The Tax Office is on the doorstep. All controls on owners

The Revenue Agency, it is appropriate to say, enters the house and checks how and how much we pay for rent. When it comes to taxes, the taxman is inflexible, he stops at nothing and controls everything, inch by inch. This is how all our expenses end up under the magnifying glass with one goal: to find potential tax evaders.

That’s when the tax checks are triggered

“The Revenue Agency, by registering the lease agreements, has the possibility to know the amount of the rent agreed with the tenant and therefore verify – also through automatic checks – whether or not taxes are paid correctly (Irpef or dry coupon depending on the type of contract) “, the president of Confedilizia Giorgio Spaziani Testa.

The dry coupon. Among the most used contracts is the one with the coupon, which can also be applied to properties that are rented for short periods of stay and in any case for no more than 30 days at a time. For example, tourists who rent a house to spend their holidays or workers who need it for the limited time they will stay in a certain place. In those cases, the owner of the property (or even the sub-lessor or the borrower) can choose to pay a substitute tax at a rate of 21% on the income he derives from the rent. The choice of the dry coupon must be specified in the tax return, more precisely in the framework dedicated to land income.

Coupon for university students. Another hypothesis in which a flat rate tax is used is on apartments leased to university students: the contract must have a duration between 6 months and 3 years which is automatically renewed at the first expiry. The tax advantage, for the owner, is considerable if you can opt for a flat rate coupon at 10%. For student tenants, on the other hand, there is the benefit of the personal income tax deduction equal to 19% for the rent paid, with a limit of 2,633 euros per year and a maximum saving of 500 euros. But be careful: contracts must always be stipulated because being smart doesn’t pay. “The Agency may become aware of a rental in nero also on the basis of a complaint by the tenant – said the president Spaziani Testa – Another possibility is to cross-reference the data in his possession (for example if the tenant has requested the tax deduction relating to rents) or with bank investigations “.

How many and what taxes?

Registration of the contract, registration tax, stamp duty, tax on rent and so on and so forth: certainly there is no shortage of taxes on houses. But are they all really necessary or could some of them get out of the way? “There reform more urgent is the introduction of a flat rate tax for non-residential rents. It was an urgent measure even before the pandemic, given the serious trade crisis that had been going on for some years, “the president told us. At this point the ball passes to the central government, especially now that the pandemic has created damage in all areas. sectors.

“Immediately abolish the tax of uncollected fees”. “After Covid, a government minimally in tune with the reality would not wait a minute longer and would launch it, considering that now it would also have the advantage of favoring agreements between owners and operators aimed at saving rental relationships in the presence of difficulties for tenants (think of restaurateurs in historic centers) “, Spaziani Testa continued. If there is a tax, however, that should no longer be paid to the tax authorities, it is the one that concerns the taxation of uncollected rents, still valid in the field of commercial rents, considered by the president to be “absurd, unfair and shameful. must be eliminated “.

What’s wrong

But the taxman does not stop, controls and sanctions: another absurd situation in this period of pandemic is the “generalized blockade of evictions arranged until the end of the year, which has put many families of small savers in very serious difficulty “, said the president. It is for this reason that the problems already weigh on the basis of the system, and consequently there is no” awareness of the fundamental function economic and social rent “. This gravity due to the lack of evictions, according to Spaziani Testa, could have been managed differently (for the better) if three points had been observed: a) limited to situations of proven difficulty of the tenants; b) excluded for cases dating back to periods prior to the appearance of the virus; c) accompanied by adequate compensation in favor of the lessors. All this, however, has not happened: “we have already started the path towards the Constitutional Court. Arranged in this way, it will have a devastating negative effect on the housing market, “he told us.

Reduce the IMU. To let the coffers of the Italians breathe, the president of Confedilizia has traced a path. “We should start with a substantial reduction in the IMU, the property assets of 22 billion euros a year. Since 2012 it has been causing incalculable direct and indirect damage”. In short, the taxman collects and doesn’t care, to use a play on words. And the greatest consequences are for Italy, under much more pronounced real estate deflation than in other European Union countries according to the data Eurostat. Furthermore, according to what Spaziani Testa said, “the neglect at European and Italian level around the prolonged decline in property prices and its negative macroeconomic consequences (on consumption, on building investments, on real estate disposals by public administrations, on solidity of bank balance sheets through the channel of devaluation of real estate collateral) “.

How can we defend ourselves?

What can citizens do to “defend themselves” and not be caught unprepared? “As with many other tax obligations, it is advisable for professionals to seek regular assistance, especially if the owner of more than one rental property, even through one of the territorial associations of Confedilizia.”, Suggests the president.

Since the Italian tax law changes very often, in addition to being updated and respecting the precise deadlines that it requires, we must be careful not to run into the “lively interpretation of the rules by the Revenue Agency through circulars, resolutions, responses by questioning, etc. “, concludes Spaziani Testa. As if to say: the taxman will try always and in any case, the citizens are with their eyes wide open.

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