The picture has changed, and not everyone has noticed
On short lets the Italian flat tax, the cedolare secca, is 26%, reduced to 21% on the income from one property of your choice per tax year, picked by you in your annual return. So: one home, 21%. Two homes, 21% on the one you choose and 26% on the other. From the third flat put to short letting, the activity is presumed to be a business (Law 199/2025, art. 1 para. 17) and you leave the regime, flat tax included. A 30% rate does not exist, and never has.
That is the part that matters. The rest of this guide explains how the threshold is counted, what the tax is really calculated on, and when the flat tax is not the best answer, because those are the three points I see people get wrong most often.
1. What the flat tax is, in two lines
The cedolare secca is a substitute tax: you pay a fixed percentage on the rent you collect, and that income leaves the ordinary income tax system, along with regional and municipal surcharges, registration tax and stamp duty. You choose it year by year in your return, and this year's choice does not tie your hands next year.
It applies to contracts of no more than 30 days signed by individuals outside a business activity, including those that provide linen and cleaning of the property, which is why an ordinary holiday home fits inside it without any trouble.
2. The 2026 rates, and why 30% does not exist
Owner groups have been passing around a ladder of rates that climbs home after home, with a third and a fourth band. That ladder does not exist, and the reason is simple: from the third flat there is no short-let regime any more, so there is no flat tax left to apply. The two things are alternatives, not steps on the same staircase. Anyone showing you rising rates above 26% is describing a system that was never written into any law.
| Flats | Regime | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | flat tax at 21% | substitute tax, elected in the annual return |
| 2 | 21% on one of your choice, 26% on the other | the unit at 21% is designated every year |
| 3 or more | outside the regime: a business is presumed | business structure and SCIA to the municipality |
Until 31 December 2025 the threshold was four flats: the 2026 budget law brought it down to two. Owners with three homes, who had never had to think about it, are in a different position this year.
3. Which property to put at 21%
If you have two homes on short lets, the choice is yours and it lasts one year. There is only one practical rule: put the higher annual rent at 21%, because the five point saving then applies to a bigger base. Written down it sounds obvious, but the choice is made in the spring of the following year: if you have not kept the numbers split home by home, you end up choosing by feel. That is why I insist on separate bookkeeping per property from January onwards, as I explain in the guide on how much a home really earns.
4. How the threshold is counted (this is where it goes wrong)
The threshold counts the flats put to short letting during the tax year, not the properties you own. That is an enormous difference: an owner with four homes, two of them on long-term contracts, has two on short lets and stays under the threshold.
The second point is that counting is per taxpayer. A property held in 50% co-ownership counts as one unit for each co-owner, not as half a unit. Two siblings who jointly own three homes on short lets have three units each.
From here the casuistry gets thicker: usufruct and bare ownership, loan for use, spouses under community of property, homes bought or sold halfway through the year. I stop here on purpose, because the answer depends on the details of your case and not on a general rule: what you need is not me, it is an accountant looking at your title documents. If you want, we will arrange that conversation with ours.
5. The taxable base is the full rent
The tax applies to the full amount of the rent stated in the contract, without the 5% flat deduction that applies to ordinary tenancies. Any lump sum charged for ancillary services goes into the taxable base too.
The only amounts left out are costs paid directly by the guest and those you recharge on the basis of actual expenditure. In practice: utilities passed on at cost stay out, a flat rate "service package" does not. This is where owners doing their own sums go wrong most often, because they deduct from the rent everything they have spent. The tourist tax is a different matter altogether: it is not your revenue. You collect it from the guest and pay it over to the municipality, so it passes straight through and never enters the taxable base.
6. The 21% withholding when an intermediary collects
When the rent is collected by an intermediary, whether that is us or a platform, the intermediary acts as a withholding agent and applies 21%, always on account, whatever regime you have chosen. There is no 26% withholding: the 2024 budget law fixed a single rate precisely so that the intermediary does not need to know which regime you have elected.
Do not confuse a withholding with the tax itself. The withholding is an advance: in your return you work out the tax due and pay the balance, offsetting what has already been taken. If you have two homes and pay 26% on the second, the 21% withheld during the year does not settle the account, and you pay the difference yourself. If instead you give us a VAT number, no withholding applies at all.
7. Using a manager does not change your rate
During the 2026 budget debate a distinction was proposed: the reduced rate only for owners letting on their own, the full rate for those going through platforms or intermediaries. It was not approved. The Revenue Agency guidance says plainly that it is irrelevant whether the contract is concluded directly by the owner or through a party carrying on real estate intermediation or running an online platform.
Let me put it flatly, with nothing to sell you: working with us does not save you tax and does not cost you more tax. Your rate is the same either way. If anyone tells you otherwise, in either direction, they are improvising.
8. When the flat tax does not pay
It nearly always does, but it is not automatic. The flat tax lifts that income out of ordinary income tax: if your total income is low and you sit in the first band, the ordinary rate can be close to or below 21%, and the advantage thins out.
Then there is a less visible effect: once the income leaves the ordinary system, it can no longer absorb deductible expenses and tax credits. If you have a lot of deductible spending and not enough taxable income to cover it, part of it is lost. That is not a small point for anyone who has renovated and is writing the works off over ten years. It is not a sum you do by instinct, and it comes out differently for two owners with an identical home.
When these figures were last checked
This guide was last updated in August 2026 and reflects the 2026 budget law, which lowered the apartment threshold to two. Rates and thresholds change by law, almost always at year end: check the current position before choosing your regime in the tax return. We manage homes, we do not give tax advice: the calculation on your own case is your accountant's.
Read these next
- CIN: what it is, how to get it, what you risk without itThe other 2026 obligation, with fines that start at 800 euro.
- Short let or long let: how to decideThe comparison is made on the net figure, not on the gross rent.
- What you need to start: paperwork, safety, equipmentEverything that has to be in order before the first booking.
- Tourist tax: who collects it and who pays it overWhy it is not your revenue and never enters the taxable base.
- All the owner guidesEight guides on tax, obligations, returns and management.
Want to know what changes for your home? Ask for the free valuation: we will tell you where you stand against the threshold and, if it helps, put you in touch with our accountant. The page for owners explains how we work.