The Minister of Tourism, Daniela Santanchéalso repeated from the event on Lake Maggiore the “thesis” according to which short-term rentals are characterized by a “Wild West” situation and announced yet another law to limit them.
In fact, in this industry the truth Wild West it is that of rules: municipal, regional, national and lastly also European. Limits, constraints, codes and now also the increase in taxes on owners. Let’s try to make a list of the latest interventions at national level only (to which the thousand regional and municipal provisions must be added):
- 2017: obligation to withhold tax on flat rate tax at source
- 2017: obligation to transmit data relating to stipulated contracts to the Revenue Agency
- 2017: obligation to apply the tourist tax, with related communications
- 2018: obligation, criminally sanctioned, to communicate the data of the residents to public security
- 2019: establishment of the database of properties intended for short-term rentals
- 2019: provision of an identification code for each property intended for short-term rental
- 2020: transformation of the owner into an entrepreneur in the case of rental of more than four real estate units intended for short-term rental
- 2022: possibility for the Municipality of Venice to limit the right to short-term rental
- 2023: increase from 21 to 26 percent of the flat rate tax from the second rented apartment
In this normative wild west there is a need for a sheriff, but for freedom. Actually, short-term rentals are a resource, not a problem. They are for the families who derive an income from them (useful for example to pay the IMU capital tax), they are for moving the economy, they are for giving more choice to people who travel (not just for tourism), they are for limit the effects of the soaring prices of hotel rooms, they are to revive our internal areas.
We can’t stand this witch hunt. And it is no consolation that it is a useless hunt, as happens every time politics deludes itself into thinking it can stop the wind.
Giorgio Spaziani Testa, 27 November 2023
The article Stop persecuting those who rent a house comes from Nicola Porro.