Article 4 of Decree Law no. 50, called "Corrective Maneuver 2017", has introduced novelties in short lease regulation, meaning leases of residential real estate for a term of no more than thirty days, made by natural persons outside the entrepreneurial business, directly or through subjects who engage in brokering activities.

The new law provides that from 1 June 2017 the lessor may decide to opt for the coupon at a 21% rate for income from short-term lease contracts. In addition, the law requires obligations for intermediaries or brokerage portal, if the lessor makes use of their services. In particular, the intermediary shall:

·      transmit the data of contracts concluded through them; if the transmission is omitted, incomplete or unpaid the law provides a financial penalty ranging from 250 to 2000 euros;

·      hold 21% of the rent for rent, and deposit it directly into the State crates. Such deduction shall also be made even if the lessor does not wish to opt for the coupon, and in that case it could be considered as a deposit.

The real novelty of the Maneuver is attributing the role of tax substitutes to intermediaries. In fact, it should be emphasized that online-site-leasing users are not required to use the payment services provided but, differently, they can legitimately choose to directly receive the rental fee from the conductors, thus avoiding the retention by the intermediary.

In conclusion, a practical problem that could be make the new regulation meaningless, is that the major online intermediary portals do not have their tax base in Italy, so it is difficult to imagine that companies such as Airbnb or Booking could work as tax substitutes in practice.