Short-term rentals: 75% of Cin already issued, compulsory from 2 January

The Tuscany Region could offer a backing, even if the political compromise reached last week on the changes to the single text on tourism has toned down the initial version: instead of banning short-term rentals in certain areas, the 90 or so municipalities with a high density of tourism will be able to regulate the requirements. Confedilizia president Giorgio Spaziani Testa comments: 'The backward march is a positive fact, but the Tuscan initiative is still inappropriate and not in line with the Constitution.

There is a widespread attempt to hinder the free initiative of landlords. But acting through prohibitions is wrong and ineffective. If the intention is to increase the share of housing rented out on a long-term basis, more guarantees must be given to landlords at the eviction stage and appropriate tax incentives, for example by abolishing the Imu tax on a permanent basis for agreed rents'. A point, the latter, on which the municipalities are struggling for resources: the request to zero the Imu on fixed-rate contracts, for example, was recently rejected in Turin.

For Marco Celani, president of Aigab (the Italian association of short-term rental managers), several city measures are unjustified or illegitimate: "In Florence, where we will understand in May 2025 whether the Regional Administrative Court will continue to allow new tourist rentals in the city centre, Imu relief is certainly not a stimulus for the future. In Bologna, short rentals allow the regeneration of empty houses, which still account for 11% of the total housing stock, and in any case online listings only account for 0.8% of the city's real estate stock. In Rome, the regulation will lead to new restrictions and will most likely be challenged. In Venice, we are in favour of voluntary adherence to codes of conduct, but against compulsory check-in presence, which would lead to crowds of travellers standing in the street waiting for the operator'.

In the meantime, however, Cin must be requested. Airbnb is ready as of 2 January to 'switch off' ads without the code, without cancelling accounts: obviously those who rent houses for the summer may not have rushed to request Cin. Confedilizia, on the other hand, stresses the complexity of a procedure in which the national code is added to the regional one without eliminating it. "But at least the ministry has clarified that the obligation to equip oneself with a fire extinguisher and gas detector does not require an 'installation'," notes Spaziani Testa, "and that Cin can be freely displayed outside the building.

As for the need to collect 'de visu' data of guests, reiterated in the circular of the Interior, on 23 December some trade unions are summoned to the Viminale. The operators' request is to be able to use video calls and Otp codes, which are already allowed under Spid, for recognition.

What is about to close will be the first year of the 26% coupon for landlords who have allocated more than one dwelling to short term rental. This is the fallout of the 2024 manoeuvre (law 213/2023), which increased the rate on rents accrued from short term leases as of 1 January, while keeping the flat tax of 21% on income from the first home for short term rental unchanged. The Inland Revenue, in Circular 10/E/2024, explained that each landlord will be able to choose in the tax declaration which dwelling to consider as 'first'. Also in the declaration - according to the 2025 manoeuvre - the Cin.

Despite the increase in the coupon, intermediaries continue to apply a withholding tax of 21%, leaving individuals to settle any difference.

As of this year, the Airbnb portal - after having settled a multi-year dispute with the Inland Revenue - has also started withholding 21 per cent of the fees credited to hosts, remitting the proceeds to the Inland Revenue every month. By 16 March 2025 hosts will find in their account the single certificate with the picture of the deductions made. And in January Airbnb will make the second data submission required by the European Dac 7 directive. The tax information will be sent to Irish Revenue - the Irish tax administration, where the portal is based - which will share it with the relevant EU authorities.

Withholdings and data exchange serve to combat tax evasion. But they will allow more precise information on a sector that has grown a lot (+52.5% the number of overnights in Italy between 2018 and 2023, +53.7% in the EU). And about which too little is still known.

According to Aigab, there are 640,000 houses for which there is now an online advertisement, while properties for short-term rent range between 500,000 and - precisely - 640,000. This is 1.8% of the residential units in Italy. Nomisma's count of active listings (i.e. listings on Airbnb booked at least once a year), on the other hand, stops at 1.3%. Houses occupied by guests for more than 120 nights a year would only be 0.11 per cent.

The impression, in short, is that very different situations end up in the same mix: accommodation rented for a few days a year and others intensively exploited in the centre of cities of art.

On the other hand, according to Finance, the number of properties indicated by taxpayers as rented is 3.65 million. This figure is not too up-to-date (tax year 2021) and refers almost exclusively to long term rentals. But it could also include houses mainly intended for short term rental.