Cedolare secca or IRPEF in Trieste: how much of the rent you keep

In Trieste, on a two-room flat let at €700 a month on a free-market lease, the 21% flat-rate tax (cedolare secca) saves you about €1,115 a year compared with ordinary income tax (IRPEF), if your income sits in the 33% band. With a regulated rent lease (canone concordato) the cedolare drops to 10%, and in the example below the same flat at €600 a month leaves you more than at €700 on the free market: €6,070.50 against €5,745.60, after taxes and ILIA.

What are the three routes?

• 21% cedolare. A flat tax on the whole rent, with no allowances, for free-market leases such as the 4+4.
• 10% cedolare. For regulated rent leases (3+2, temporary, students) in high housing-pressure municipalities: Trieste is on the list in the 2003 CIPE resolution. An "unassisted" lease needs the certificate (attestazione), explained in our guide to regulated rent.
• Ordinary IRPEF. 95% of the rent is added to your other income and taxed at your rate: 23% up to €28,000, 33% up to €50,000, 43% above. With a 3+2 or a student lease that 95% is cut by a further 30%, so 66.5% of the rent is taxed. A temporary lease does not get this cut: the differences between leases are in our guide to leases. On top come registration tax and the surcharges: for Trieste residents, 1.23% regional above €15,000 of income and 0.8% municipal above €12,500.

Registration, stamp duty and ISTAT: what changes without the cedolare?

Without the cedolare you pay registration tax (imposta di registro): 2% of the annual rent, at least €67 for the first year, split half and half with the tenant. With a 3+2 regulated rent lease the base falls to 70% of the rent, so the tax is 1.4%. At registration there is also stamp duty (bollo): €16 for every 4 written sides or 100 lines, for each copy.

With the cedolare, neither is due. In exchange, for as long as the option lasts you give up the ISTAT update, even if the lease provides for it, and you must tell the tenant beforehand by registered letter (raccomandata). You choose on the RLI form when you register, and you can change in later years.

Example 1: two-room flat at €700 a month, free-market rent

Assumptions: 4+4 lease at €700 a month (€8,400 a year), landlord resident in Trieste with income already between €28,000 and €50,000, cadastral income (rendita) of €500.

1. Cedolare: 8,400 × 21% = €1,764, with no registration tax or surcharges.
2. IRPEF: taxable income 8,400 × 95% = €7,980. IRPEF at 33%: €2,633.40; surcharges at 2.03%: €161.99; your half of registration tax: €84. Total €2,879.39.
3. Difference: €1,115.39 a year in favour of the cedolare.

At the 35% rate in force until 2025, the difference would have been €1,274.99: the 33% band in the 2026 budget law (Law 199/2025) takes €159.60 off IRPEF and narrows the cedolare's lead without erasing it.

Example 2: the same flat at €600 a month, 3+2 regulated rent

Assumptions: rent within the range of the territorial agreement, certificate issued, same landlord.

1. Cedolare: 7,200 × 10% = €720.
2. IRPEF: taxable income 7,200 × 95% × 70% = €4,788. IRPEF at 33%: €1,580.04; surcharges: €97.20; registration tax on 70% of the rent: €100.80, of which €50.40 is yours. Total €1,727.64.
3. Difference: €1,007.64 a year in favour of the cedolare.

How much do you keep, ILIA included?

The cedolare does not touch ILIA, which since 2023 has taken the place of IMU in the region. The base is rendita × 1.05 × 160: with a rendita of €500, €84,000. In Trieste in 2026 the rate is 1.06% on a free-market let and 0.65% on a regulated rent, whose tax is then cut to 75%.

• Free market, 21% cedolare€8,400Free market, IRPEF€8,400Regulated rent, 10% cedolare€7,200Regulated rent, IRPEF€7,200

  Annual rent

• Free market, 21% cedolare€1,764Free market, IRPEF€2,879.39Regulated rent, 10% cedolare€720Regulated rent, IRPEF€1,727.64

  Taxes and registration

• Free market, 21% cedolare€890.40Free market, IRPEF€890.40Regulated rent, 10% cedolare€409.50Regulated rent, IRPEF€409.50

  ILIA

• Free market, 21% cedolare€5,745.60Free market, IRPEF€4,630.21Regulated rent, 10% cedolare€6,070.50Regulated rent, IRPEF€5,062.86

  Net in hand

With €100 a month less in rent, the regulated rent with the cedolare earns €324.90 a year more than the free market. It changes if the flat is your "first second home" (prima seconda casa): the one dwelling, only one in the whole region besides the one you live in, that you have named to the Region through the online notice by 30 June of the next year. Then ILIA on the free-market let falls to 0.70%, that is €588, the net rises to €6,048 and the two options are almost level: €22.50 apart.

When is IRPEF worth it?

On tax rates alone, hardly ever. Even at 23% in the first band, IRPEF on 95% of a free-market rent comes to 21.85% of the rent, more than 21%. In example 1 that would be €1,835.40 plus €84 of registration tax, against €1,764: €155.40 apart, surcharges excluded. On a regulated rent the gap stays wide: €1,101.24 of IRPEF against €720 of cedolare.

IRPEF can help in two cases:

• Tax credits to use. No deductible expenses or tax credits (detrazioni) can be set against income under the cedolare. If you have credits, for instance for building work, and your IRPEF without the rent is too low to absorb them, ordinary taxation raises the tax they are taken from.
• Low income and a long lease. Only without the cedolare can you ask for the ISTAT update, if the lease provides for it: on €8,400 a year each point of inflation is worth €84 of rent. In the first band, over a 4+4, it can close the gap.

Maintenance costs do not change the choice: the 5% is a flat allowance, and actual costs cannot be deducted from rental income under either route.

What changes from 2027?

The rules stay, the article numbers change: from 1 January 2027 Legislative Decree 117/2026, which gathers the income tax rules into a single consolidated act, moves the 5% and the further 30% to article 39 and the cedolare to articles 203 to 206, with the same rates. For the 2027 budget law a 5% cedolare on regulated rents has been proposed: as of 25/10/2026 it has not been approved.