Lake Como Property Managers: What the Law Asks

Who minds a Lake Como house when the owner is away?#

On Lake Como, the house is minded by whoever the owner has contracted, and Italian law asks different things of that person depending on what is done with the rent. The law has no single licence called property manager. It has roles, and each role has its own text. A mandatary acts for the owner under the Civil Code. An intermediary or portal that concludes a short let, or touches the payment, owes the Italian tax authority specific acts under Article 4 of Decree-Law 50/2017. A lessor of a short let owes the national identification code (CIN) under Article 13-ter of Decree-Law 145/2023.

This article reads those texts and nothing more. It does not say what any principal will pay or must declare, and it gives no tax or legal advice. The principal who holds a house on the lake from abroad should take a personal question to a professional in the country concerned. What follows is how the texts read, with the source and the grade of each figure.

The date of the reading matters, because the text is moving. As of 25 October 2026, Normattiva shows the version of Article 4 in force from 12 August to 31 December 2026, and the page for the version from 1 January 2027 shows most of the article repealed by Legislative Decree 117/2026. The final section sets out what was read and what was not.

The grades are the four of the Victaura method. A measured figure is counted or recorded by the source, and the legal texts here are graded that way because the text is the source. An industry estimate, a broker-reported figure and a directional figure are marked where they appear. The reader assumed is the allocator who holds an Italian asset at a distance, the kind profiled in Lake Como buyers, reading the shares, and who asks the question an underwriter asks of an operating counterparty. Who holds the money, and what do they owe on it?

What is a mandate under Article 1703 of the Italian Civil Code?#

A mandate, under Article 1703 of the Civil Code, is the contract by which one party undertakes to perform one or more legal acts on behalf of the other. That is the whole definition, and it is short. The mandatary is the person who acts. The mandante is the person for whom the act is done. Collecting a rent, signing a guest booking, paying a utility bill and filing a notice are legal acts. Cleaning a room is a service and sits elsewhere in the Code.

Articles 1704 and 1705 split the mandate in two. In a mandate with representation, the mandatary acts in the name of the principal. In a mandate without representation, the mandatary acts in its own name, and the Code treats the rights and obligations towards third parties as the mandatary's own, with the principal reaching them through a further step. A manager who signs guest contracts in its own name is, on the face of it, in the second position.

The question for the absent owner is who the counterparty is. In a mandate without representation, the guest's contract is with the manager. The tax text in Article 4 does not turn on that label. Circular 24/E of 12 October 2017 says the scope of the rules is set by the cause of the contract and not by the right the person holds over the property (measured, Agenzia delle Entrate, section 1).

The mandate also carries a duty to account. Article 1713 requires the mandatary to render an account of the work done to the principal and to hand over what was received because of the mandate. For a manager who collects guest payments, that article is the civil-law counterpart of the tax duties that follow. The tax text asks what the manager did with the money, and the Code asks the same of the manager towards the owner.

Who counts as an intermediary under Article 4 of DL 50/2017?#

Under Article 4 of Decree-Law 50/2017, an intermediary is anyone who carries on real-estate intermediation or runs an online portal that connects people seeking a property with people who hold units to let. Comma 1 defines the contract these intermediaries serve. A short let is a lease of a residential property of no more than 30 days, including one that carries the supply of linen and cleaning, signed by an individual outside a business, directly or through such an intermediary (measured, Normattiva text).

Circular 24/E of 12 October 2017 reads the scope wide. The Agenzia delle Entrate says the duties fall on everyone through whom short-let contracts are made, beyond the estate agents registered under Law 39/1989, such as those who habitually, and not necessarily exclusively, offer technical or IT tools to bring supply and demand together. The legal form, the residence and the online or offline mode of the intermediary are irrelevant (measured, circular 24/E, section 2.1).

A manager who only introduces a guest is treated differently from a manager who closes the booking. The circular says the data duty arises where the guest accepted the proposal through the intermediary, or through the online offer. Where the lessor uses the intermediary only to advertise and the guest accepts directly with the lessor, the intermediary has only brought the parties into contact and is not required to communicate the contract data (section 2.2.1).

The duties follow the chain of instruction. The circular gives the case of an agency instructed by the owner that lists the unit on an online platform. The agency is the party to communicate the contract data if the contract is concluded through the platform, because the platform renders its service to the agency and not to the lessor. The agency must make its role explicit to the platform, so that the platform does not act. Where an intermediary delegates collection to third parties, the withholding, certification and data duties stay in the name of the delegating party (sections 2.2 and 2.2.2).

