rachel68's activity

HI Penny,   Thanks for that help Penny. I realise I haven't given enough information to be helpful! At the moment neither building has a certificate of habitation and neither building has  a catastal value because when we bought the property (both buildings in one atto as one purchase as far as I can tell) they were both without a catastal value as they were classed 'collabenti'. Now that I am about to apply for residency and the smaller building is habitable (the other hasn't been touched and will remain derelict for sme while yet) it is time to apply for the certificate of habitation and to get the place on the catastal register. The geometra is suggesting leaving the larger, derelict building to be classed as 'collabenti' until we start work on it in a few years. I just wondered if anyone can see any flaws in this? For example i didn't claim the restoration tax relief incentive on restoring the smaller building and thought that the 'allowance' would all get taken up with the restoration of the larger building anyway...the geometra had said maybe I should try and retrospectively claim this for the smaller, annex restoration before we apply for the certificate of habitation (it would be too late after you've already got the certificate i understand), but as long as I know I can use up this allowance in a few years time on the other building I'm not worried about persuing this as it's just another complication in a series of complications.....

RAM - yet again you come to the rescue with really helpful advice! Thanks so much. It certainly will lift a whole load of stress of my shoulders knowing whether we are resident for one year or the whole five, as long as we don't sell the property (no intentions of ever doing this so far!) we won't be liable to lose our 3% rate of purchase taxes. Phew...finally I can start enjoying our Dolce Vita!  Many thanks RAM and to all those who've contributed to wading through this issue!

  Dear Ram, I wondered whether you'd got a reply from your notary? - You were going to ask your nice notaio the million dollar question...."what happens when one has bought a house with prima casa agevolazione, obtained 'residenza' for a year or two, but then (without selling the house) move to another country where you'd be required to take up residency (thus rescinding Italian residency within five years of purchase)?" Did you get an answer? I finally heard back from my notary on all counts (exactly as you'd suggested)...but she asked whether I really wanted the hassle of Italian residency because her advice was that there was a good chance (she said at least 70%) we'd never get chased for the extra purchase taxes any way! I think we'll have no option because we'll be in the village for at least a year but I would like to rest assured that I didn't have to live in fear of a huge tax demand with 30% fine if my other half gets posted overseas in 2014 and we join him...which would be our choice! I'm going to ask our notary the same question but it can take months for a reply to come! Many thanks

Thanks...I'd love to know your recommendations. Sounds like a good option!

I totally agree it seems unlikely...it's just I have heard of it being done but can't remember where or from whom I found out about it!

Thanks Penny...I'm going into the commune armed with all my stuff in December/Jan and so hopefully have a 3 month window to gather any paperwork I've messed up on! So far I've found our commune helpful...I think they welcome anything which is breathing life (and espeically young children!) into the community.

Thanks so much for the advice. I wasn't planning on planting near neighbours' boundaries yet so hopefully no issues with distances from boundaries but good to be reminded one can't go at these things willy-nilly! It was interesting to hear though about the 'willow' firewood coppices possibly being illegal. Our heating is a mix of a multi-fuel (legno, maize, pellets) termocamino and solar panel - no gas - so I had thought of planting up some quick growing firewood for future years...anyone know anything more about this? We are at 335 ft according to Google Earth. have 15 olives, a few figs - but mostly not particularly near the house and a few large cherry trees...again, not too near so what I thought to keep an easy-ish maintenance scheme at present is several bushy oleanders which I can allow to get quite big and a really long lavender hedge along the new strada bianca going up to the house. It's the lavender hedge which'll be the enormous job and which if I try and plant at a time of year when it'll need constant watering will be a nightmare! On top of this some apple and apricot trees, a walnut and hazelnut tree. Sadly I'm told peaches don't do well in our zone of the the Sabina. It's getting the time of year right on planting the various different plants...I'll head off down to a nursery and find out what bareroot stock they've got. I heard someone bemoan the quality of spades and forks in Italy...as we're driving out would we be advised to get some good quality ones here in the UK  or is this ridiculous?...I had thought Italian tools would be pretty reliable given the ortos that thrive around us!

Dear Panner, I am just re-reading this as I am clearer now about the likely 'structure' of my time next year as regards place of residence. Can I possibly PM you  to ask your advice please? I am meeting with a commercialista when we go out to Lazio at Christmas so I'm exhaustively trying to understand the different ways of looking at my residency. Certainly initially I won't get to even being in Italy for half a year and with all my income being from letting our home in the UK, am wondering, IVIE aside, if I won't even be classed as fiscally resident until 2014-15 whn I would be likely to be living in Italy for at least half or more of the year....

Thanks Fillide, I have already spent a few hundred in professional advise. But all it was was advice - not action - and quite frankly nothing that I didn't already know from this forum! And a warning to others...I thought at the time I was paying for a £80 phone call but it ended up being sent an invoice for nearly £300  as the accountant (who will remain anonymous as it may have been my total naivety!) put in his time for reading my email outlining our situation! I had thought an accountant understanding one's circumstances night have been the free bit and then one would pay for work if you felt they showed an understanding of your circumstances and offered to do what was needed to put you on the right track! Even yesterday I heard back from an Italian commercialista telling me council tax was an 'allowed deductable' from IVIE which goes against 50% of what others have said is the case! I think as soon as my plans have shaped up more definitively I'll just have to go to someone at that point! What I realise is that you can pay £100's for just an opinion which has about a 50% chance of being correct. At the end of a first phase of a year's renovating every € has to be carefully considered! 

Definitely not 'mendatious' and it might seem disorganised but it is what happens to families where one parent works in a job which requires you to be globally mobile and cannot predict when and where the next stop might be! Where we were 'disorganised' and 'naive' was not to understand how precisely the system works...despite several unanswered questions to the notaio etc... it seems we, and our architect/estate agent, were totally ignorant in not realising our purchase taxes would be based on the full (and fully declared I might add!) purchase price and not an assumed much lower catastal value which has made the resident/non-resident thing a much bigger issue for us than for many because the purchase taxes were really high in the first place! We have to start residency any way because the plan is for our child to go to the village school until we know what's next on the horizons...we'll just have to hope it lasts long enough to satisfy the tax office or that they don't chase us if we change country of 'residence' but keep our Italian home (which will be our permanent address)...or that they accept globally mobile EU workers just can't dictate how long they are contracted to work in any given country...All this info' has been really helpful though- thanks to all for your input!