First home benefits: the three requirements for Italians abroad

From citizenship to objective requirements

The first home concessions currently allow you to pay the purchase tax reduced from 9% to 2% in the case of a private seller, or the VAT reduced from 10% to 4% if you buy from the builder, as long as you comply with the requirements indicated by the law. The tax breaks also apply in the case of free purchase, i.e. by inheritance or donation, as well as the application of mortgage and land registry taxes in a fixed amount.

Until 2023, the possibility of accessing the benefits was also recognized for “Italian citizens who emigrated abroad”, without further conditions of territorial rooting. A criterion based on nationality that the European Commission had contested with infringement procedure no. 2014/4075, noting discrimination against citizens of other EU states. In fact, with the previous formulation of the law, non-Italian citizens who did not intend to settle in Italy were excluded from the benefit.

With the art. 2 of decree 69/2023 “Urgent provisions for the implementation of obligations deriving from acts of the European Union and from infringement and pre-infringement procedures pending against the Italian State” the reference to citizenship was therefore eliminated and the benefit was anchored to objective conditions, i.e. the real link with the Italian territory.

The three cumulative requirements

According to current rules, therefore, to access the benefits three conditions must simultaneously exist at the time of the deed:

1. the move abroad must have taken place for work reasons, any type of relationship, not necessarily subordinate;
2. the buyer must have resided or carried out his business in Italy for at least five years before the purchase. The five-year period does not necessarily have to be continuous and activities carried out without remuneration also include;
3. the property must be located in the municipality of birth of the buyer, or in the one in which he had his residence, or in the one in which he carried out his business before the transfer.

To these three specific conditions are added, as for any purchase under the first home regime, those provided for in letters b) and c) of note II-bis: absence of other real rights on properties in the same municipality and failure to previously enjoy the benefit. For residents abroad, however, for the purposes of the benefit, the obligation to establish residence in the municipality of purchase is not required, nor to use the property as a main residence.

Why expats’ children don’t pass the test

Considering these conditions, it is clear that the child of Italian emigrants – born and raised abroad, or who moved at a young age – does not satisfy any of the three requirements required by law. He did not move abroad for work reasons but was born or raised there; has not resided or worked in Italy for five years; does not have a municipality of previous residence or work activity on the national territory. The bond with the family home can certainly be emotional, not territorial in the sense required by the law.

Therefore, even in the case of inheritance, it is in no way possible to apply the benefits. Nor is a change to the rule conceivable given that the new rules – as undersecretary Albani recalled – were introduced by law following the EU’s requests: tying the benefits to citizenship alone risked creating a distortion in the area of ​​free movement of capital.