Don’t forget to pay your registration tax Published Nov. 1, 2007 By Cristina Rossetto 31st Civil Engineer Squadron AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy -- In Italy, it is mandatory to register all rental contracts with the Inland revenue office within 30 days of signing a lease for a home. This procedure involves the payment of a registration tax, which is a 2 percent rate charge of the total yearly rent. The tax is to be paid every year, for the entire duration of a rental lease, and it is split between lessor and lessee. Customarily, the registration tax is paid in full by the landlord, who will claim half of it from his tenant. However, by law, both tenant and landlord are under the same legal obligation of registering the contract. If a landlord forgets to, or does not fulfill this legal duty, his tenant will have to follow through. Non-compliance by either party may result in a fine for both tenant and landlord. If your landlord does not claim half of the registration tax from you it might mean that he did not register the lease or that he simply forgot to ask you for refund. In the first case, it is advisable to remind him about it, so as to avoid a potential breach of the law. In the second case, your landlord will most likely claim all of the yearly registration taxes when you move out. In order to prevent a large tax bill when you are ready to outprocess, make sure you refund the tax to your landlord every year.