Italy's tax authority has sent roughly 20,000 letters to owners of properties that were never recorded in the national land registry, according to Il Sole 24 ORE. The notices stem from an operation that used artificial intelligence to flag irregularities in real estate records, the newspaper reported on Sunday, October 4, 2026.
The properties in question are described in Italian media as "ghost" buildings — homes that exist but were not declared to the cadastre, the country's official register of real estate. Il Sole 24 ORE reported the figure of 20,000 letters, a number also cited by Tgcom24, ilmessaggero.it and virgilio.it in their coverage of the same operation.
According to the reporting, the tax agency relied on artificial intelligence to detect discrepancies in property data and identify the undeclared cases. Coverage from ilmessaggero.it framed the campaign as a fiscal offensive, noting that the letters are going out to a defined group of owners while others are not affected.
The reports do not specify which regions or property types are involved, nor do they detail what recipients are being asked to do. The available material also does not indicate the total value of the properties concerned or how many of the letters have already been delivered.
What to watch next: whether the tax agency publishes further details on the criteria used to select the 20,000 cases, and whether the campaign expands beyond this first batch of notices.
