karl1984

Hello all. First post.

We have been visiting Italy for many years. We have always had a dream of purchasing a home away from home and following a recent trip to Tuscany stumbled across a small village and house that we fell in love with. It meets our budget and location requirements perfectly. The property is in great condition so we don't have a lot of work to worry about.

We won't be moving to Italy and won't be using the property as a holiday let. We own a business which is successful and can work from anywhere so the plan is to work, rest and enjoy. Maybe blocks of three weeks at a time. We have previously done trial runs such as visiting Calabria for five weeks, establishing a base and working as well as enjoying the area so we are not going into this completely ignorantly. However it is clearly a risk with potential pitfalls. We do have two children although they are now young adults and they appreciate us not being there for a while!

Clearly there are perils in owning a home which will be unoccupied for a lot of the year. My Italian is more than passable and improving but as you all know, conversational Italian in England with fellow learners does not prepare you for local Italian conversation!

Apologies for the lengthy post. I wanted to provide some detail and answer the obvious questions first. What I am looking for is advice from others who have had a similar experience. What should I be most wary of? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you.
Karl

scrubbedexpat077

The house will be classified as "seconda casa" and the taxman will kill you. Not to mention that, if the voice spreads that you work form home, the "Fisco" will want you to pay personal and business income tax in Italy.

modicasa

Why would the taxman kill you? The purchase costs are higher and you will pay council tax on the house, but you will also get a reduction on your rubbish tax as you arent there permanently.

Seldomseenkid

We live part time in a small village in Lazio and it's fine. The atmosphere in a village is always different to the towns and cities, my neighbours are always helpful and at least in Tuscany there's a chance they won't speak an indecipherable dialect like they do here ;-)

Geordieborn

I too can't see why the tax man would kill you, unless you end up being in Italy more than 183 day in their tax year (Jan-Dec). Yes you would pay house tax, but I doubt that would be a great amount. I would be looking at getting back and forwards from the airport, flight security i.e. someone will always be flying there (assuming you will fly). I would guess Pisa, which should be okay, but who knows. Security could be a minor issue/worry, but you have that most places. As long as you don't mind these things or have them covered I think the only other more important factor is being able to tie money up in property in Italy. If you know how different the market is there and are happy with it all, it sounds an ideal life! Personally, we would get sick of the travel as we found even 3-4 times a year bad.
DTA link here might be useful.

karl1984

Thanks all. Some interesting advice.but it's not screaming "don't do it" to me. We usually do a roadtrip twice a year so we are ok with travel. If we can regularly be in a car together for many days then I am sure we can handle the odd two hour flight to Pisa. We are only fifteen or twenty minutes from East Midlands or Birmingham airports so we are well positioned.
Property cost and finance isn't an issue. We don't expect the benchmark for the Cadastral Tax to be more.than 60k and we understand it will be 9 percent. The property is small (2 X Matrimoniale) but cosy and the location and price are excellent.
We are not running a business from there. We will be getting involved but not selling or buying into and out of Italy so I can't see that being an issue but I will check.
Any other comments would be appreciated.

madmanonabike56

good luck with it, the language will be a definite advantage. My wife and I lived in rural France for 9 years, many ex-pats who were there longer never bothered to learn French, so never really fitted in, and they were permanent. I got stuck with lots of "traduction" but loved it. We are now looking to live in Lunigiana and will be classed as resident as we will be there for 7-8 months per year. Also have a flat in the UK for Winter living and we still work for 15 weeks a year in the UK. Ryanair have ran the Mids to Pisa flight for years, but that could end suddenly as did E Mids - La Rochelle, but the drive from Beeston, Nottingham to Tuscany is all part of the fun, and better than flying as you can pack in all those Italian treats on the way back !! In bocce al Lupo !! - John & Joy