½ûÂþÌìÌÃ

I know your link will supply loads of genuinely desirable 'unobtainbables' - but fish fingers are rife in ordinary ½ûÂþÌìÌà supermarkets! You can get salmon ones, and everything else Findus, but the best (IMO) are the solid fish ones from Eurospin. Half the price (or less) of Findus but quite as good. Give them a whirl if they are your (or your kids) passion - I keep 18 (Eurospin fish fingers) or so in the freezer for when I've forgotten/can't be bothered/need to feed.

Thanks for clearing that up - it did seem most odd. The paragraph in the agenzia giude to compravendita di casa which made me jump is the following.   Dal 1° gennaio 2007 ( per effetto della legge finanziaria per il 2007), per le vendite di immobili ad uso abitativo (e relative pertinenze) effettuate nei confronti di persone fisiche che non agiscano nell'esercizio di attività commerciali, artistiche o professionali, la base imponibile ai fini delle imposte di registro, ipotecarie e catastali può essere costituita dal valore catastale dell’immobile, anziché dal corrispettivo pagato. Questa regola nel 2006 era ammessa , invece, a condizione che entrambe le parti fossero dei privati.   I probably didn't pick up a double negative.

Rachel, you may have read Ram's information directed at the Hallams as referring to your situation. You paid your taxes on the purchase price because you are a musician. The percentages which Ram quotes should enable you to get a ball-park figure for what you would need to 'repay' (on the purchase tax) if you decide not to take up residence within the eighteen month period. Your situation is complex and you need an accountant to look at all the options with full knowledge of your present and future circumstances. Maybe minimizing your potential future tax liability is the most important thing in your life - but often arranging your life to this sole end is a bad idea!

If you are a private person buying a house (inclluding the garage and small garden etc) then you can usually elect to pay the tax on the declared value, or the catastal value. The latter is usually the most economical route, although you still need to declare the full purchase price paid. However, this option is not available for the purchase of terreno, and is not available if you are a company. To my utter amazement, my understanding, reading the guide from the agenzie delle entrate, is that a person who is professionally engaged in an artistic  role (which would include a musician) does not have the option of paying the tax on the catastal value.  Hopefully Ram will either know this already, or look it up and tell me if I'm wrong!

This chap comes highly recommended, although I don't know if he is reasonably priced!

I'm not suggesting that you go in for a permission for a chicken shed, and turn it into an apartment block! I agree, that if things have changed (relatively minimally) then you have to go in for ONE variante, when the house is finished, which covers all the mind changes which have occurred along the way. You then get it visited by the comune, signed off as all corect, tidy up the catastal stuff and you are entirely in the clear. It seems to me that this is the sort of scenario the original poster is asking about, and it doesn't seem unreasonable to me that his architect is being relatively laid back about details. I have said from the outset that he should be guided by his professional - and given that the volume, footprint and structural design is not changed from the original permission then I don't think panic stations are called for!

If you are within the eighteen month period, I'd think very hard about whether it would not be more economical for you to pay the higher tax rate on the house purchase, and not to become resident. This is an option available to you, and does not incur any fines. Only when you have become resident (by registering yourself on the anagrafe of the comune) do you become liable for IMU on your British property by default, and enter the ½ûÂþÌìÌà tax system for worldwide income. If you are genuinely not resident (ie spend more than 183 days outside Italy) then you simply do not enter into the ½ûÂþÌìÌà tax system. You will have to pay IMU on your Ligurian property (and at a higher rate than if you were resident). When you are genuinely resident here then your house will become de-facto your prima casa. You won't get the purchase tax back, but everything else will be the same as if it were bought as prima casa.

Oh dear - eat my heart out - we don't have joiners capable of doing such a nice roof here in my bit of Tuscany! But it is horses for courses, and (where I am) using timber (rather than bricks) between the rafters doesn't happen - it's a tradition where there is timber available locally, and I suppose this means you get craftsmen accustomed to doing 'proper' joinery when they see wood. Rejoice (and use the same workmen for anything else involving wood). I don't understand why you are describing that internal timber lintel as 'Tuscan', and being nervous about it as 'untypical' for Liguria. I bet you can find many identical lintels in Liguria (only that most of the books about ½ûÂþÌìÌà interiors are written by Tuscany based people!) If you like that aesthetic (attractive IMO) I can see absolutely no reason why any architect should dissuade you from it on the basis of your region - and if you have just made this reluctance to use timber lintels yourself, then I think you are mistaken. Make a careful study of internal doors, and the way you hang them (whether they use a timber frame or not) because using timber lintels over 'conventionally' framed modern doors does look pretty daft. The mega trad way of hanging a door into masonry under a timber lintel is just about undraughtproofable - but if this isn't a consideratiion it is certainly (IMO) the best minimalist/trad solution.

That comment is not far off, but I think that the 'old school tie' in the UK is less endemic than the commonality of the 'political classes' (in both Italy and UK) - thus the parallel with the ½ûÂþÌìÌà system is quite reasonable, but it doesn't split across 'party lines', either in Italy or the UK. (IMO) Basically, with a very few honourable exceptions (and I'm beginning to doubt Beppe Grillo) any politician anywhere in the world is an untrustworthy lying bustard. However, the organised criminal 'families' in Italy are a more pervasive evil, affecting parts of society well outside the political, (which is not to say they don't exert a forceful and evil influence over the political scene), but it goes so much further in terms of affecting everyday lives that there is nothing comparable (today) in the UK to 'the mafia' (using shorthand here). One could argue that the Krays, in the east end of London in the 70s, played an analogous role (to the mafias) - and there are people who would argue (possibly quite persuasively) that the Kray family was rather better at retaining laura norder than has been the Met. If your 'family' is acknowledged as corrupt, and rulers, then that's a given, and we are foolish if we believe that a police force will be lily white. It's about human nature - but I don't believe that the vast majority of the population want to put up with the mafias (or the Krays) so it is defeatist to just shrug your shoulders and say 'it was ever thus'. (That sounds a bit Shakespearian - and I imagine it was just the same when he was around!) So yes, I agree that encouraging people to sign the avaaz petition can easily be dismissed as an idealistic hope, but it isn't as if it can do any harm. If the support which the petition gained encouraged even one Palermo patisseria to stop paying protection money, that is a good thing.

Now, taking account of my caveats about vincoli, and suggesting you follow your geometra/architect's advice, I still maintain (working with most geometras of my acquaintance) that in a non-speciallly controlled situation you get a permission, then when you do the final re-accatastamento you incorporate all the variations in one go - which doesn't involve any 'extra' costs. I'm assuming your project is a complete new build, if not there are restrictions (within which I would expect your architect is working). Of course, if the comune is fussy (or obliged by the belli arti to be fussy) about your project, then it is marginally dangerous, since something which you have built could be deemed unacceptable; but your director of works should be able to judge how likely any minor changes would be to hit a snag of this nature. Sweet talking the mayor is not necessary - unless you are trying to do something well outside the 'local plan' (and I doubt that you are pushing the envelope in this respect). If it's a matter of where you put the kitchen sink, or whether the bathroom is in this space or the next space, and taking into account the often protracted timescale of getting any permission - if you are happy with the footprint, and the construction method, just do it - or it may never happen...