IMU on building land in Italy: what a foreign buyer pays each year, and what to check before buying

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Foreign buyers usually hear about IMU (Imposta municipale propria, the municipal property tax) as the tax they do not pay on their main home. On a second home they pay it, and on a building plot they pay it every year from the day they buy, with nothing standing on the land. On a plot, the tax is calculated on the land’s market value, and that value is in practice set by a table the town council publishes.

Here is one such table. Senorbì, a small town in the Trexenta area of southern Sardinia, adopted its 2026 values for building land with council executive resolution no. 6/2026 and a valuation report attached. For land covered by the municipal plan (PUC, approved in 2003), the values are: zone A 90 €/m², zone B 120 €/m², zone C with an approved detailed plan 90 €/m², zone C without a detailed plan 15 €/m², zone D without a detailed plan 5 €/m².

Take a 1,000 m² plot. In zone C without a detailed plan the council values it at €15,000. Once the developer’s detailed plan (piano attuativo) is approved, the same plot is worth €90,000 for tax purposes, six times more, with no change on the ground. This guide explains the rules behind those numbers, how to estimate your annual bill, who pays in the year of sale, how to pay from abroad, and what to check before you sign the preliminary contract.

Glossary

Building land or farmland: the first question

Under art. 1(741)(d) of Law 160/2019, land counts as building land when it can be built on under the general or detailed plans adopted by the council, whether or not the region has approved them. Adoption is enough: if the council adopts a new plan in March that makes your field buildable, you pay as building land from then on, even if the plan only takes effect a year later.

The same provision exempts from the building-land rule land owned and farmed by registered direct farmers and professional farmers who keep farming it, including farming companies with professional-farmer status: it is treated as agricultural. Co-owners who do not farm get no benefit. As a foreign buyer of a plot for a house, you will almost never qualify.

Who sets the value

Paragraph 746 sets the criteria: market value on 1 January, or from the date the plan is adopted, taking into account zone, building index, permitted use, costs of preparing the land and average prices of similar land. Almost every council turns that into a table of reference values per zone. Senorbì’s report states the effect: if you declare a value not lower than the table, the council accepts it as fair and limits its own power to reassess. Declare less, and you invite an assessment.

The Court of Cassation treats these tables as a rebuttable presumption: you can prove a lower real value, with concrete evidence such as constraints, missing infrastructure or nearby sale prices.

Some councils, like Senorbì or Ruffano (which applied an inflation adjustment for 2026), update the table; others, like Verona, confirm earlier values year after year. Ask the council’s tax office (Ufficio Tributi) which resolution applies.

Your annual bill, worked out

1,000 m² plot, base rate 0.86% and, for comparison, the 1.06% ceiling. Senorbì’s actual 2026 rate for building land is in its rate schedule on the Ministry of Economy’s federal tax portal.

If you plan to wait before building, multiply: five years on a zone B plot at the base rate is 5 × €1,032 = €5,160. That belongs in your budget alongside notary fees and registration tax.

Compare the same 1,000 m² as farmland. With an assumed cadastral income of €6 (an example figure; the real one is on the cadastral extract), the base is 6 × 1.25 × 135 = €1,012.50, and at 0.76% the tax is €7.70 a year. That gap, from under €10 to over €1,000 a year for the same field, is why the zoning line on the plan matters to your running costs as much as to your building plans. It is also why a seller who has paid IMU as farmland on land the plan made buildable years ago may have an unpaid bill the council has not yet noticed.

Some councils set values per cubic metre of building volume rather than per square metre of land. Cesate, near Milan, sets a minimum of €480/m², equal to €160/m³, for residential building land. Under a per-m³ table, an 800 m² plot with 600 m³ of permitted volume has a base of 600 × €160 = €96,000 (€825.60 a year at 0.86%); the same plot with 1,200 m³ pays twice that. The building index in the plan’s technical rules drives your tax.

Reading the zone letters

The letters A to F come from the "homogeneous territorial zones" of Ministerial Decree no. 1444 of 2 April 1968, and most municipal plans (PRG, or PUC in Sardinia and some other regions) still use them. Roughly: A is the historic centre, B the built-up area where you build with a direct permit, C the expansion areas that need a detailed plan, D productive areas, E agricultural land, F public facilities. A council values table follows the same letters.

Not every region speaks this language any more. In Emilia-Romagna, the general urban plan (PUG) introduced by Regional Law 24/2017 replaces zones with urban fabrics and areas, and IMU tables follow the new labels. Before looking for "zone B" in a table, check what your council calls the part of town where the plot lies; the CDU will use the same terms.

