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Moving to Italy · Taxes · Reviewed September 4, 2026

Taxes in Italy for US citizens

Two systems will have a claim on you: Italy's, because you live there, and the American one, because you are a citizen. This page sets out how they fit together, what Italy's agreements with the US do and do not cover, and the order things happen in during your move year.

Top personal rate43%US federal top rate 37%
VAT / consumption tax22%US sales tax averages 7.5%
US income tax treatyIn forceTie-breaker available
Totalization agreementIn forceOne social security system

This is not tax advice. Cross-border outcomes turn on facts this page cannot know: your visa category, your income mix, where your employer is incorporated, what you own and when you bought it. Use this to ask a qualified cross-border accountant better questions, and verify every figure against Italy's tax authority and, for the US side, the IRS guidance for citizens abroad.

Your position in Italy

When you become tax residentYou are an Italian tax resident for a given year if, for more than 183 days (184 in a leap year), you are physically present in Italy, or have your residenza (habitual abode) there, or have your domicilio there. Since 1 January 2024 domicilio is defined as the place where your personal and family relationships are principally centred, and registration in the comune's anagrafe of resident population is a rebuttable presumption rather than conclusive proof. Residents are taxed on worldwide income; non-residents only on Italian-source income.
US income tax treatyIn force
Totalization agreementIn force
Top personal income tax rate43% · US federal 37%
VAT / consumption tax22% · US sales tax averages 7.5%
Official sourceItaly tax authority →
NotesThe current US-Italy income tax treaty was signed 25 August 1999 and entered into force in 2009. Article 18(2) assigns taxing rights over social security payments to the state where the recipient lives, so US Social Security received by a resident of Italy is taxable in Italy, and the US saving clause in Article 1(2) does not list Article 18(2) among its exceptions, which means the IRS can still tax it and you rely on foreign tax credits to avoid paying twice. Article 19(2) keeps US federal, state and local government pensions taxable only in the US for US nationals. The totalization agreement has been in force since 1 November 1978, so a certificate of coverage keeps you out of double social security contributions, but it does not extend Medicare to Italy. For 2026 the foreign earned income exclusion is USD 132,900, though most Americans in Italy end up better off claiming the foreign tax credit because Italian rates exceed US rates at almost every income level. Watch three Italian taxes that surprise Americans: IVIE at 1.06% on the value of real estate held outside Italy, IVAFE at 0.2% on foreign financial assets including US brokerage and retirement accounts, and a flat 26% substitute tax on most investment income. Three optional regimes are worth checking with an Italian commercialista: the 7% flat tax on all foreign income for foreign pensioners who move to a qualifying municipality of up to 30,000 people in the south (art. 24-ter TUIR, valid for nine tax periods), the impatriate regime that exempts 50% of Italian employment or self-employment income up to EUR 600,000 for five years, and the substitute tax on foreign income for high-net-worth new residents. FBAR and Form 8938 reporting continue to apply.

Italy taxes residents on worldwide income. You are resident if for more than 183 days you are physically present, have your habitual abode, or have your domicilio in Italy, with domicilio redefined from 2024 as the place where your personal and family life is centred. Anagrafe registration is a rebuttable presumption, not proof.

From 2026 the IRPEF brackets are 23 percent to EUR 28,000, 33 percent from EUR 28,000 to EUR 50,000, and 43 percent above that. On top sit a regional surcharge of roughly 1.23 to 3.33 percent and a municipal surcharge up to 0.9 percent. VAT is 22 percent, and investment income is taxed at a flat 26 percent.

As a US citizen you keep filing with the IRS. The 2026 foreign earned income exclusion is USD 132,900, but most people in Italy do better with the foreign tax credit, because Italian tax on the same income is higher. The 1999 treaty, in force since 2009, gives Italy the taxing right over social security under Article 18(2), so Italy taxes your US Social Security; the saving clause preserves the IRS claim too, and you settle the overlap with credits. Government pensions stay US-only under Article 19(2).

Two Italian wealth taxes catch Americans out: IVIE at 1.06 percent on real estate held abroad, and IVAFE at 0.2 percent on foreign financial accounts, US brokerage and retirement accounts included. Retirees settling in a qualifying southern town of up to 30,000 people can elect a 7 percent flat tax on all foreign income for nine tax periods.

