Previously we used a Commercialista to calculate our ICI -they charged us €30 each but we did use the SOGET website and the calculations came out the same. As it was our first time, we wanted to make sure we got it right, but our understanding is that the ICI has been abolished.

Are we right or are we being misinformed?

ICI has only been abolished for your "prima casa" and place of residence in Italy, providing it is not a "luxury property". For those of us who only have a holiday home, we still have to pay it and it is more of a nuisance because councils do not send us statements with instruction regarding how much and where (I think it is the post office) to pay.

We have made arrangements with a commercialista and our bank so that they take care of that on our behalf. I think that it costed us about 100 euros the first time to get it all organised and then about 25 yearly. It simply gives us peace of mind.

Thanks Gala for clarification - That makes sense now!

You can pay the ICI on line at

http://equitaliasestri.pagonet.it/pagonet/bollettino_versamento.asp

there isn’t an English version, but if your local ICI rate is unchanged from last year, [apparently mine is],  you can just copy what you wrote last year and pay with the credit card/

You can find out your ICI rate by visiting your Commune's website and looking for "Tariffe / Aliquote ICI"   [at least - you can on mine - and so I've showed it as a link so you can see the sort of info I get when I go into my local site]

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We have a house in the commune of Licciana - in the hills of Lunigiana. In many ways, the commune are still in the 1950s. However, all I do is go into the municipio with my property details and last year's ICI documents and they work out what I owe, produce a bill and I pay it with my credit card there in the office. I go twice a year, April and October. It has been €287 for the last three years now. Though I never like paying it, at least the process is painless - other than it takes about 15 minutes as they use mechanical adding machines with long handles on the side that you pull. They then print out your bill on a computer. Could only happen in Italy.

Gromit - could you explain what INAC stands for please.  I have googled it but it only came up with ENAC - italian aviation sites.  Thanks.

Thanks for the info - I am having a battle with the comune as I have been sent a "violation" notice for 2000 but I have paid it. already. Finally I have got the comune to cancel the "charge" for me and I hope they have told the collectors, Equitalia.  It took 4 Faxes including copies of the receipts of payment by me and my husband and several emails and phone calls - all from the UK.  However, my husband is not so lucky - as his violation notice was sent elsewhere - but we don't know where - we cannot get the charge cancelled as we do not have a copy of the cartella in his name -  even though I have provided the comune with the ref number, kindly given to me by Equitalia.  They were much more helpful than the comune but cannot cancel the charge without instruction from the comune.  I am going round and round in circles.  I am writing this listening to Magic Radio and - ironically the song they are playing is - Have a little patience!!

I used to work in local government in a reasonable sized UK city and if we had behaved in the way that the official at our local (tiny) comune has acted there would have been repurcussions and not good ones.  Having got that off my chest, and also having fired off an email back to the comune, I am feeling better.

We were told last year that we didn't have to pay our ICI as we only had the one house in Italy.  We do not live there full time

but  it is not a 'luxury property".  How do we find out whether we should pay or not this year? Would they send a reminder?

The local commune have done in the past but nothing last year.  Visits to the commune offices are a bit of a nightmare as nobody speaks English and our Italian is not good!

In simplistic terms - if you are not 'resident' in Italy, [lots of paperwork, and you have to live there for the majority of the year], you should pay ICI on the house

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 I agree with alan h. If you are not a permanent resident you have to pay ICI. If you have problems dealing with the Comune in Italian, perhaps you could find a local "commercialista" who could help.

I cannot believe it.  I took your advice Gromit to be a nuisance and it worked.  I spoke to Equitalia again yesterday and they told me that the comune should not need the cartella to annul my husband's violation.  I conveyed this by email to the comune and have just received a reply from the comune starting "Ci scusiamo" and they are going to annul both violations.  The moral is be persistent and eventually it pays off.

Our commune does not have a complaints procedure like the UK, but I have found that the "Sindaco" Mayor has some public sessions available each week.  Nothing like getting to the "chief honcho" himself/herself.  This individual is even more attentive and vulnerable near election time.  I have used this route to good effect to get major things done!

I have also found that a "coping strategy" for most situations is a must to relieve stress.  Part of my "coping strategy" for living in any bureaucratic community, particularly Italy, is to cultivate contacts.  It is not often what you know or what you are entitled to that matters, it is who you know.  Social networking helped me settled in the UK and is helping me now in Italy.

Italy has been described as a bureaucratic country.  True, its is a bit like the UK 30 years ago!  Bureaucracy in an organisation is synonymous with discipline, not many of us like it!  Anyboby who has read the UK Civil Service Accounting Manual, I came across it doing some charity work for Save the Children Fund in Uganda, will have found the mother of all bureaucratic documents!  Yet it worked, because staff were fully trained in its application.  All UK government and quasi government organisations have rules in the form of standing orders and accounting procedures.  Even my social club has one a book of rules!  The opposite of bureucracy is "laissez faire", which means fraud etc.  I suspect in Italy there is lack of training and add this to a culture that says that the client is here for the benefit of the professional, the government official, the doctor or anybody in authority and not the other way round then the result is obvious, frustration for the customer.  The professional/client relationship is epitomised by the fact that  one has to call a professional by what she/he does eg achitect so and so, engineer so and so. There is nothing wrong with that.  As immigrants, we need to understand how this impact on us as customers!  We cannot fight it we need to anticipate it and make it work for us.  I have seen Italians get round the bureaucracy with flattery and patronage (back to my second paragragh). In the UK I have always wondered why there is a need for a complaints department: now going under the name of customers services. I suspect a lot of the problem that customers and clients find in the UK comes from the fact that the rules have not been applied properly.  Anyway when in Rome!

 Thank you and Alan H for confirming what we suspected.  Our problem now is that we are in England and our friends who live in the area of our house in Italy have gone quiet since we asked for their help with payment of our ICI!! I have checked the rates and they haven't changed since the last time we paid so we know the amount due and I tried the payment on line site but the area seems to be restricted. Perhaps we could find a local  commercialista with a web site and do it that way? I wish we could set up a standing order through the bank and then there wouldn't be this worry every June.  

Post Deleted - Repetition of first post

[I really must learn to read what I post ed previously]

But suprised that the site was locked to you - no lock when I go to it     [is your 'pop-up blocker' messing your attempts up?]

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Can anyone tell me if ICI is calculated (and payable) per person or per property. In other words is there one calculation for the house or is it a personal obligation for me and another for my husband?

Can anyone tell me if ICI is calculated (and payable) per person or per property. In other words is there one calculation for the house or is it a personal obligation for me and another for my husband?

It depends who owns the property - its usually the two of you, so you both pay half.

I had the ownership registered to me alone - makes ICI and selling easier.