Residency Debate

These days I seem to have an almost weekly enquiry over the subject of residency in Italy and what constitutes being, or not being, resident in Italy for tax purposes.

I always refer to the 3 main points to which the Italian state follows in determination of fiscal residency. These being: 

1.  Are you registered at the Anagrafe as a resident in Italy? 

2.  Do you spend more than 183 days per annum in the country?

3. Where is your habitual abode/place of business/social interests? 

However, in trawling the internet recently I found a case in the Italian Supreme court (Case 20285 dated 4th September 2013) which held that an individual taxpayer who was claiming to have his/her residence 'outside' Italy had properly discharged his burden of proof and correctly established his tax residency abroad by producing a copy of his residential lease, regular payments of rent and utility bills and use of personal bank account for day to day expenses, thereby proving that his actual and real residence was located in the foreign country.  

Therefore, this would seem to indicate that merely establishing residency on the basis of a friends/parents address abroad, or a vacant property in another country would not be sufficient for the basis of proving 'non residency' in Italy.