When you buy your first home, there are concessions, a sort of bonus that is used in the deed. However, these concessions may lapse if the conditions imposed by law are not respected. It is therefore important, remembers laleggepertutti.it, to be careful not to lose these concessions and avoid paying the penalties to the Revenue Agency. What is the first home bonus? The first home bonus is a tax advantage that allows you to take advantage of a large discount on taxes when buying home ownership, whether this is done through sale, donation or inheritance Thanks to the first home bonus: those who buy from a construction company pay VAT at 4% instead of 10%; moreover, the mortgage, land registry and registry taxes, instead of proportionally, are equal to 200 euros each; those who buy from a private person pay the registration tax at 2% instead of 9%; moreover, the mortgage and cadastral taxes, instead of proportionally, are equal to 50 euros each. How do you get the first home bonus? To obtain the first home bonus it is necessary that: – the property to be purchased is not registered in categories A / 1, A / 8 and A / 9. It must therefore be a residential house, therefore it cannot be land, a warehouse, an office, a shop and so on; – the buyer must transfer his residence to the same municipality (and not necessarily to the same address) where the property to be purchased is located. If this requirement does not already exist at the time of the deed, it can be fulfilled within the following 18 months; – the buyer must not be the owner (not even for shares) of other homes in the Municipality where the property to be purchased is located. Otherwise, they must be sold (sold or donated) before the deed; – the buyer must not be the owner (not even for shares) of another home, wherever located in Italy, for which he has already benefited from the first home bonus . Otherwise, it must be sold (sold or donated) within 1 year from the deed; – the property purchased must not be sold before the fifth year from the deed. However, if this should happen, in order not to forfeit the first home bonus, it is necessary to purchase, within 1 year, a new home that has the same characteristics as the first home listed here. must necessarily exist at the time of purchase of the property but which can also be respected at a later time, the first home bonus is lost in these cases: – if the residence is not transferred within 18 months of the deed; – if the ‘previous home listed as a’ first home ‘within 1 year of the deed; – if you sell the property before 5 years from the purchase without buying another one that meets the requirements of a first home. • Those who lose their first home bonus suffer the following consequences: – they are forced to pay the tax on the deed to the tax authorities (VAT, Registry, mortgage and land registry) in full; in practice, he will owe the difference between what he paid under the tax advantage and what he would have had to pay if he had not used it; in addition to this he will also have to pay the penalties equal to 30% of the aforementioned amount. How not to lose the first home bonus. new purchase. The law does not require that the residence be located in the same property purchased: it is sufficient that it is located within the boundaries of the same Municipality. Therefore, it is quite possible to fix the residence in another property (even if rented). This may be necessary, in order not to lose the first home bonus, if the one purchased has not been completed, if the renovation is taking a long time or if the tenant to whom the house was rented does not want to leave. The Supreme Court believes that the omitted transfer of residence can be justified – and therefore does not entail the forfeiture of the first home bonus – if due to force majeure: it must therefore be an unforeseeable cause. Such is not, for example, the difficulty in evicting the tenant occupying the property [1], failure to complete the property, the rejection of the request by the Municipality for uninhabitable property, but illegal occupation of the house by a third party and any other occurrence, unforeseeable and not attributable to the taxpayer. The previous home In order not to forfeit the tax advantage, it is then necessary to transfer ownership of the property, wherever located, for which the first home bonus was previously used. This must be done within 1 year of the deed. Those who fail to sell it, however, could also donate it to their child or, in the case of a couple in separation of assets, to their spouse. In fact, the sale is not necessary. Furthermore, in two cases it is possible to buy a second home without having to sell the first, again taking advantage of the tax breaks provided for by the law on the ‘first home’. This happens, first of all, when the house previously owned has become, in relation to the taxpayer’s needs, unsuitable for use; think of the case of a building that is in danger of being damaged by an earthquake or that is too narrow for the changing needs of the family (perhaps due to the arrival of the children) .The second case occurs when the previous home was purchased before 1993 by a company builder (read on the point Facilitations for the first home also on the second one). Resale If you sell your home before 5 years, you lose your first home bonus. However, the law allows you to avoid forfeiture if you sell your first home and buy another one within a year to be used as a main residence. It is also sufficient that, within the five years, another home is received by way of donation or inheritance. Therefore, the concessions on the first home must not be revoked if within 5 years of its purchase a property is sold and a property to be used as a first home is donated or inherited. 5 years is only about the sale and not the donation. This means that those who buy a house with the tax advantage and give it away before 5 years do not lose the bonus even if they do not buy back a new property within the following year. Of course, it must not be a simulated donation (read on Inheritance and donation: double first home benefit) In any case, if the taxpayer has sold the home purchased with the first home bonus before the age of 5 and does not intend to buy , within the following 12 months, another home to be used as a first home can send a specific application to the Revenue Agency within 12 months of the sale. Doing so will not incur penalties. The Revenue Agency will “re-settle” the taxes to be applied to the deed as if the taxpayer had never requested and benefited from the first home subsidy. In this way, the taxpayer will have to pay the tax difference to the Treasury but will avoid paying the fine.