Many British people dream of retiring to Italy, perhaps they have Italian heritage or simply enjoy the appeal of southern Italy's climate and lifestyle.   The charm of retirement to Italy now comes with the added benefit of an extremely advantageous tax regime aimed at break the article here for the social media posting, if Twitter says it's too long just shorten itencouraging individuals who are in receipt of a pension from overseas to retire to regions in southern Italy.  The retiring immigrants are now eligible for a flat-rate tax of 7% on all their foreign income, provided they satisfy the following conditions: 

  • The new tax rate is only applicable to people who are new to Italy and individuals must not have been resident in Italy for the past five years

  • Their pension must be paid by a foreign entity

  • The country from which their pension is paid by must have an administrative cooperation agreement with Italy

  • The individual must choose to be resident in a town within the designated regions with a maximum of 20,000 existing residents

  • The designated regions are: Sicily, Sardinia, Campania, Basilicata, Abruzzo, Molise or Puglia.

The tax regime comes with an additional exemption from wealth taxes on foreign assets.  The new residents will have the advantage of the ultra low tax rate for five years, after which the foreign pensioners will revert to the standard Italian income tax which is variable dependent on the amount of overall income the individual receives.

The scheme is aimed at reviving the regions in which the scheme will operate by bringing in new residents who are not financially dependent on the Italian government, nor will the new residents take job opportunities from the existing residents.  Self-sufficient pensioners are the perfect choice, they will not be a burden to the Italian authorities, their house purchases will assist the depressed real estate market and they will have money in their pockets to spend.

The Italian government is working hard to boost the declining regions and there is more than one interesting tax regime that Italy has to offer.  At the other end of the scale an extremely beneficial flat-rate tax, unveiled in Italy's 2017 budget, announced an extraordinary rate of €100,000 per annum as a flat-rate applying to all worldwide income for high-net-worth foreigners who wish to use Italy residency for tax purposes.  Furthermore, family members can be included at the rate of €25,000 per annum applied to their worldwide income.  This highly attractive measure has proved to be of interest to a considerable number of individuals. 

There are, of course, conditions attached to this benefit, anyone wishing to take advantage of Italy's new scheme must be able to demonstrate that they have resided in another country for at least nine of the previous ten years.  When they relocate to Italy they must be actually resident in Italy for at least 183 days per year (or six months). This condition will allow the individual to renew the flat rate tax advantage year on year for the following 15 years. 

Italy is trying to attract individuals to its shores by various means that it is hoped will provide a benefit to the country.  

If you would like information about tax schemes and other advantages relocating to Italy can bring please click here.

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