During a trip in the beautiful Tuscany it’s difficult not to notice the many fascinating farm houses (case rurale). You find them everywhere in Tuscany, in the countryside, on a hill from where you have a beautiful view on the surroundings.

Sometimes they are composed of only 1 building, but usually close to the main building there are some smaller buildings (fienili) which previously served to stack the hay or to store material and which now are mostly converted into apartments.
For those who want to invest in property or who can afford a second home, the farm houses are an ideal opportunity. Because of their size they are also very suitable to be converted into B & B, hotel or farm tourism (agriturismo).

Farmhouses for free

If you are planning to purchase a farm house then you should be aware of the following information:
In the past a farmhouse in Tuscany belonged to a farm, which is considered a small company or a small firm (azienda agricola).
In the 70′s the city offered a lot of work and most farmers with their complete family, left the countryside to move to the city to find a job. The consequence was that a lot of farms became completely deserted.
The first to value the enormous potential of these large farms were the foreigners, especially the Germans and the British who bought up these properties to use them as second homes or tourist activity.

Tax introduced by the municipality

For a long time buying and renovating a farm house in the Tuscan country was considered an optimal investment. In the 90′s however the municipalities began to see the importance of the purchase by foreigners and Italians and introduced a tax, in this way the public treasury earned some extra money. The tax, the so called “oneri per deruralizzazione” is literally a tax for the modification of a farm house into a general house; this means that any other person, different to a farmer, need to pay this tax in order to live in a farm house.

Beware before you buy

You would not be the first one to buy a farm house without having ever heard of this tax. Agencies rather forget to mention this with disastrous consequences for your budget. Perhaps you have already spent the maximum of your savings to purchase the property, imagine that before starting the renovation, you have to spend another tens of thousands of euros, pounds.
However, there is 1 option that excludes you to pay this tax: starting an agriturismo (farm tourism), Opening an agriturismo is only possible when you have an azienda agricola or small firm, a private person therefore can not start an agriturismo. However you must consider that opening an agriturismo is a rather intense activity.