Renting the House, Opening the Door

Letting an Italian holiday home to tourists: what you pay, when you become a business, and what to do before the first guest.

For 2026, a foreign owner who lets an Italian home to holidaymakers on contracts of up to 30 days pays the cedolare secca, Italy's flat-rate tax on rental income: 21% of the gross rent on one property and 26% on a second, in place of ordinary income tax (IRPEF) and surcharges [1][2]. The condition is to put no more than two apartments into short lets during the year. From the third, the whole activity is presumed to be a business, with a VAT number and everything that goes with it [3]. The regime is open to owners who live abroad, provided they own the house in their own name and not through a company [4].

The 21% does not go to the first property in time order. You choose which one in the tax return, and it pays to give it to the house that earns more [2].

Take two houses in Sardinia, one let for €18,000 gross over the year and the other for €12,000. With 21% on the first and 26% on the second, the tax is €3,780 plus €3,120: €6,900. Swap the allocation and it is €2,520 plus €4,680: €7,200, so €300 lost through filling in one line wrongly. The base is the gross rent, with no deduction for the costs you incurred [5]. If the booking platform has already withheld 21% on the full €30,000, which is €6,300, you still owe €600 with the return, because the withholding is a payment on account and never the final bill [6].

If you live abroad, you file the Modello Redditi PF in Italy, section RB. Rents bear no withholding other than the one applied by platforms and agents on short lets, so the return cannot be skipped [4]. If the house is held by a foreign company, the cedolare secca is not available and the income is taxed under the ordinary rules [4]. The tax paid in Italy is normally recovered as a credit in your State of residence, provided you keep the F24 payment receipts and the Italian return; how that credit is calculated is for that State to decide.

The sequence I see most often in my office runs in a set order. The owner entrusts the summer to a booking platform and declares those rents. In September an acquaintance asks for the house for ten days, pays by direct bank transfer, and the amount stays out of the return because it seems small. But every guest, the friend included, must be registered on Alloggiati Web, the police portal for guest registration, within 24 hours of arrival, and the Agenzia delle Entrate (the Italian Revenue Agency) matches those stays against declared income [7]. Months or years later a questionnaire arrives asking you to explain the nights. Guest numbers count people, not receipts, and tend to overstate the rent: the defence is to document what you actually received [7]. Anyone who does not answer risks a penalty of €250 to €2,000 [8].

To begin with, you need a regional code and the CIN, the national identification code (Codice Identificativo Nazionale), which you request on the Ministry of Tourism's portal and display outside the property and in every listing [9]. In Sardinia the regional code is the IUN [10]. Letting without a CIN costs €800 to €8,000; a CIN that is not displayed or not shown in the listing, €500 to €5,000; missing gas and carbon monoxide detectors or fire extinguishers, €600 to €6,000 per violation [9]. The safety rules apply even if you let for two weeks a year.

The line between a short let and a business does not run only through the number of houses. Providing linen and cleaning keeps you inside the regime, but additional services with no necessary link to residential use, such as breakfast, airport transfers or excursions, make the activity a business even if it is occasional [3]. An owner who adds a transfer to the listing out of courtesy, or to win guests over, can therefore leave the regime with a single house.

Tourist tax comes on top, where the municipality applies it. Whoever collects the rent or takes part in the payment is liable for it, with a right of recovery from the guest, and must file the return electronically by 30 June of the following year [12]. If the rent goes through a platform, liability shifts, and you need to check case by case which of the two parties settles it.

Someone who lets for months instead of weeks leaves the short-let regime. Above 30 days the ordinary cedolare secca is 21%, or 10% on agreed-rent contracts in municipalities where the local agreement allows it, and the two-apartment limit no longer applies [12]. For an owner who spends the winter in London and leaves the Sardinian house to a tenant from November to May, the choice between one long contract and four or five short stays changes the rate and, above all, the number of formalities.

The count of apartments is annual and covers only those used for short lets. If you own four, two let to tourists and two on ordinary contracts, you stay in the regime; if you let three to tourists you are out, and it is the activity as a whole that is presumed to be a business, not just the third property [3]. A VAT number and accounting records follow, as does the SCIA, the certified notice of start of activity filed with the municipality's one-stop shop: if omitted, the penalty is €2,000 to €10,000 [9]. The VAT treatment of these business lets, where the flat-rate regime for small businesses is not available, is currently debated [11].

