Airbnb tax in Italy: how the cedolare secca works on short lets

In Italy, the income from short lets is taxed in one of two ways. The default is ordinary taxation: the rental income is added to your other Italian income and taxed at your IRPEF bracket, IRPEF being the personal income tax. The alternative is the cedolare secca, a substitute tax at a flat rate, which you choose yourself, year by year, in your tax return. It’s open to anyone who lets privately for up to thirty days; on one home, which you name, the rate is reduced, on the others it’s the full rate, and above a certain number of flats the cedolare no longer applies, because the law presumes you’re running a business.

Here you’ll find what it is, who can choose it and the questions to take to your accountant. Not the rates or the deadlines: they change with each budget law, and this year’s are on the Revenue Agency’s page on the cedolare secca (in Italian, like the other sources here unless we say otherwise).

This guide is for orientation, not tax advice: the rules change often, and before you choose a regime, check with an Italian accountant, a commercialista. If you live abroad, ideally one who also knows the rules of the country where you’re resident.

What the cedolare secca is, and who can choose it

It’s an optional regime, introduced in 2011 for residential leases. In 2017, Article 4 of Decree-Law 50 extended it to short lets: contracts for homes in Italy that last no more than thirty days, including those with linen, cleaning and wi-fi.

It can be chosen by:

• the owner, or whoever holds the usufruct or another real right over the home;
• whoever sublets a home they rent, and whoever has a home on free loan, the comodato, and lets others use it for payment;
• whoever lets single rooms of their own home, again for no more than thirty days.

Two conditions apply to everyone. First, both you and the guest must be individuals not acting for a business: if a company books to house one of its employees, that contract is left out. Second, the home must be registered in the land registry as a dwelling, in categories A1 to A11, offices excepted. And if you add breakfast, a hire car or a guide to the stay, for tax purposes it’s no longer a let but a business activity, even if you do it only once.

All of this is explained in the Revenue Agency’s guide to short lets, updated in April 2026: it’s the document to keep open while you read the rest.

What it replaces, and what it’s charged on

The cedolare replaces IRPEF and the regional and municipal surcharges on the income from that home. If the contract is registered, which for lets of up to thirty days isn’t compulsory, it also replaces registration tax and stamp duty.

It’s charged on the whole amount the guest pays for the stay, including services charged at a flat price, such as cleaning and linen. Expenses aren’t deducted, and there’s none of the flat-rate reduction that ordinary taxation allows on rents. The only things left out are costs the guest pays directly, or that you recharge at what they actually cost.

Income taxed under the cedolare doesn’t form part of the income on which IRPEF is calculated, and you can’t set deductible expenses or tax credits against it. It still counts, though, when deciding whether you’re someone’s dependant for tax purposes, for deductions linked to income, and for means-tested benefits such as the ISEE.

One home at the reduced rate, the others at the full rate

Since 2024 the cedolare on short lets has had two rates. The reduced rate applies to one home only, which you choose in that year’s tax return; the others pay the full rate. It doesn’t matter which one you let first: what matters is which one you name. What the two rates are this year is on the Agency’s page, under short lets.

Then there’s a limit on the number of flats. Above a certain number of homes used for short lets in the same year, the law presumes the activity is a business, whoever runs it: the cedolare no longer applies, you need a VAT number, the partita IVA, and a SCIA, the notice of start of activity filed with the council, and business taxation applies. That limit was lowered from 2026: if you remember the number from a few years ago, it no longer holds. You’ll find it in the first pages of the Agency’s guide.

If the home has several owners, each chooses the regime for their own share.

Withholding tax, with the cedolare and without

The law also provides for a withholding tax charged to intermediaries who take part in the payment, platforms included: who is required to apply it and how is explained in the Revenue Agency’s guide to short lets. What matters to you is this: the withholding is always an advance on your tax, whichever regime you choose, not an extra tax. In your return the tax due is worked out, under the cedolare or under IRPEF, and what has already been withheld is taken into account.

