Silvio Berlusconi set to refund Italian property tax payments

  • 12 years ago
  • Uncategorized

Over recent weeks, a former
Italian prime minister has vowed to repeal recent taxes on Italian property as
part of his campaign for re-election. Now, Silvio Berlusconi has gone one step
further and is pledging to refund last year’s property tax payments in cash if
his party wins the election on 24/25 February 2013.

We look at how this may affect
Italian property owners next.

Berlusconi pledges to refund Italian property tax payments

Berlusconi’s centre-right
electoral coalition has been gradually narrowing the gap in the opinion polls
but is still trailing Pierluigi Bersani’s left wing Democrats. The former prime
minister has said he will serve as economy minister if his party wins.

At a recent rally in Milan, Mr
Berlusconi promised to abolish the local property tax introduced by the
incumbent government to tackle the country’s economic problems. “This tax
caused Italian families worry, anxiety, fear of the future,” he told
supporters of his People of Freedom party.

The BBC reports that ‘Mr
Berlusconi is using his considerable political skills to appeal to an
electorate which has seen a draconian increase in taxes by the technocrat
administration led by Mario Monti during 2012’.

The tax on ‘first residences’ was
originally abolished by Silvio Berlusconi’s government in 2008. However, it was
reintroduced in 2012 by current Prime Minister Mario Monti.

The tax is currently applied
(with local variations and an allowance for family dependents) at a standard
rate of 0.40 per cent to first residences. Other residences are subject to a
tax rate of 0.76 per cent.

While Berlusconi has long
pledged to abolish the tax on ‘first residences’, he is now also promising to
refund last year’s tax payments in cash. This will clearly benefit anyone who
owns a property in Italy and lives in it as their main home.

Author :

Nick
Marr

 

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