Die? First pay the transport tax if you go outside the municipality: in Rome 192 euros

Inflation does not give discounts, which is why the Municipality of Rome succeeds where the Bourbons failed: to increase the death tax. It is not the usual secretarial right, but something more: even the price for those who want to return to their native country after death will increase in 2024. In short, if the coffin and procession cross the wonderful streets of the Municipality of Rome, they must pay the “road fees” increased in 2024 to 192.12 euros.

But it is not so much the increase that is surprising but the tax itself. Although Presidential Decree 285 of 1990 liberalized the transport of bodies by granting operators in the sector the right to transport them from the place of death to the uncommon cemetery, a right previously exclusively granted to the AMA, this tax which seems inspired by the medieval viaticum, the Municipality he never stopped demanding it. It is as if the deceased in Rome – goodness of him – expressed the desire to be buried in the cemetery of his native town, had to pay the tax to occupy, perhaps consume, the streets of the Municipality of Rome. And from one oddity to another, bordering on madness, the Municipality of Rome appears magnanimous when the funeral is for a child who, instead of paying 191.12 euros to cross the city, enjoys a discount that brings the cost for the family to 126 .38 euros.

The surreal discount reserved for the transport of children's bodies

And here we should question the bureaucrat to understand the reason for the discount: a delicacy for dramatic mourning? Does the hearse, carrying a small one, weigh less and therefore “wear less” on the roads? Because the same age rule is then also applied for burials in the Flaminio cemetery where the burial inside for example, instead of costing 2,759.79 with the increase, has a discounted concession of 1568.46. Let's leave aside the unpleasant similarity between a cemetery and a seaside concession, because if on the beach the first row of umbrellas and deckchairs is valid because it is close to the shoreline and the sunbed neighbors are fewer, it is not clear why the difference in burial between the first row and the fifth row of niches and the related cost.

At Flaminio each row of niches has its price… Like umbrellas at the seaside

But if it is an ossuary, then the rows grow: there are four categories where the democracy of death combines rows 1 to 3 with one rate and rows 4 to 6 with another. Those who don't have the money to admire the view without hindrance from other fellow corpses, have to settle for rows 7 and 8 or 9 and 10 which cost even less. In the AMA catalog there is even what has been nicknamed the “double row”: the “external” niches are decidedly attractive for those who do not want or are able to spend, with the ninth and tenth rows costing 282.45 in 2024. Practically a bargain.

Cerveteri, Ladispoli and Fiumicino: there is no transport tax here

So, let's recap: if you die in Rome and want to be buried in the Municipality of the Province where many families have historic chapels, you must “pay” for the viaticum. Things are better for Fiumicino, Cerveteri and Ladispoli who don't ask for the right of transit. Worse in Montecompatri where the tax for traveling by hearse reaches 450 euros round and round. The only justification perhaps comes from the uphill or downhill roads. Mysteries of bureaucracy.

The crafty people of Palestrina: here you pay even if the transport is ordered by the Prosecutor's Office

All in all, in Palestrina, also in the province of Rome, you can save: here the passage on the wonderful roads costs “only” 150 euros but be careful, because the crafty people of the small town are capable of anything. As happened to the family of a boy who died in a road accident and was transferred by order of the judiciary to Rome, to the Tor Vergata hospital by order of the Velletri Prosecutor's Office which ordered the autopsy and when the body was returned to the family for funeral, mum and dad had to pay the transport fee, even though it was carried out by order of the Prosecutor's Office and carried out by the Mortuary Police. The term shame is not sufficient to define the cynicism of the municipal employee.

For the Municipalities the important thing is to collect money

Last consideration: although the transport tax is crazy and perhaps even illegal, it is the funeral homes that pay it and then rightly pass it on to the families. Duties and taxes have no mercy for those who end their earthly life. The important thing is to collect cash.