Italy's impatriate regime

What it's worth

Net pay per year in Milan, single, no children, 2026. Social security is the same either way; the regime only shrinks the income that is taxed.

Who qualifies

You can use the regime if all of these are true:

• You weren't resident in Italy in any of the 3 tax years before your move. It's 6 years if you go back to work for the employer or group you worked for in Italy before you left, and 7 if you worked for them abroad too.
• You become tax resident in Italy and do most of your work there. You can be employed, self-employed, or work remotely for an employer abroad.
• You are highly qualified or specialised: in practice a university degree, or the qualifications or professional experience the EU Blue Card rules ask for.
• You commit to staying resident in Italy for at least 4 years.
• Professional athletes are excluded.

Only 40% of your salary is taxed if you move with a child under 18, or if a child is born or adopted while you use the regime, from that year on. The child must live in Italy.

How long it lasts

Five tax years: the year you become resident in Italy, plus the four after it. Example for someone who became resident in 2024:

You become resident in a year if you are registered with an Italian municipality, or live or have your main interests in Italy, for more than half of it. The regime only exists for moves from 2024; people who moved earlier keep the previous regime.

How to claim it

1. 1Move to Italy, register your residence with your municipality and start working there.
2. 2If you're employed, ask your employer in writing to apply the regime in your payroll. Give the date you became resident, where you lived before, and that you meet the conditions. Your pay is then taxed on 50% (or 40%) from the next payslip.
3. 3If your employer doesn't apply it, or you're self-employed, claim it in your tax return (Modello 730 or Redditi PF). Keep proof of your residence abroad for the years before.

What changes, what doesn't

When it ends

From your sixth year you pay normal Italian income tax. At €100,000 in Milan that means €1,709 less a month.

If you leave Italy before you've been resident for 4 years, you lose the regime and must pay back the tax it saved you, with interest.

Italy's other tax regimes

Researchers and teachers. If you worked abroad as a researcher or university teacher for at least 2 years, 90% of your salary from research or teaching in Italy is tax-free, for 6 years. It lasts longer if you have children or buy a home in Italy.

Flat tax for new residents. If you weren't resident in Italy in 9 of the last 10 years, you can pay a flat €300,000 a year on all your foreign income instead of Italian tax on it, for up to 15 years, plus €50,000 for each family member who joins. Your Italian income is taxed normally. If you move from 2027, you can't combine it with the impatriate regime.

Pensioners in the South. Pensioners who move from abroad to a town of under 20,000 people in southern Italy can pay 7% on all their foreign income, for 10 years.

Moved before 2024? The previous impatriate regime still applies to you: 70% of your salary tax-free, or 90% in the South, for 5 years, longer in some cases.

Sources and limits

• D.Lgs. 209/2023, art. 5 (the impatriate regime) · Normattiva
• D.L. 38/2026, converted by Legge 88/2026 (no combining with the flat tax for moves from 2027) · Normattiva
• Agenzia delle Entrate, risposta 2/2026 (remote work for an employer abroad)
• D.L. 78/2010, art. 44 (researchers and teachers) · Normattiva
• TUIR, arts. 24-bis and 24-ter (new residents, pensioners), as amended by Legge 199/2025 · Normattiva
• D.Lgs. 147/2015, art. 16 (the previous regime) · Normattiva

Information, not tax advice. The salary figures come from our Italy calculation, tested against our own worked cases I1 to I4 (computed, not yet checked against an independent calculator). The regime's conditions are summarised from the law and the tax agency's guidance; a tax adviser can confirm whether you qualify.