What must a Lake Como manager withhold when collecting a short-let rent?#

Where a manager collects the rent or intervenes in the payment, comma 5 of Article 4 makes that manager a withholding agent. The text says resident intermediaries and portal operators who collect the rents, or intervene in their payment, withhold as sostituti d'imposta a 21 per cent advance on the amount of the rents and consideration at the moment of payment to the beneficiary, and pay it over under Article 17 of Legislative Decree 241/1997 (measured, Normattiva text in force 12 August to 31 December 2026).

The base is the gross amount stated in the contract. Circular 24/E says the withholding applies to the gross rent or consideration, that penalties, caution money and deposits are outside it, and that flat charges for accessory services are inside it. Costs borne directly by the guest, or re-billed by the lessor at actual cost, stay out. A commission counts only if the intermediary deducts it from the rent due to the lessor (measured, circular 24/E, section 2.2.2).

The text sets a payment date and a certification. The circular says the withholding is paid by the 16th of the month after the one in which it was made, and that the certification under Article 4 of Presidential Decree 322/1998 also discharges the data communication. The tax code 1919 was created for payment on the F24, the Italian tax payment form, by Resolution 88/E of 5 July 2017 (measured, circular 24/E).

Some payment channels fall outside the duty. Where a guest pays by cheque made out to the lessor, the intermediary has no material availability of the money and is not required to withhold, even if it hands the cheque over. Banks, payment institutions and digital payment providers that carry out no intermediation are not required to withhold either (measured, circular 24/E).

The sanction is named, and its amount was not found on an official text. The circular says that failure to withhold is punished under Article 14 of Legislative Decree 471/1997, with voluntary correction available under Article 13 of Legislative Decree 472/1997. Normattiva also marks a sentence of comma 5 as suppressed by Law 213/2023, and what it said was not read.

What data must an intermediary report on Italian short lets?#

Where the manager brings about the contract, comma 4 asks for the contract data by 30 June of the following year. The tax authority's measure of 12 July 2017 (protocol 132395/2017), in its Article 3, lists the data as the lessor's name, surname and tax code, the duration of the contract, the gross amount and the address of the property. Contracts for the same property and the same lessor may be communicated in aggregate form (measured, circular 24/E, section 2.2.1).

The sanction for failing to report has a stated range. Circular 24/E says an omitted, incomplete or untrue communication is punished under Article 11, comma 1, of Legislative Decree 471/1997, with a sanction of €250 to €2,000, halved if the correct data go in within fifteen days of the deadline. That range is the 2017 reading, and the current text of Article 11 was not reopened for this article (measured as stated in 2017, not re-verified).

The text protects the intermediary from the lessor's errors. The circular says the intermediary must ask for the data the measure requires but need not verify them. Responsibility for their truth sits with the lessor, and an incomplete or wrong communication caused by the lessor's conduct is not sanctionable against the intermediary. The intermediary must also keep the elements behind the data, and the payment records, for the period in Article 43 of Presidential Decree 600/1973 (circular 24/E, sections 2.2 and 2.3).

A manager based outside Italy is covered by the same duties. Comma 5-bis says non-residents with a permanent establishment in Italy act through it. In the text in force in 2026, non-EU residents with no permanent establishment in a member state appoint a tax representative, chosen under Article 23 of Presidential Decree 600/1973, as responsabile d'imposta, the party answerable for the tax, while EU residents with no permanent establishment in Italy may comply directly or appoint one. The circular says that wording is meant to avoid the inference that carrying out the duties creates a permanent establishment (measured, Normattiva and circular 24/E, section 2.4).

Mandate or sublease, and why the label changes the duty#

Article 4 treats a sublease like a lease, and that changes who the lessor is. Comma 3 extends the same rules to gross receipts from subleases, and from onerous contracts by a comodatario, the borrower of a property on loan, under which third parties enjoy the property, stipulated on the conditions of comma 1. Circular 24/E says the scope is set by the cause of the contract and not by the right the person holds over the property (measured).

A manager who takes the house on a lease and lets it on stands in the lessor's position, and a manager who acts for the owner does not. The Civil Code allows a sublease unless the contract provides otherwise (Article 1594). Comma 3 covers a sublease only on the conditions of comma 1, which include a lessor who is an individual outside a business, so a manager that sublets in the course of a business does not meet them. The mandate of Article 1703 has the manager acting on the owner's behalf. The tax text asks what the contract is, so the two structures meet different duties, and the management agreement is the place where the structure is written down.