For a buyer, zone C is where the tax surprises happen. The plot is building land for IMU as soon as the plan is adopted, but you cannot build until a detailed plan is approved and an agreement (convenzione) with the council is signed, usually by all owners in the area together. Ask the seller or developer four questions in writing: has a detailed plan been submitted, has it been adopted, has it been approved, and has the convenzione been signed? Each step can raise the council’s reference value, as Senorbì’s 15 → 90 €/m² jump shows, while the date you can actually build may still be years away.

The year you buy: who pays what

IMU is due per calendar year, in proportion to ownership share and months owned (para 761). The month of transfer goes to whoever owns it for more than half its days; in practice the cut-off is the 16th for 30- and 31-day months (Ministry of Economy circular 1/DF of 18 March 2020). The first instalment is due by 16 June, the balance by 16 December.

Example: deed signed on 10 July 2026, zone B plot in Senorbì, €1,032 a year at 0.86%. The buyer owns 22 of July’s 31 days, so July is the buyer’s. Seller: January–June, €516. Buyer: July–December, €516, all paid in December.

For building land you must also file an IMU return by 30 June of the year after purchase (para 769) stating the value you use. For a 2026 purchase: by 30 June 2027. Many foreign buyers miss this because the notary’s work ends at the deed.

Paying from abroad

• Codice fiscale. You already need one to buy; IMU is paid under it. See codice fiscale for foreign buyers.
• F24 or bank transfer. Residents pay with the F24 form. Owners abroad who cannot use F24 can pay by international bank transfer to the council’s account, quoting the codice fiscale, the year, "IMU" and the codes; ask the council’s tax office (Ufficio Tributi) for its IBAN and payment instructions before the due date.
• A local helper. Many owners abroad appoint a commercialista (accountant) or CAF (tax assistance centre) to calculate, file the return and pay. Expect a fee per year.
• Reminders. Italian councils do not always send a bill for IMU. Mark 16 June and 16 December in your calendar.

Buildable on paper, blocked in practice

Buyers often hope that a constraint turns building land back into farmland for tax purposes. It usually does not. In order no. 25201 of 10 September 2026 the Court of Cassation upheld a council’s appeal over land the plan reserved for a public park and a school: public-use designations do not remove building-land status, they only lower the market value on which IMU is charged.

So a road or cemetery buffer, land reserved for services, green space or car parks will not take your plot out of IMU on building land. They are, however, your argument for a lower value. On a 1,000 m² zone B plot in Senorbì, if half the area lies in a buffer zone and the council accepts a proportional cut, the taxable value falls from €120,000 to €60,000 and IMU at 0.86% from €1,032 to €516 a year. You have to ask for that cut and justify it; nobody applies it for you.

If a plot is shaved by a buffer zone, our guides on the cemetery buffer and on hydrogeological constraints explain what remains buildable. What remains buildable is also your argument on value.

Before you sign: step by step

1. CDU. From the council: zone and constraints. It tells you which row of the values table applies.
2. Values table. On the council website (Tributi section or online noticeboard), search "valori aree fabbricabili IMU" and the year.
3. Rate schedule. On the Ministry of Economy’s federal tax portal, for the current year; building land can have its own rate.
4. Cadastral extract (visura). Quality class and cadastral income, if the land is agricultural.
5. Seller’s payments. Ask for the last five years' IMU receipts and the value declared. The council can reassess the seller for past years, but a disputed value today becomes your starting point tomorrow.
6. Detailed plan status in zone C or expansion areas: adopted, approved, agreed with the council?

Ask your notary or lawyer to put the seller’s IMU position in the preliminary contract (compromesso), together with a warranty that no assessment is pending. See the preliminary contract.

If the answer is bad

The council claims a higher value. Answer with facts: constraints that cut the buildable volume, no detailed plan, high infrastructure charges, recent sales nearby at lower prices. A valuation on its own may not carry the day.

The land became buildable under an adopted plan and you will not build. You pay as building land from adoption. Some councils accept requests to return land to agricultural use in a later plan variation; until then the tax runs.

You find out after the deed that the seller paid as farmland. The seller answers for the years before your purchase. From your purchase onwards, regularise quickly with a voluntary correction (ravvedimento operoso) before any assessment notice arrives.

Years of waiting make the plot too expensive. Put the annual IMU into your price negotiation.

What the report shows

The TerrenoCheck report shows, for the plot you pick on the map, the planning zone, constraints (buffer zones, hydrogeological, landscape, Natura 2000), hazards and prices nearby, with source and date for every map. It does not calculate IMU or replace the CDU. It tells you which row of the council’s values table your plot falls into and which constraints you can raise on value.

See the zone and constraints for this plot in a TerrenoCheck report, from €29 → · See a sample report

This guide is a first orientation and not tax advice.