The new land registry reform has not yet been launched but is already arousing doubts, criticisms and opposition. Corrado Sforza Fogliani, president of Confedilizia, a trade association that represents the interests of homeowners, took the plunge arguing that "the future of taxes on Italian homes is being decided in these days, on the basis of the needs of an omnivorous taxman , which increasingly increases its claims”. In his opinion "what is happening is a cadastre of algorithms, which in the experiences of other countries has led to substantial margins of error in the determination of values". The president of Confedilizia highlights the fact that algorithms of this type usually err by "excess to the detriment of those who have to pay taxes on the house. For this reason, in the countries where this system has been used, the results have been decreased by 25-30% as a precaution".
With the new cadastre, the municipalities will provide the information needed to calculate the asset value of category A, B and C properties that the land agency offices are unable to verify. THE cadastral values they will be calculated considering the reality of the market and therefore the identification of the sales and rental values of the properties will take place on the basis of the square meters and no longer of the cadastral rooms. The calculation will be carried out using statistical functions that take into account a series of parameters such as the year of construction, the state of maintenance, the floor on which the apartment is located, the exposure, the view, the presence or absence of lift, the type of heating, the state of maintenance of the building.
The other novelty that the Government is thinking of introducing concerns theopening of census commissions (who will have the task of validating the new cadastral income) to the representatives of the real estate sector. Lastly, the owners will be able to protect themselves from decisions taken by the administration which they deem inadequate, using the self-protection mechanism or appeals to the tax commission or to the Tar.
However, the new algorithm has raised some technical concerns. The first relates to the criterion to be adopted to determine the state of maintenance of the building which is impossible to determine with any a priori estimate. The second problem concerns the data to be used for the calculation: in the absence of market values, in fact, the average of the three-year period preceding the entry into force will be used. If this were to happen in the short term, there would be the risk of overestimating the home. The last criticism concerns a substantial aspect, namely the possibility of a sharp increase in taxes. In Milan, for example, the value of an average house for Imu purposes would increase by 35,8% and by 97,5% for purchase purposes. In Rome the values are respectively 44,7% and 110,2% while in Naples it would reach 247,3%.