The circular says what a sublease does to the income. It states that the sublease keeps its income qualification, and that the person who holds the real right keeps the land income, so the declaration duties of the parties do not change (circular 24/E, sections 3.1 and 3.2). It does not say, in the pages read, how the withholding works where a sublessor both lets and collects. That case was not found.

For the allocator the point is a reading rule. The label in the agreement does not decide the duty. What the manager signs, in whose name, and who receives the guest's money decide it.

What does the CIN ask of a Lake Como manager?#

The CIN is a national code that the Ministry of Tourism assigns through an automated procedure, and Article 13-ter of Decree-Law 145/2023 attaches duties to it. The code covers residential units let for tourist purposes or as short lets, and hotel and extra-hotel establishments. The request is made online by the lessor or the holder of the establishment, with a substitute declaration on the cadastral data (measured, Normattiva text current from 1 January 2025).

The code must be shown twice. Whoever offers or lets a unit displays the CIN outside the building, within any planning and landscape constraints, and states it in every advertisement. Estate intermediaries and portal operators must state it in the advertisements they publish or communicate, and must respect the regional sector rules.

The text adds safety and licensing duties. All units must have working gas and carbon-monoxide detectors and portable extinguishers, at least one per floor and one for every 200 square metres of floor area or fraction. A unit let on a business basis files a SCIA, the certified notice of start of activity, with the municipal one-stop shop (SUAP).

The sanctions are set in ranges, and they were read on the statute. Comma 9 gives €800 to €8,000 for a unit offered without a CIN, €500 to €5,000 for failing to display or state it, €600 to €6,000 for each missing detector or extinguisher requirement, and €2,000 to €10,000 for a business let without a SCIA. The first, second and fourth ranges vary by size of the unit, and the third applies to each violation found. The municipality checks and sanctions through the local police and keeps the proceeds (comma 11). Press reports of other ranges did not match the text (measured).

The duties apply from the sixtieth day after a Gazzetta Ufficiale notice that the database and the Ministry portal are working (comma 15). Whether a manager may request the CIN on the lessor's behalf was not found in the text read, which speaks of the lessor or the holder.

What does DAC7 add to the picture?#

DAC7 is the name for Directive (EU) 2021/514 of 22 March 2021, which amends Directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation in tax. It makes platform operators collect and report information on the sellers who use them, and the activities covered include the rental of immovable property. Member states then exchange the information automatically (directional, summarised from secondary sources and not re-read on the EUR-Lex text).

The summaries date the rules from 1 January 2023, with first reports due by 31 January 2024. The dates were read in KPMG's Euro Tax Flash 503 and not re-read on the EUR-Lex text, so they are directional here.

Italy transposed the directive by Legislative Decree 32/2023, published in Gazzetta Ufficiale no. 72 of 25 March 2023 and in force from 26 March 2023. Normattiva titles it as the implementation of Directive 2021/514 (measured). The duty sits on the platform operator, so a manager is within it only if the manager runs a platform.

For an owner abroad the effect is on visibility. Data on a Lake Como let reported by a platform reaches the Italian tax authority, and the directive's automatic exchange can carry it onward to other member states. That is how the mechanism reads, and it is a statement about no person's position.

The Italian text itself has moved. On the Normattiva page for Decree 32/2023, Article 1 shows as repealed by Legislative Decree 141/2026 of 5 August 2026 in the text in force from 1 January 2027. That decree approves a consolidated code on filings and assessment (Gazzetta Ufficiale no. 181 of 6 August 2026, in force 7 August). That code has a section on the information exchange of platform operators in Articles 210 to 226. The page does not name DAC7, so the match is not confirmed.

How is the Italian short-let text moving in 2026?#

Legislative Decree 117/2026 approved a consolidated income-tax code, and short lets have a place in it. The decree is dated 19 June 2026 and was published in Gazzetta Ufficiale no. 152 of 3 July 2026 (Supplement 26), in force from 4 July 2026. Its article tree has a chapter on the tax regime of short lets at Articles 207 and 208 (measured, Normattiva).

