Imu and waste taxes: record number of disputes in Campania, Lazio and Sicily
Against the municipalities of three regions 69% of new appeals 2025 Rome's anti-Tari (Tari) campaign weighs heavily. The link with the tax gap
3' min read
3' min read
Tell me if you pay your local taxes regularly and I will tell you how much you litigate. There is a common thread linking the lack of punctuality in payments (and inefficiency in collection) with litigation in many southern municipalities and Rome.
In the first five months of 2025, households and businesses filed just over 16,000 first instance appeals against Italian municipalities. Projecting the trend over 12 months, including the summer break, it is close to 36 thousand appeals, an increase of 3.6 per cent compared to 2024. Almost 70% of the new disputes involve municipalities in just three regions: Campania, Sicily and Lazio. But to understand what is happening we need to go beyond the general data, analysing the statistics of the Ministry of the Economy, which Il Sole 24 Ore of Monday is able to anticipate.
The southern regions and the Rome case
.Campania and Sicily have a high volume of appeals, but a slightly decreasing trend compared to 2024. Latium, on the other hand, has a trend in the first months of the year that - if confirmed - will lead to an annual increase of 69% of new disputes against the region's municipalities.
It is a boom on which Rome's Tari (city tax) litigation is weighing, resulting from the 145,000 assessments sent by Roma Capitale at the end of 2024. The result? As of mid-May 2025, there were 4,040 appeals largely related to the waste tax, compared to 4,220 for the whole of 2024. According to Rome's budget councillor, Silvia Scozzese, 'it appears that, for the appeals that have gone to decision, both in the precautionary and merit phases, the outcomes are for the most part favourable to Roma Capitale'.
The Capitoline phenomenon is so evident that it is also reflected in the total of all municipalities. Generally speaking, 2025 - although in line with the average of the last nine years - opened with a decrease compared to 2024 in disputes over Imu (and old Ici), Tasi, Tosap and Cosap, as well as those over other minor local taxes. Litigation on advertising tax was stable (+0.4%). On the other hand, litigation on Tarsu, Tia, Tari and other waste disposal taxes grew by 34%. A 34% that on an annual basis is 'worth' about 4,500 appeals and corresponds to the increase in disputes against the Capitol and other municipalities in Lazio.
