[ohmygosh]

Hi…I’m looking for advice about paying ICI. We own a small apartment in Abruzzo and live outside Italy (in the UAE now, Turkey by mid-August). For the past 2 years we’ve used a lawyer recommended by our estate agent to pay the ICI. It’s been about 80 Euros for the work, plus another 80 Euros or so for the tax. We’ve always just done it this way because we figure eventually we’ll be living there & be able to take care of it cheaply.

Last week, we got a note from the lawyer’s secretary:
Our office inform you that the rules regardind the obbligation to present the income tax return has changed during the last year; in fact people that lives abroad, and that own a property in Italy has to present whitin june 20- 2008, the income tax return and to pay tax but only if they are more that Euros 10.33.

Then the next day, we got another email:
Regarding our last e-mail we need to say exactly that for Italian tax law, each property has a tax value, and a yearly rent (called: rendita catastale); A property has a yearly rent even if it doesn’t produce any income or used only for holiday . To verify the yearly rent you can read on the notarial deed it’s value or on the land register certificate. As we said on our last e-mail from 2008, but regarding the year 2007, people that doesn’t have Italian citizenship, and have a property in Italy, have to present a tax form were they declare some information regarding the land register and the yearly rent (rendita catastale). Even if the yearly rent of Italian property it’s very moderate and there’s any tax to pay, It’s obligatory to write and present to the tax office a income-tax return.

And the price of the service has tripled (Euros 240) plus the price of the taxes.

So, what I’m trying to figure out is this:
1 – Is there some change/additional work that would require the price to triple? I haven't seen anything on the forums about this.
2 – Any ideas about getting this taken care of in a lower-cost manner? Unfortunately we won’t be in Italy before August (and the taxes are due June 20)?

Thanks much!!