Selling after Superbonus works: Italy's ten-year tax rule

If Superbonus works on your Italian home ended less than ten years ago, a sale can be taxed even after the usual five years. Since 1 January 2024 the gain is taxable when the deed comes less than ten years after the works ended, unless you inherited the home or it was your or your family's main home for the greater part of that period.

Where you used the 110% rate with a discount on the invoice or a sale of the credit, there is a second rule: within five years of the works their cost does not count against the gain, and after five years only half of it does.

In short

• Ten years from the end of the works, not from your purchase: that is the window in which a sale is taxable (TUIR, art. 67, letter b-bis).
• Condominium works count too: Superbonus on the roof or façade of your building is enough, even if nothing was done inside your flat.
• Two exits: a home you inherited, or one that was your or your family's main home for the greater part of the period.
• 110% with discount or credit sale: the works' cost is ignored within five years of their end, half of it counts after five (TUIR, art. 68).
• Rate: 26% flat, collected by the notary if you ask; otherwise ordinary income tax in a return.

Which sales does the ten-year rule catch?

Any sale for value of a building on which Superbonus works under article 119 of Decree-Law 34/2020 ended no more than ten years before the deed. The revenue agency's circular 13/E of 13 June 2024 adds four points that matter to owners:

• the rule applies whoever did the works: the owner, a tenant, a family member;
• it applies whatever the rate of relief and however it was taken;
• works on the common parts of the building are enough;
• only the first sale after the works is caught, not later ones.

The clock starts when the works end, as shown by the building notices and permits. A flat you bought in 2010 is caught if the condominium's works ended in 2022.

Non-residents are not spared. The circular lists them among those who can owe the tax, because a gain on property in Italy is Italian income.

When is the gain not taxed at all?

Two cases fall outside the rule:

• Inheritance: a home you received by succession.
• Main home: a home where you or your family had your main home for the greater part of the decade before the deed. If you have owned it for less than ten years, for the greater part of the time since you bought or built it.

On residence in Italy and its tax effects, see becoming resident after buying.

How is the gain worked out?

As always, sale price minus purchase price and the costs that belong to the home, such as purchase taxes and notary fees. The Superbonus adds one twist, and only when two conditions both hold: you used the 110% rate, and the relief went through a discount on the invoice (sconto in fattura) or a sale of the tax credit.

Works ended…	Cost of the Superbonus works in the calculation
no more than five years before the sale	none of it
more than five years before the sale	50%
more than ten years before the sale	the rule no longer applies

If you took the relief as a deduction in your own tax returns, or at a rate below 110%, the cost of the works counts in full. A purchase price paid more than five years before the sale is also revalued by ISTAT's FOI index (consumer prices of workers' and employees' families), which lowers the gain.

A worked example

Example. Assumptions, ours: a flat in a Trieste period building, bought in December 2021 for €400,000, with €30,000 of purchase taxes and notary fees. The condominium's Superbonus works on roof and façade ended in September 2022, at 110%, with the discount on the invoice; the flat's share came to €90,000. Nobody ever lived there as a main home, and it sells for €560,000.

Sale	Cost recognised	Gain	26% flat tax
October 2026	€400,000 + €30,000 = €430,000	€130,000	€33,800
October 2026, relief taken as a deduction instead	€430,000 + €90,000 = €520,000	€40,000	€10,400
October 2027	€430,000 + €45,000 = €475,000, before revaluation	at most €85,000	at most €22,100
After September 2032	—	not taxable	€0

The price is the same in every row. A year's wait moves the bill by more than €11,000; waiting until the tenth anniversary removes it.

What happens to deductions not yet used?

If you took the Superbonus as a deduction in your returns, the instalments not yet used pass to the buyer, if a private individual, unless the deed says otherwise. The revenue agency applies to the Superbonus the same rule as for other renovation reliefs; from 2027 it sits in article 17 of the new income tax code.

Keeping them takes an agreement with the buyer. A seller who still has Italian income to set them against may want to; a seller with none loses nothing by letting them go, and the buyer may pay for them.

Who answers if the relief is challenged?

If the requirements for the relief turn out to be missing, the revenue agency recovers it from the beneficiary, with interest (Decree-Law 34/2020, art. 121). The supplier and those who bought the credit are jointly liable only for intent or gross negligence.

Buyers and their notaries will therefore ask for the file:

• the CILA (the works notice) and the date the works ended;
• the energy certificates before and after: energy-efficiency works had to raise the building by two energy classes, or reach the top one;
• the technical and tax certifications of the works.

The CILA did not need to show the building's legal status, and the law leaves any check on that status untouched.

The Agency is also checking whether Superbonus homes filed a cadastral update (Law 213/2023, paragraphs 86-87). If the works changed the flat, the cadastral plan and the deed's conformity statement must match it.

Why this matters in Trieste

Friuli Venezia Giulia counts 13,641 buildings with Superbonus works, worth €2.82 billion admitted for relief, according to ENEA's figures at 30 September 2026. Condominium buildings are 2,679 of them, but 62.1% of the money.

In a city of period apartment buildings, that means many owners are caught without having touched their own flat. The question to ask the building's administrator is simple: did the building do Superbonus works, and on what date did they end?

What to do now

• Ask the administrator for the date the condominium works ended, and the rate.
• Find out whether your share went through a discount, a credit sale or your own returns.
• Count ten years from that date, and five for the cost rule.
• Check how long the home was your main home, or your family's.
• Ask a technician whether a cadastral update was due after the works.

Frequently asked questions

Do I pay capital gains tax if I sell a house after the Superbonus?

Yes, if the works ended less than ten years before the sale, unless you inherited the home or it was your family's main home for most of the period. You can pay a 26% flat tax through the notary.

Does the Superbonus ten-year rule apply to condominium works?

Yes. According to the revenue agency, works on the common parts are enough, even if your own flat had none.

What happens to Superbonus deductions when I sell?

Instalments not yet used pass to an individual buyer, unless the deed keeps them with you.

Do non-residents pay the Superbonus capital gains tax in Italy?

Yes. A gain on property in Italy is Italian income for a non-resident, and the revenue agency includes non-residents in the rule.

Where this guide stops

Left out: sales by companies, how your home country taxes the gain, the later, stricter rules for single-family houses, and rebuilding a lost Superbonus file. On the tax, the commercialista decides; on the deed, the notary. For deductions, see renovation tax breaks for non-residents.

Own a Trieste home that had Superbonus works? The date those works ended can move your tax by tens of thousands of euros. We start every valuation by finding that date and the papers a buyer's notary will ask for. 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.