Are foreigners eligible to tax reductions such as the “first residence” one?
Foreigners who are legal residents of Italy and are registered on the list of job seekers or exercising an employed or self-employed activity may, similarly to Italian citizens, access public housing and subsidised loans for the construction, recovery, purchase, and rental of a first residence.
To be more specific, at the time of purchase, the purchaser has to pay 2% (as registration tax) if he/she is buying from an individual or 4% (VAT) if the seller is an enterprise or a company (except in a few specific cases), in addition to the mortgage and cadastral fees whose amount is fixed (currently, the total amount is equivalent to 100.00 euros).
The purchase of a “first residence” still benefits from another tax relief, as income tax can (to a certain extent) be deducted from the interests paid on loans taken out for the purchase of a first residence. Lastly, any income generated from the “first residence” is exempted from income tax.