From 1 January 2027 the same rules move into the new consolidated income tax code, in Articles 207 and 208, with rates and threshold unchanged [12]. The references to quote in a return or a contract change; the tax does not.

Before accepting the first booking, check that the house is held by an individual and count the apartments you plan to let to tourists during the year. Then choose which one to tax at 21%, obtain the IUN and the CIN, install the detectors and open your Alloggiati Web account.

Sources

[1] Article 3, Legislative Decree no. 23 of 14 March 2011 (flat-rate tax on rental income, cedolare secca); Article 4, paragraphs 2 and 3, Decree-Law no. 50 of 24 April 2017, converted by Law no. 96 of 21 June 2017 (short lets: term not exceeding 30 days, individuals acting outside a business, option for the cedolare secca).

[2] Article 1, paragraph 63, Law no. 213 of 30 December 2023 (26% rate from the second property, choice of the property taxed at 21% in the tax return); Agenzia delle Entrate, circular no. 10/E of 10 May 2024.

[3] Article 1, paragraph 595, Law no. 178 of 30 December 2020, as amended by Article 1, paragraph 17, Law no. 199 of 30 December 2025 (no more than two apartments per tax year; presumption of business activity under Article 2082 of the Civil Code); Agenzia delle Entrate, guide on short lets, 2026 update; circular no. 24/E of 2017 on additional services.

[4] Article 23, Presidential Decree no. 917 of 22 December 1986 (Italian Income Tax Code, TUIR), territoriality of property income; instructions to the Modello Redditi PF, section RB, for non-residents. No residence requirement in Article 3, Legislative Decree 23/2011; exclusion of the cedolare secca for property held through a company: to be confirmed on an official source.

[5] Article 3, paragraph 1, Legislative Decree 23/2011 (substitute tax calculated on the annual rent); Agenzia delle Entrate, guide on short lets, 2026 update (gross receipts, no deduction of costs).

[6] Article 4, paragraph 5, Decree-Law 50/2017 (21% withholding by intermediaries and platforms), as amended by Article 1, paragraph 63, Law 213/2023 (always on account); circular 10/E/2024; decision of the Director of the Agenzia delle Entrate of 12 July 2017.

[7] Article 109, Royal Decree no. 773 of 18 June 1931 (public security law, TULPS), registration of guests within 24 hours of arrival; Article 32, paragraph 1, no. 4, Presidential Decree no. 600 of 29 September 1973 (requests for data and questionnaires).

[8] Article 11, paragraph 1, letter a), Legislative Decree no. 471 of 18 December 1997 (failure to reply to the tax office's requests): to be rechecked.

[9] Article 13-ter, Decree-Law no. 145 of 18 October 2023, converted by Law no. 191 of 15 December 2023 (CIN, SCIA for business activity, safety equipment, penalties); Article 13-quater, Decree-Law no. 34 of 30 April 2019 (national database of tourist accommodation).

[10] Autonomous Region of Sardinia, rules on the regional identification code (IUN): references to be inserted after checking.

[11] Article 1, paragraphs 54 to 89, Law no. 190 of 23 December 2014 (flat-rate regime for small businesses); VAT treatment of short lets carried on as a business, a debated point after Law 199/2025.

[12] Legislative Decree no. 117 of 19 June 2026 (Consolidated Act on income taxes), Official Gazette no. 152 of 3 July 2026, ordinary supplement no. 26/L, in force from 4 July 2026 and applicable from 1 January 2027, Articles 203 to 208.

Agostino Galizia, chartered accountant and statutory auditor in Cagliari, Sardinia. Ordine dei Dottori Commercialisti ed Esperti Contabili di Cagliari (Cagliari Institute of Chartered Accountants) no. 1330/A; Registro dei Revisori Legali (Italian register of statutory auditors) no. 80487. Galizia & Pinna Associati S.r.l. STP.

If you want to check your own position, the firm offers a tax review of your property letting and the choice of regime: a two-page document, at a fee agreed before the engagement, that counts the apartments used for short lets, indicates which one to tax at 21%, compares the cedolare secca, ordinary taxation and the business regime on your expected rents, and lists the formalities to complete before the first guest.

This article is for information only and does not replace an assessment of your specific case.