Article 207, as reproduced by a legal publisher, repeats the lessor-side rules. It defines a short let as 30 days or less, sets the cedolare secca, the flat substitute tax on rent, at 26 per cent with 21 per cent for one property designated in the return, and recognises the regime only for no more than two apartments per tax year, with a presumption of business activity beyond that, from tax year 2026. Measured as statutory text, read only on a secondary reproduction because the Normattiva page did not show the article text.

Article 208 carries the intermediary duties, and its text was read only on a secondary reproduction. Its title is “Adempimenti per i soggetti che esercitano attività di intermediazione immobiliare”. The same legal publisher reproduces commi 1 to 6, with the contract-data return by 30 June of the following year and a 21 per cent withholding on account by intermediaries that collect the rent or intervene in the payment (measured, statutory text read through a reproduction).

The Normattiva page for Article 4 shows two versions. The text in force from 12 August to 31 December 2026 is the one used here. The version from 1 January 2027 shows commi 1, 2, 3, 5, 5-bis, 6 and 7 repealed by Legislative Decree 117/2026, commi 4 and 5-ter partly repealed, and only the sanction sentences of commi 4 and 5-ter, with comma 7-bis, remaining. A note cites Article 12, comma 9, of Legislative Decree 147 of 7 August 2026, under which "the provisions of commi 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8" apply to violations committed from 1 January 2027, without naming the article those commi belong to.

The honest reading is that the duties are being relocated, and the point of arrival was not fully read. As of 25 October 2026, the withholding and reporting rules of Article 4 are the text in force. Where they sit from 1 January 2027 depends on Article 208 and the transitional notes, which a principal's adviser should read in full. Price levels on the lake sit apart from all this, and the official figures are in Lake Como prices, what the official data shows.

What should a principal establish about a Lake Como manager?#

A reading of the texts yields a short list of facts to establish about any manager, and the list is not advice. It is the list an underwriter would draw from the sources above, and it applies to a counterparty and not to a person's tax position.

Who signs the guest contract, and in whose name? Under Article 1705, a mandatary who acts in its own name acquires the rights and assumes the obligations towards third parties. Article 1713 requires the mandatary to account to the principal. The management agreement should show which structure applies, and the tax text follows the structure.

Who touches the money? Where the manager collects or intervenes in the payment, comma 5 puts the 21 per cent withholding, the payment by the 16th and the certification on the manager. Where a bank or payment provider alone moves the money, the circular says that provider does not withhold.

Who holds the CIN, and who displays it? The text names the lessor or the holder as the applicant. An intermediary that publishes the advertisement must state the code, and a listing without it is an observable fact.

Who receives the certification and files the data return? The circular says the certification discharges the data communication, and it lists the cases where a lessor must settle the tax in the return, among them where no withholding was suffered (section 3.2). The 21 per cent is an advance, and comma 2 now sets a 26 per cent cedolare rate, so the amount withheld need not equal the tax due.

Where the reading is thin, honestly disclosed#

The first weakness is that the successor text was not fully read. Articles 207 and 208 of the new income-tax code were read only on a secondary reproduction, and the mapping of Legislative Decree 141/2026 to the old DAC7 decree is not confirmed by the page. The direction of travel is documented, and the destination is not.

The second is age. Circular 24/E dates from 12 October 2017. It predates the change made by Law 213/2023 to comma 5 and the 26 per cent cedolare rate now in comma 2, and the sanction range for the data duty is the 2017 reading of Article 11 of Legislative Decree 471/1997, not re-verified. The amount of the sanction for failing to withhold was not found.

The third is the Civil Code. Article 1703 was confirmed across several reproductions of the Code. The official Normattiva copy of the Code loaded only in part, so Articles 1594, 1704, 1705 and 1713 are stated as the Code is generally known and were not re-read there.

The fourth is scope. The texts read do not say whether a CIN request can be delegated, nor how withholding works where a sublessor both lets and collects. The DAC7 dates come from secondary summaries. Press reports of other CIN sanction amounts do not match Normattiva, and the Normattiva reading was preferred. Nothing here is a tax or legal opinion on any property or any person.

Skin in the game disclosure. Victaura, through its parent Greystone B.V. (Netherlands), develops projects on Lake Como (Italy), in Nungwi, Zanzibar (Tanzania), on Gili Air and in Uluwatu, Bali (Indonesia), and holds an off-plan capital position on Al Marjan Island, Ras Al Khaimah (UAE). Readers should assume commentary may be influenced by, or benefit, these positions. This document is classified as marketing material under MiFID II Article 24(3). It is not investment advice.