Gtres
Gtres

With sentence 5294/2020, the Provincial Tax Commission in Rome has established that in the case of abusive possession of a property, IMU (Municipal Property Tax) is to be paid by those illegally occupying the property and not by the owner. 

According to the Provincial Tax Commission in Rome, if the owner is able to prove "that they have been dispossessed of the property", then the right of ownership alone is not the prerequisite for which the tax is due.

In the case in question, the Provincial Tax Commission in Rome expressed its opinion on the case of the former Formula 1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella, who - as pointed out by newspaper Italia Oggi who examined the matter - had lodged an appeal "against the silent refusal formed following the submission of the IMU refund application to the Municipality of Formello for the years 2012 to 2017, and the Provincial Tax Commission accepted it".

The driver had presented a refund request to ask for the refund of the tax paid from 2012 to 2017 "following the illegal occupation of the villa he owned in Formello".

As pointed out by Italia Oggi, according to the jurisprudence of legitimacy, "in order for there to be preservation of possession, it is necessary that the owner has the possibility to restore material contact with the property ad libitum, with the consequence that if this possibility is in fact precluded by others or by an objective situation of the property, the intentional element alone is not sufficient for the preservation of the possession itself, which is lost in the very moment in which the availability of the property ceases". (Cassation no. 9226/2005 and no. 1723/20 16)".

By demonstrating Fisichella to have been deprived of the material availability of the property, the only owner for the years 2012-2017 of a form of possession of the property was found to be the occupant of the property, and consequently also a passive subject of IMU itself.

Article seen at: L'Imu è dovuta da chi occupa l'immobile (Italia oggi)