Selling an Italian home as a non-resident: tax, papers, timing

If you live abroad and sell your home in Trieste within five years of buying it, Italy as a rule taxes the gain: 26% if you ask the notary for the flat tax at the deed. After the fifth year, or on a home you inherited, the Italian tax on the gain is normally nil.

Your own country may want its share too. From a distance, papers, signature and money all take longer.

In short

• Five years is the line. The gain on a home sold within five years of purchase is taxable in Italy, for non-residents too (income tax code, articles 67 and 23); the notary can collect a 26% flat tax (Law 266/2005, art. 1, paragraph 496).
• Inherited homes fall outside it, as does a home that was your or your family's main residence for the greater part of your ownership.
• Your country of residence comes second. The treaties with Germany and the United Kingdom let Italy tax the gain (article 13); Germany then exempts what Italy taxed, the UK credits the Italian tax.
• Three papers can void or stall a deed: the cadastral conformity statement, the building permit details and, in Trieste, your name in the Libro fondiario.
• You need not travel. A notarial power of attorney, apostilled where required, lets someone sign for you.

Do I pay Italian tax on the gain if I live abroad?

Normally, only on a sale within five years of the purchase. For a non-resident, a gain on property situated in Italy is Italian income (TUIR, art. 23), and article 67 taxes gains on property sold within five years of purchase or construction.

Two exclusions matter to foreign owners: a home acquired by inheritance, whatever the dates, and a flat that was the main home of the seller or of family members for most of the time between purchase and sale. If superbonus works on the property finished less than ten years before the sale, a separate ten-year rule applies (letter b-bis; from 2027, letter c).

When you sign, you may ask the notary to apply a flat 26% tax instead of income tax; the notary collects it from you and pays it. Without that request, the gain is taxed under the ordinary income tax (IRPEF), in an Italian tax return.

Your case	Italian tax on the gain
Sold within five years of purchase	26% flat tax via the notary, or IRPEF in a return
Sold after five years	None, superbonus aside
Inherited	None, whenever you sell
Main residence of the seller or family, most of the time	None

The articles change number on 1 January 2027. A deed signed in 2026 falls under articles 23, 67 and 68 of the income tax code (TUIR) and Law 266/2005; from 2027, under articles 25, 76, 77 and 244 of the new code (Legislative Decree 117/2026). The five years and the 26% stay.

What does my own country do?

Its own rules apply; the treaty settles the overlap. The Italy–Germany and Italy–UK conventions both let Italy tax gains on property situated in Italy (article 13, paragraph 1).

• Germany leaves out of its tax base the income from Italy that Italy may tax, but may count it when setting your rate (article 24, paragraph 3). § 23 EStG taxes a private sale within ten years of purchase, unless you lived in the home throughout, or in the year of sale and the two before.
• The United Kingdom charges Capital Gains Tax when a UK resident sells overseas property: 18% or 24% in 2026–27. For a house you pay in both countries and claim Foreign Tax Credit Relief in the UK, which may return less than you paid in Italy.

Other treaties differ; there, your adviser at home decides.

A worked example

To find the gain, take the sale price and subtract the purchase price and every other cost inherent to the property (TUIR, art. 68; from 2027, art. 77). The Agenzia delle Entrate's instructions to notaries list the purchase taxes, the notary's fee and works that increased the property's value.

Example. Assumptions: you bought a flat in Trieste on 15 March 2023 for €240,000, paid €10,000 in purchase taxes and notary's fees, then €20,000 for documented works that raised its value. You live in Germany, never lived in the flat, and sell on 10 June 2027 for €290,000.

• Gain: €290,000 − €240,000 − €10,000 − €20,000 = €20,000.
• Italian flat tax: 26% × €20,000 = €5,200, collected by the notary on the day.
• Sold instead in April 2028, after the fifth anniversary of the purchase: Italian tax on the gain, €0.
• In Germany: the 2027 gain stays out of the German tax base. The April 2028 sale is the awkward one: it falls inside § 23's ten years, and the treaty protocol (point 16, letter d) grants the exemption only to income that has actually borne Italian tax. Whether Germany then taxes it is for your Steuerberater.

Dates and amounts are assumptions; rules and rate are real.

I bought with the first-home relief. Does selling cost me?

It can. Sell within five years a home bought with the prima casa relief and you owe the ordinary purchase taxes, a penalty and interest, unless within one year you buy another home as your main residence.

That home may be abroad. The Agenzia delle Entrate said so in ruling 29 of 2025, where cooperation between tax authorities lets its office check that you really live there. The relief itself is in purchase taxes in Italy.

The 2027 budget bill, A.C. 3174-bis, would stretch that year to two, also for deadlines still running on 1 January 2027. It is a proposal, not yet law: plan on one year. Every deadline of the relief is in Italy's first-home relief deadlines.

