Identification code
A unit used for short-term rentals must have the national identification code, which has to be shown in listings and communications.
Property · Rentals
Short-term rentals and holiday lets
Letting a place for a few days looks like the simplest kind of rental. In reality it is the one with the most overlapping obligations: tax, municipal, public security and statistical, each with its own authority and its own penalty.
01 · The definition
When a rental counts as "short-term"
A rental is short-term when the contract lasts no more than thirty days, is entered into by a private individual outside any business activity, and concerns residential property.
Certain ancillary services may go with it, in particular the supply of linen and cleaning of the premises, without the rental losing that status. Other services, by contrast, push the arrangement towards the hospitality business.
- No more than thirty days per contract, with the same tenant in the year.
- The landlord is a private individual, acting outside any business activity.
- Residential property, with any appurtenances.
- Services allowed: linen and cleaning of the premises.
- Services that change its nature: breakfast, daily cleaning during the stay, serving meals, hire, tourist guiding.
- No registration of the contract is required, given its length.
The thirty-day threshold is assessed contract by contract. Several short stays by the same guest in a year are not added together to make a long contract, but each must still be documented on its own.
02 · How it is taxed
Short-term rental tax: cedolare secca or ordinary taxation
The rent you receive is rental income. Two regimes are possible, with a particular rule introduced for those who use more than one property for this activity.
Cedolare secca
The cedolare secca (flat tax on rental income) is a substitute tax on the gross rent that replaces income tax, local surcharges, registration tax and stamp duty. It is the option chosen in the great majority of cases.
Different rate
If you use more than one property for short-term rentals in the year, the cedolare rate is not the same as the one for the first property: the rate has to be checked for the tax year.
Beyond the property threshold
Once you exceed the number of properties set by law, the activity is presumed to be carried on as a business, with all that follows.
Ordinary taxation
The rent is added to your total income at progressive rates, with the standard flat-rate reduction for rental income.
The cedolare applies to the gross rent: commission kept by the platform is not deductible. This detail makes a real difference to the calculation, because on platforms with high commission the taxable base stays at the full amount.
03 · If you use platforms
The role of online platforms
Anyone involved in concluding the contract or collecting the rent has obligations of their own, which make some things simpler and others more complicated.
- A platform that collects the rent applies a withholding tax to the payment and pays it over to the tax authorities.
- The withholding is either an advance or final depending on the regime the landlord has chosen, which must be correctly notified to the platform.
- The platform sends the Agenzia delle Entrate (the Italian Revenue Agency) the contract data: your position as landlord is therefore fully visible.
- The landlord receives a certificate of the amounts and the tax withheld, which must be kept and used in the tax return.
- Platform commission is borne by the landlord and does not reduce the taxable amount under the cedolare.
The mistake to avoid
Declaring the net amount received instead of the gross rent.
- The taxable base is the price agreed with the guest, not the transfer you receive
- The difference is the commission, which remains a non-deductible cost under the cedolare
- The data sent by the platform shows the gross figure: any mismatch is immediately visible
- Tax already withheld is credited, but it does not change the base
04 · Beyond tax
The non-tax obligations
These are the last ones people discover and the ones that bring the most immediate penalties, because they fall under authorities that check in real time.
Reporting to the Questura
Guest details must be sent to the Questura (the local police headquarters) within the set number of hours from arrival, through the dedicated portal. It is a public security obligation, with its own penalties.
Regional obligations
The Region and the Municipality require their own notifications and registers of accommodation facilities and of homes used for holiday lets.
Tourist tax
In Turin it is due for every guest and every night, up to the set number of nights: you collect it, pay it over and report it to the Municipality.
Statistical data
Surveys of tourist flows require attendance data to be sent periodically.
Safety of the accommodation
Requirements on installations, detection devices and safety equipment set by the applicable rules.
05 · The boundary
When the activity becomes a business
Moving from rental to business does not depend on a choice but on objective factors. Once you cross the line, everything changes: partita IVA (Italian VAT number), social security contributions, VAT on services, compliance.
- A number of properties used for short-term rentals above the threshold set by law.
- Services offered that go beyond linen and cleaning: breakfast, daily tidying, catering, personal services.
- Organisation of resources: dedicated staff, a stable structure, continuity and regularity of the activity.
- Professional promotion and management comparable to that of an accommodation business.
If you cross the boundary you must open a partita IVA, register with the relevant social security scheme and charge VAT on your fees. It is a change of set-up, not one more formality: it should be planned ahead, not suffered.
06 · The local context
What is different in Turin
Demand from visitors to Turin is concentrated around events, trade fairs and university periods, with less marked seasonality than other art cities. As for obligations, these are the local points to keep under control.
- Municipal tourist tax: collection from the guest, payment and periodic reporting to the Municipality, with the exemptions set out in the regulations.
- Regional notifications for non-hotel accommodation and homes used for holiday lets.
- Building regulations: some contractual condominium regulations restrict use for accommodation, and this has to be checked before you start.
- Cadastral classification of the property, which must match its actual use.
- IMU (municipal property tax): a property let for short periods is not your main home and is taxed at the Municipality's ordinary rate.
Frequently asked
The questions that keep coming up
Do I need a partita IVA to rent out my flat on a platform?
If you rent out a single property, with no services other than linen and cleaning, no: it remains a rental between private parties and is declared as rental income.
A partita IVA becomes necessary when you exceed the property thresholds or offer services that make the activity a hospitality business.
Can platform commission be deducted?
Under the cedolare secca, no: the tax applies to the gross rent agreed with the guest, with no deduction for costs.
Under ordinary taxation the standard flat-rate reduction for rental income applies, which is a fixed allowance and not a refund of actual costs.
What happens if I do not report my guests to the Questura?
It is a public security obligation separate from the tax ones, with its own penalties and possible further consequences if omissions are repeated.
The report must be made within the set number of hours from arrival, through the dedicated portal, for every guest and not only for the person named on the booking.
Can I let a property I do not own on a short-term basis?
You need a legal title that allows it: subletting requires the owner's consent, and a free loan agreement must expressly provide for this right.
Anyone who systematically manages other people's properties and collects the payments is almost always carrying on an intermediation or management activity with its own legal status and obligations that differ from those of a landlord.
Let's talk
Before you publish a second listing, it pays to get the set-up right
Whether the activity is occasional or a business is not up to you: the numbers and the services you offer decide it.