Without the prezzo-valore, 9% of €350,000 would be €31,500. This is not a loophole. It is the law working as written.

Every rendita is different: ask us for the figure on any property you're considering — it's on the cadastral record, and we'll gladly run the numbers with you before you offer. If you're borrowing, the sums change little but the timeline does: see mortgages in Italy for non-residents.

The small print (as of 2026)

• The proportional registration tax has a floor of €1,000, at 2% as at 9%.
• Registering a preliminary contract costs a fixed €200 (plus stamp duty) and 0.5% on deposits and advance payments (since 1 January 2025); the 0.5% is credited against the tax due at the deed — timing, not extra cost.
• The 2026 budget law left purchase taxes untouched. The figures above are current, not historic.
• Purchase taxes are one-off. The annual cost of ownership — ILIA, waste charges, the condominio — is a different chapter: owning property in Trieste, year after year.

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This is an overview, not advice: the notary and your commercialista have the final word on your specific position, and taxes have a way of depending on details. TriesteVillas accompanies you through every stage, from the first shortlist to the deed. Write to richieste@triestevillas.com or +39 331 8940822 — WhatsApp welcome.