Which papers does the sale need?

The same as for any seller; from abroad, find the gaps before a buyer does.

• Energy certificate (APE). Every listing must show the energy class (Legislative Decree 192/2005, article 6, paragraph 8). A copy is attached to the deed; leaving it out costs the parties €3,000 to €18,000. An APE lasts up to ten years.
• Cadastral conformity. On pain of nullity, the deed must state that the cadastral record and the plan filed with it correspond to the flat as it stands, or a qualified technician certifies it (Law 52/1985, art. 29, paragraph 1-bis).
• Building permits. If work on the building started after 17 March 1985, the deed is void without the permit details (DPR 380/2001, art. 46); for works begun before 1 September 1967, a formal declaration of that fact takes their place (Law 47/1985, art. 40).
• Payment. Both parties declare in the deed, item by item, how the price was paid and any agent's fee (Decree-Law 223/2006, art. 35, paragraph 22).

Is selling in Trieste different?

Yes, because of the Libro fondiario. The buyer becomes owner only once registered in it (Royal Decree 499/1929, article 2), and a registration can be made only against the person the register shows as owner (land register law, art. 21). Before you list, order the extract of your entry: €10 plus €16 stamp duty, issued within ten working days.

If you inherited, the heirs must be registered as well: nothing can be registered against an heir who is not (art. 3 of the decree). That takes a certificate of inheritance (certificato di eredità). At the Tribunale di Trieste the application needs the succession return already filed and the applicants' signatures authenticated by a notary or by a lawyer; the fees are €98 plus €27.

Can I sell without coming to Trieste?

Yes. A power of attorney (procura) takes the form required for the contract it serves (Civil Code, art. 1392), and in Trieste a registration needs a public deed or signatures authenticated by a notary (land register law, art. 31). So the power is signed before a notary.

Signed before a notary in a Hague Convention country, it needs at most an apostille (Convention of 1961, art. 3) and is deposited with a notary in Italy, or the notarial archive, before use (art. 106 of the notarial law). Italian citizens can sign at a consulate, whose head acts as their notary (Legislative Decree 71/2011, art. 28).

How does the money reach me?

At the deed, unless either party asks the notary to hold the balance in a dedicated account until the deed is registered and made public with no new charges (Law 147/2013, art. 1, paragraphs 63 and 66). What that means under the Libro fondiario the law does not say: agree the release point in writing. The buyer's side is in moving money into Italy.

If the buyer paid a deposit (caparra confirmatoria) at the preliminary contract and then walks away without cause, you keep it; if you are the party in breach, the buyer may claim twice the deposit back (Civil Code, art. 1385).

What else ends with the sale?

• ILIA, the regional property tax, is split by months of ownership in the year of the sale: see owning in Trieste, year after year.
• TARI: tell Esatto, the city's collection agent, by 30 June of the following year, naming the buyer.
• A tenant stays. A lease with a certain date before the sale binds the buyer, who takes over your rights and duties (Civil Code, arts 1599 and 1602).
• A non-EU buyer, an American or a Briton: you must tell the police (Questura) in writing within 48 hours; missing it costs €500 to €3,500 (Legislative Decree 286/1998, art. 7).

What to do now

• Find your purchase deed and every invoice for works; count the five years to the day with the notary.
• Order the Libro fondiario extract; if you inherited, start on the certificate of inheritance.
• Have a technician check the cadastral plan, the permits and the APE before you list.
• Ask a tax adviser at home about the gain before the preliminary.
• If you will not travel, ask the notary for the text of the power of attorney.

Frequently asked questions

Do non-residents pay capital gains tax when selling property in Italy?

Normally, only on a sale within five years of purchase, and not on a home inherited or lived in as the family's main residence for most of that time. Through the notary, the flat tax is 26%.

Is there capital gains tax on an inherited house in Italy?

Not in Italy, whenever you sell. Your country of residence may see it differently.

Can I sell my Italian house without going to Italy?

Yes: with a notarial power of attorney, signed in your country or, for Italian citizens, at a consulate.

Where this guide stops

It leaves out companies, farmland, building land, shares in a home and your country's own computation of the gain. Inheritance, prima casa and superbonus cases turn on details your notary or commercialista checks.

Selling a home in Trieste while living elsewhere is a case we know well. We read the papers first, then present the home English-first, with German-speaking support and Matterport tours, to buyers who look even from afar; for discretion, it stays off the portals in the Private Collection. Request a confidential valuation.

A guide to inform, not tax or legal advice: on your case, the notary and your commercialista decide. Write to richieste@triestevillas.com or on WhatsApp at +39 331 8940822.