The Italian tourist-tax declaration (dichiarazione dell’imposta di soggiorno)

The legal basis is art. 4, comma 1-ter, of D.Lgs. 23/2011 and art. 180, comma 3, of D.L. 34/2020. Under art. 4, comma 1-ter, the gestore of the structure is responsible for paying the tax over to the comune and for the declaration, which is filed once a year and only electronically.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) publishes the declaration model, its instructions, the technical specifications of the file (version 3/2022) and a FAQ on its declaration page. The comune sets the rates, exemptions and caps; the model and the file format are the same everywhere, with one exception: the autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano are outside the national model (FAQ 29).

The general rule is the one above: the gestore of the structure declares. Short-term rentals (locazioni brevi) are the case the MEF FAQ of 19 September 2022 addresses in detail. For locazioni brevi under art. 4, comma 5-ter, of D.L. 50/2017, when an intermediary such as a platform collects the rent, the FAQ (answers 2, 3, 6 and 7) makes that intermediary responsible for remitting the tax and for declaring it. About those stays it says:

Mind the scope. Those answers concern locazioni brevi by private individuals outside a business activity (art. 4, comma 5-ter, D.L. 50/2017). For a structure run as a business, the gestore remains responsible (art. 4, comma 1-ter, D.Lgs. 23/2011). Which case applies depends on your legal status and on how each stay was booked and paid: settle it with your commercialista, not from this page.

Airbnb says it has collected and remitted the imposta di soggiorno in Italy since 15 February 2024, starting in about 1,200 comuni with the others to follow (Airbnb newsroom), and that it files the annual declaration for the stays it collected, while hosts still declare their other stays, such as direct bookings (Airbnb Help Center, article 2287). Which of your stays a platform actually collected is in its own reports: check them rather than assume.

Other points from the MEF FAQ that shape the numbers:

• An intermediary or mediatore that collects the payments lists every structure it manages, with one declaration per comune (FAQ 5).
• The period that counts is the night actually spent (FAQ 15).
• Presenze are persons multiplied by nights (FAQ 22).
• Nights beyond a comune’s maximum number of taxable nights are reported as exempt (FAQ 24).
• A year without presenze is still declared (FAQ 27).
• Business and non-business structures of the same gestore in one comune go in two linked transmissions (FAQ 28).
• The “dichiarazione multipla” is only for more than 1,500 structures in the same comune (FAQ 23).

The declaration travels as a fixed-length text file, supply code SOG00, not as XML. The MEF technical specifications, version 3/2022 define it. Every record is exactly 1,900 characters long:

• Record A: the header of the supply.
• Record B: the frontispiece, with the declarant’s data.
• Record C: one per structure. For each quarter of the year it carries the tax applied per night (up to three tariffs) and the presenze counted as ordinary, exempt or reduced.
• Record D: the payments made.
• Record E: notes.
• Record Z: the trailer that closes the file.

One declaration covers one comune, one tax year and one declarant. Before it is sent, the file is checked with the control software of the Agenzia delle Entrate, the “Controlli Dichiarazioni Varie” module in Desktop Telematico.

The declaration is transmitted electronically, either:

• by the declarant, with their own credentials for the Agenzia delle Entrate’s online services (Fisconline, for example through SPID); or
• by an intermediary authorised under art. 3, comma 3, of D.P.R. 322/1998, such as a commercialista, through Entratel.

The Agenzia delle Entrate also offers a free web application to fill in the declaration online.

Quadrarium computes the tax per stay from rules cited to an official source and checked by a person, reconciles it with what each platform collected, and prepares the SOG00 file together with a PDF audit pack that cites the source of every figure. You declare your status (who you declare as, and your legal form); Quadrarium never infers it. Based on the status you declare, it shows which stays the cited, human-verified rule assigns to the platform.

The SOG00 generator is in a design-partner pilot. Until a generated file passes the Agenzia delle Entrate’s control module, its output is test output, marked SAMPLE: do not submit it. Quadrarium never transmits a declaration; you or your commercialista do.

Rules are verified comune by comune, as customers need them: see which comuni are verified, or try the free calculator.