Second Home Vs Primary Home: What’s The Main Difference?
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Investigating if the property will be used as primary or second home, is one of the first basic questions we put to our clients to understand their research, when it comes to buy a property in Italy.
But what do we mean exactly by primary and second home?
Let’s dig a bit further in this topic.
Primary home
A primary home is the property where a person lives everyday and where the fiscal residence is.
Most importantly, on a primary home there may be several tax breaks when the following conditions are fulfilled:
the property must be the first one (timeframe speaking) bought on the national territory of Italy, using the “prima casa” fiscal benefits.
The owner of that house must have or bring in 18 months from the purchase his/her fiscal residence
The owner should use the house constantly, as "primary home", at least for 5 years after the purchase.
According to art. 43, clause 2 of Codice Civile, “the residence is in the place where the person has the main abode".
Simply put, it’s not enough that the owner keeps the residence at the property and then put the house for rent; to maintain the tax breaks, the owner must live in the house.
Second homes
Second homes are usually properties most people use for vacation purposes, although a second home can also have other functions.
The definition indicates the house or the houses a person owns, in addition to the main (primary) one.
To buy a holiday house no tax benefits are provided; this means that all the taxes related to the property will be entirely paid -regardless you are a foreigner or italian - in addition to IMU and TASI taxes that are paid to the Municipality where the house is located and in accordance with the percentage applied.
Holiday houses can be also rented out either with long term or short contracts.
Looking for your primary home or holiday retreat on Lake Como? We’re here to help!