The United States does not stop taxing you

The US taxes citizens on worldwide income regardless of where they live. Moving to Italy adds a second tax system; it does not remove the first one. Most Americans abroad end up owing little or nothing to the IRS, but that outcome is produced by filing correctly, not by leaving.

Two mechanisms produce that result. The foreign earned income exclusion removes foreign wages and self-employment profit up to an annually indexed cap, but reaches earned income only and does nothing about self-employment tax. The foreign tax credit offsets US tax dollar-for-dollar with income tax actually paid to Italy, reaches passive income the exclusion cannot, and can leave credits to carry forward. You cannot apply both to the same dollar. Separately, FBAR and FATCA reporting is triggered by account balances rather than by tax owed, and carries penalties out of all proportion to the tax at stake.

The full mechanics are the same wherever you move, so they live in one place: US taxes when you live abroad covers the exclusion tests, the credit, treaties and the saving clause, FBAR and FATCA thresholds, self-employment tax and state residency. The rest of this page is what Italy specifically changes.

Which mechanism fits Italy

Italy's top rate of 43% sits at or above the US federal top rate of 37%. Local tax is doing the heavy lifting, so the foreign tax credit is the mechanism worth modelling first: it usually eliminates the US liability outright and leaves excess credits to carry forward.

Self-employment in Italy

A totalization agreement covers Italy, so a self-employed American here can normally be assigned to one social security system and exempted from the other, evidenced by a certificate of coverage. Arrange it at the start of the engagement, not at filing time.

US-side official references: FEIE ·Foreign tax credit ·FBAR ·FATCA reporting ·Totalization agreements

Which relief mechanism reaches which income

The most common planning error is assuming the exclusion covers everything. It covers one category. This table maps each kind of income against the mechanisms available to you, with the last column set to Italy's recorded agreement status.

General map of relief by income type, with the treaty column reflecting Italy's recorded status. A starting point for a conversation with an accountant, not a determination.
Income typeForeign earned income exclusionForeign tax creditTreaty position for Italy
Wages earned while living in ItalyYes, up to the annual cap, if you pass the residence or presence testYes, on anything above the cap or not excludedThe employment income article assigns the primary taxing right
Self-employment profitIncome tax only. Self-employment tax survives the exclusionYes, against income tax on the same profitTotalization decides which social security system you pay into
Dividends and interestNo. It reaches earned income onlyYes, for foreign tax actually paid on itDividend and interest articles usually cap withholding
Capital gains on investmentsNoYes, where a foreign tax is paid on the same gainA gains article assigns the taxing right by asset type
Rental income from propertyNoYes, for foreign tax charged on foreign propertyImmovable property is normally taxed where it sits
Pensions and retirement account withdrawalsNoYes, where foreign tax is charged on the withdrawalThe pension article decides. Read it before you draw
US Social Security benefitsNoDepends which country is entitled to tax themMany treaties assign them to one country only

Read the rows against your own income mix. Someone on a local salary and nothing else uses one row of this table. Someone with a brokerage account, a rental at home and vesting equity uses five, and each one can land in a different country.

What Italy's agreements with the US actually change

The general mechanics above apply to every American abroad. What differs country by country is which of them Italy has an agreement to soften. Of the 15 countries covered on this site, 15 have a US income tax treaty, 12 have a totalization agreement and 12 have both. Italy is the case below.

Treaty and totalization status for Italy, and the mechanism each one affects
IssueStatus for ItalyWhat that means for you
Double tax on employment incomeTreaty in forceA US–Italy income tax treaty exists, so each type of income has an assigned taxing country and there is a defined route to relief rather than an argument. You still file both returns; the treaty decides who taxes what first.
Being treated as resident by both countriesTie-breaker availableTreaties carry a residence tie-breaker: permanent home, then centre of vital interests, then habitual abode, then nationality. It gives you a defensible answer in the year you move, when both countries can plausibly claim you.
Social security and payroll contributionsTotalization in forceA totalization agreement covers the US and Italy, so the same earnings are not charged to both social security systems. It also lets contribution periods in each country count toward qualifying for a benefit in the other.
Self-employment and freelancingCertificate of coverage routeWhere an agreement applies, a certificate of coverage from the system you do pay into is what you show the other one. Get it before the first invoice, not after the first assessment.
Pensions, retirement accounts and investment incomeTreaty articles applyTreaty articles usually address pensions, dividends, interest and capital gains separately from wages. Read the specific articles: a treaty that solves your salary can leave your brokerage account taxed in a way you did not expect.

