modicasa blog

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The city of Ragusa is the first city in the area to intorduce the ’soggiorno’ tax - people staying in hotels etc will have to pay 1 euro a day for the privilege of staying in Ragusa.  After a fortnight this comes down to 50 cents a day - So far Modica, Scicli and so on have no plans to introduce a similar tax.

The courts have thrown out the last appeal against the introduction of the Piano Paesaggistico, so we are back where we were in September - at least for the province of Ragusa.  The provinces of Siracusa and the Egadi Islands now have to introduce their piano paesistico with urgency (by the year end they say).    All of which means that in certain areas you can no longer just buy a piece of land and build on it.

From today the rate of VAT (IVA) goes up from 20 to 21% on a wide variety of goods and services.

Milk, bread, tomatoes are not touched.  Newspapers remain as is.  Petrol gets walloped and all services provided by professionals - ie estate agents, geometras, engineers, architects must all - from today - charge you 21% VAT on your bill.

Its been valid for a year, now the case of the province of Ragusa is ‘won’ and the regional court have annulled the entire plan.  Construction companies are thrilled - everyone else, other than those who receive large bribes - is appalled.  It has to be started again from scratch…….

From 13 August, the limit on any payment that falls under the antirecycling laws is 2500 euros.  This means that you cannot pay cash for any amount over 2500 euros, and the method of payment must be traceable.

The Piano Paesistico for the province of Siracusa has still not been published.  It could happen any day, and for those thinking of buying and building, the risks are great.

It appears that the new emergency budget, which will be superimposed on the old emergency budget of a month ago, will now have a special one off tax loaded onto second homes.

The late Easter and the 1 May holiday has meant that the San Giorgio festa in Modica is being pushed back to Sunday 8 May instead of 23 April…. Typically they have decided a few weeks beforehand, and there will be lots of disappointed tourists who have booked holidays and will now miss the events….

It’s coming - as in Ragusa, April will see the actuation of the piano paesistico for the whole of the province of Siracusa.  The new zoning will prevent new build in all zone 2 areas, unless you are a registered farmer.  At the moment the maps have not been released.  All building concessions will be blocked for months, if its anything like Ragusa.Ragusa has, in turn, been blocked from making any amendments to the piano paesistico by the powers that be in Palermo.Now, most of Sicily has adopted the new piano and although there are slight territorial differences there is a 900 odd page document that explains the basics.  The piano will be sent as an update to the ‘Buying IN Sicily’  mailing list.

Thursday 17 March 2011 will be a holiday - to celebrate 150 years of a UNited Italy.