How it fits your own case, especially if the home has several owners, is something to go through with your commercialista.

Where to read the rates and dates

Rates, advance payments and payment dates change with each budget law, so we don’t quote them. The sources are two of the Revenue Agency’s pages: the page on the cedolare secca, linked at the top, for this year’s rates, and the page on how the cedolare secca is paid, for advances, balance and instalments. Your own calendar comes from your commercialista, along with your return.

If you live outside Italy

Living abroad doesn’t move the tax elsewhere. Under Italian law, income from buildings in Italy is taxable in Italy even when the owner isn’t resident here, as the Agency’s instructions for non-resident taxpayers state, in the guide at the end of the second booklet of the Redditi PF return. If the country where you live has a convention with Italy to avoid double taxation, and Italy has signed around a hundred (this page is in English), it generally includes measures so that the same income isn’t taxed twice. How that works for you depends on the convention and on your own country’s rules.

Two practical consequences:

• You need an Italian tax code, the codice fiscale. Intermediaries report it to the Agency with the contracts concluded through them, and you need it to file a return. If you live abroad, you can apply for one at the Italian consulate in your country, as the Agency explains in English.
• Your Italian return is the Redditi PF form, not the 730: people who aren’t tax resident in Italy can use only Redditi PF, as the Agency’s English page on how and when to file a tax return says.

Whether the cedolare secca or ordinary taxation works out better for you also depends on how your country of residence treats that income. That’s a conversation to have with a commercialista, ideally one who knows both systems, before the first booking rather than after.

What the cedolare doesn’t cover

• The tourist tax. The guest pays it, in councils that charge it, and it isn’t a tax on your income: it follows the council’s rules, which set the rates and exemptions.
• Local taxes on the home. The cedolare replaces IRPEF and its surcharges, not IMU or TARI, the council’s property tax and waste charge, which follow your council’s rules.
• Anything that’s a business. Breakfast and other services beyond cleaning, linen and wi-fi, or more flats than the limit: there you leave the short-let regime.
• Lets longer than thirty days. A lease of a few months or of several years can have the cedolare too, but under the rules for registered contracts, which are another story: the Italian lease types are in Italian rental contracts, and how to choose between them in short or long-term rental.

From 2027 the legal reference changes

The rules on this page currently sit in Article 4 of Decree-Law 50 of 2017, in force until 31 December 2026. From 1 January 2027, the tax regime for short lets moves into the new consolidated income tax code, Legislative Decree 117 of 2026, in Chapter III, Articles 207 and 208.

The references change. Whether anything changes for you as well is a question for your commercialista; and check the Agency’s guide again when it’s updated.

Questions to take to your commercialista

1. With my income and deductions, is the cedolare or ordinary taxation the better choice, here and in the country where I live?
2. If I have more than one home, which one do I name for the reduced rate?
3. With the homes I have, am I below the limit above which a business is presumed this year?
4. The home has several owners: how does each of us choose for our own share?
5. If an intermediary applies the withholding tax, how is it taken into account in my return?
6. What are my payment dates, and what changes from 2027?

What we do, and what stays with your commercialista

We don’t give tax advice: you choose the regime with whoever prepares your return. What we do is give you the figures in order. With short-term rental management, every month you get the statement: bookings, expenses and our commission, line by line. How and when payments are made is agreed with you and written into the contract. The CIN, the regional code and guest registration are handled by us; the tourist tax follows the council’s rules, and how it’s handled for your home we agree with you.

What stays with you, with your commercialista: your tax return, the choice between the cedolare and IRPEF, and naming the home that gets the reduced rate. If you have a question about this page, ask us.

How to get from what guests pay to what a home earns, item by item, is in is Airbnb profitable in Italy. The other obligations of anyone who lets, in order and with a calendar, are in Airbnb rules in Italy. If you’d like the figures for your own home, the estimate is free.