IMU exemption for occupied properties is definitive, the conditions and clarifications

Is the IMU exemption in force for occupied properties? This is the question that many taxpayers are asking themselves as they await the implementation of the provisions regarding property taxes in the 2023 Budget Law.
Given the many doubts expressed by taxpayers, the Ministry of Economy is the one to give a definitive answer to this question and Finance with a note dated 12 December 2023, published in view of the Imu deadline of 18 December 2023.
Paragraph 81 of article 1 of the budget law for 2023, law 197 of 2022, provides for exemption from the payment of IMU for occupied properties.
This rule responds to the needs of many homeowners who have found their property occupied, have difficulty carrying out the eviction and at the same time have to pay taxes.
The IMU is the single municipal tax, the owners of buildings, building areas and agricultural land are required to pay it.
Among the most important exemptions is that for the first home, unless it is classified as "luxury".
Unfortunately, it has often happened to owners that their property has been occupied illegally and yet they have been asked to pay the IMU.
The typical case is that of a child who inherits a property in a different city from a parent and who finds himself not having the material availability of it because it is occupied illegally.
Protection has been thought of for this category of people, but this is subject to the occurrence of certain conditions.
Let's see in which cases there is Imu exemption for occupied properties.
IMU exemption for occupied properties, the IMU conditions for occupied properties Is it possible to claim the IMU exemption for occupied properties? Other cases of IMU exemption IMU occupied properties Paragraph 81 of Article 1 of the 2023 budget law dictates the rules for the IMU exemption.
The text establishes the conditions for claiming the exemption.
These must be properties that are neither usable nor available, for which a complaint has been submitted to the judicial authority in relation to the crimes referred to in articles 614, second paragraph, or 633 of the penal code or for whose abusive occupation a complaint has been submitted or initiated criminal legal action.
To obtain the IMU exemption for occupied properties it is necessary to notify the Municipality concerned that you meet the requirements for the exemption.
There is, however, a detail, paragraph 81 also provides that the Minister of Economy and Finance must, within 60 days of the entry into force of the 2023 budget law, issue an implementing decree to outline the electronic methods through which the taxpayer must communicate to the Municipality the persistence of the conditions for the IMU exemption for occupied properties.
However, months later, the decree never arrived, leaving taxpayers confused about what to do.
To remove doubts for taxpayers is the Ministry of Economy and Finance which, despite not having provided for the implementing decree, published an interesting note on 12 December 2023.
She underlines that the implementing decree concerns only the declaration form for the exemption of occupied properties.
Despite its absence, the tax must not be paid for illegally occupied properties, for which a complaint has been submitted to the judicial authority for the crimes provided for by the articles.
614, second paragraph, and 633 of the criminal code, or for which a complaint has been filed or criminal legal action has been initiated.
When the implementing decree with the related declaration form is published, interested taxpayers will have to submit the IMU declaration exclusively electronically by 30 June 2024.
Is it possible to claim the IMU exemption for occupied properties? Although up until 12 December 2023 there were still doubts about the applicability of the IMU exemption for properties occupied as early as 2023, there was still the possibility of obtaining protection, albeit through the courts.
In this regard, an important ruling can be cited.
In the case in question, a company that owns a property of approximately 8,000 square meters occupied illegally by approximately 150 people asks the Municipality for reimbursement of the IMU for the year 2013.
In response to the silent refusal by the Administration, it presents an appeal to the Provincial Tax Commission.
This partially accepts the appeal, recognizing not the right to reimbursement but to a 50% reduction in the taxable amount, as provided for unusable or uninhabitable buildings.
The Municipality appeals the sentence before the Regional Tax Commission which rejects and endorses the theory of the first instance judge, underlining that in the case in question there is no possession of the property.
The company has in fact demonstrated that it has taken the necessary actions to avoid abusive occupation through the use of private surveillance and by reporting the abusive occupation to the authorities.
Furthermore, in criminal proceedings, the investigating judge ordered the preventive seizure of the property, the execution of the eviction order was entrusted to Digos which attempted the eviction but had to give up as the Municipality is not in a position to provide accommodation for the occupants after their departure.
It is therefore recognized that the company has lost possession of the property.
The taxing body appeals to the Court of Cassation, while the taxpayer company turns to the ECHR, European Court of Human Rights, which condemned the Italian State to compensation for damages (ECtHR, sentence 67944/13/2019) for the failure execution of the preventive seizure ordered by the investigating judge.
There is a violation of the rules regarding the protection of property.
The Court of Cassation, however, with sentence dated 4 October 2018, n.
24198 (Civil Court of Cassation) underlines that in a State governed by law the public administration has the unavoidable obligation to implement jurisdictional provisions is such an obvious and elementary question that it seems to this Court even more than necessary to dwell on it further.
read also Imu with 50% discount for unusable properties, self-certification is enough Other cases of Imu exemption The first thing to underline is that, given the 2023 budget law, although the implementing decree is missing, many municipalities have decided to apply the IMU exemption for illegally occupied properties.
In any case it is always necessary to check the rules adopted by the Municipality in which the property is located.
The other cases of exemption are: first home; non-assigned spouse in the event of separation or divorce; rural buildings loaned to an agricultural entrepreneur; properties owned and managed by direct farmers and by Professional Agricultural Entrepreneurs (Iap); exemption for low amount.
read also Imu 2023, guide to house tax: who pays, how much and deadlines