The Montalcino House
Paying Italian property taxes + finally, a cost estimate
If you are just tuning in, you can catch up on how we found and purchased the Montalcino house and got started on renovation planning in our past newsletters.
“Guardate, dovete pagare l’IMU entro 16 giugno.”
Stefano’s madre, Maria, reminded us that we only had a few more days to make our IMU payment.
IMU stands for Imposta Municipale Unica, an Italian property tax on second homes. Unlike in other countries, you do not receive a property tax statement or payment reminder for IMU in Italy. It’s up to the homeowner to remember to pay the tax twice a year.
In theory, a homeowner could calculate IMU, fill out the modulo F24 tax form, and make payment at the local post office, bank, or even online. However, since this was all new to us, we decided to reach out to our tax advisor (commercialista) in Montalcino for help instead.
Buongiorno Sig.ra Martelli.
Ci siamo accorti che c'è da pagare l'IMU entro i prossimi giorni. Ci può seguire con la pratica?
Grazie e cordiali saluti,
Cara
Our commercialisita just so happens to be the aunt (zia) of Gabriele, our geometra. They are both local to Montalcino, which we value. Certainly, there are both advantages and risks to doing business with members of the same family, but for now, the pros outweigh the cons.
Buonasera Sig.ra Cara,
Certo, glielo possiamo elaborare noi. Ho appena inviato una mail a Gabriele per avere i dati catastali dell'immobile.
Come preferisce pagare? Ha un conto corrente italiano su cui possiamo mandare noi direttamente in pagamento l'imu dovuta? Oppure preferisce pagare lei in autonomia?
Resto in attesa di un suo riscontro.
Cordiali saluti,
Gemma
Gemma from the commercialista’s office said that, of course, they could take care of the IMU payment for us. She would contact Gabriele for the cadastral information needed to make the calculation. If we provide her with our Italian bank account information, she will initiate the payment for us, but let her know if we prefer to make the payment ourselves.
We gave Gemma our bank details and told her we’d be grateful if she could handle it all. Could she let us know, though, how much we owed before making payment?
We had left a comfortable balance in our Italian bank account after closing on the Montalcino house in order to cover utility bills and other expenses. We had no idea how much IMU would be, though.
Buonasera Cara,
Ho addebitato € 230 a te e € 230 a tuo marito.
Cordiali saluti,
Gemma
Gemma said she debited €230 to me and €230 to Stefano. Interesting…IMU is calculated for each property owner based on their respective share of ownership. So many new things to learn. So, we paid €560 in total, about $600. That’s not terrible.
Still, it was a reminder that we’ve owned our home for over four months, and we are paying taxes and utilities, but it’s still sitting vacant in the same condition it was when we bought it. We really need to get moving on the renovations.
The last time we spoke to Gabriele, he told us that the computo metrico, or cost estimate, was ready but that Mirko, the assistant assigned to our project, had been out sick. Let’s check in again to see if we could get a meeting on the calendar.
Facciamo mercoledì alle 13. Tenete a portata di mano l’atto di acquisto, mi servirà capire qual’ è l’ultima concessione edilizia rilasciata dal Comune. All’interno dell’ atto c’è scritto.
Gabriele
Wednesday at 1 pm Italy time, which is 6 am Minneapolis time. Gabriele asked us to have the deed to the property on hand because that contained the date of the most recent planning permits documented by the city.
It’s early morning for us and right at lunchtime for Gabriele, but it works best for us to meet before our workday starts, and Gabriele has graciously accommodated that. We got up, had our caffè, and hopped on a video call to learn how much this would all cost.