Treaty and totalization status is recorded from the sources listed at the foot of this page. Agreements are amended and protocols enter force on their own timetable, so check the current text before taking a position on a return.

Two numbers worth running before you move

Consumption tax, which nobody models

Income tax gets the attention. Consumption tax takes its slice every month without appearing on any return. A US household spending the national average net salary of $4,230 a month would need roughly $3,003 a month in Italy for the same basket, at Italy's overall price level. Of that, the VAT embedded in the prices is up to about $542 a month, against roughly $295 in embedded sales tax at home.

Indicative consumption tax inside an equivalent monthly basket
MeasureUnited StatesItaly
Headline consumption tax rate7.5%22%
Equivalent monthly basket$4,230$3,003
Tax inside that basket, per month$295$542
Per year$3,540$6,504

A ceiling, not a bill. It assumes the whole net salary is spent, and in practice rent sits outside VAT in most systems while food, medicine, books and transport often carry reduced or zero rates, so real exposure lands below this line. The direction of the gap is the useful part: about $247 more per month than at home, before any reduced rate applies.

Marginal rate, read honestly

Italy's top personal rate is 43% against a US federal top rate of 37%, a gap of +6 points. That comparison is weaker than it looks in both directions. The US figure excludes state income tax, which can add several points on top. The Italian figure bites at its own threshold, which may be far lower or far higher in income terms than the US bracket it is being compared to. Top rates tell you the shape of a system, not your bill. Model your actual income against the brackets on the official site before you decide anything.

Check what your salary is worth in Italy →

How Italy compares on tax across our dataset

Italy ranks 4 of 15 on headline top personal rate, lowest first, with 11 countries charging a higher top rate. Every row links to that country's own tax page.

Top personal rate, VAT and US agreement status, lowest top rate first
CountryTop rateVATUS treatyTotalization
United States (baseline)37%7.5%Not applicableNot applicable
Mexico35%16%YesNo
Thailand35%7%YesNo
New Zealand39%15%YesNo
Italy · this page43%22%YesYes
Australia45%10%YesYes
United Kingdom45%20%YesYes
Spain47%21%YesYes
Norway47.4%25%YesYes
Germany47.5%19%YesYes
Portugal48%23%YesYes
Netherlands49.5%21%YesYes
Ireland52%23%YesYes
Sweden52.4%25%YesYes
Canada53.5%5%YesYes
Japan55.9%10%YesYes

Headline rates only. They ignore social contributions, local surtaxes, wealth and inheritance taxes, and the very different incomes at which each top rate starts. A country with a high top rate that begins at a high threshold can cost a middle earner less than one with a lower rate that begins early.

The sequence of tax events in your move year

The move year is the messy one: part-year residence in two systems, two calendars, and deadlines that do not line up. This is the order things generally happen in.

  1. Before you leaveFix the date you stop being a US state resident and the date you land, because almost every later question is answered by those two dates. Take a snapshot of account balances, unrealised gains and any equity vesting schedule. Selling before you become Italy tax resident is a different transaction from selling after.
  2. The day you arriveRecord the arrival date against something durable, such as a boarding pass, a lease or a registration receipt, because you may have to evidence it years later. It is the day the clock starts on the rule that decides your Italian tax residency: You are an Italian tax resident for a given year if, for more than 183 days (184 in a leap year), you are physically present in Italy, or have your residenza (habitual abode) there, or have your domicilio there. Since 1 January 2024 domicilio is defined as the place where your personal and family relationships are principally centred, and registration in the comune's anagrafe of resident population is a rebuttable presumption rather than conclusive proof. Residents are taxed on worldwide income; non-residents only on Italian-source income.
  3. Weeks 1 to 8: register locallyA local tax number is usually a precondition for a bank account, a lease and a payroll run, so it happens early whether or not you feel like a taxpayer yet. Registering does not by itself make you resident; the residency rule above does.
  4. First local filingYour first Italian return covers only the part of the year you were resident, in most systems, and it is the return where split-year treatment is claimed if the country offers it. Deadlines rarely match the US calendar.
  5. First US filing from abroadTaxpayers whose tax home is abroad get an automatic extension beyond the April deadline, and a further extension on request. The extension is for filing, not for paying: interest runs from the original date.
  6. The same season: information returnsThe FBAR and, above higher thresholds, Form 8938 are filed on their own schedules and carry their own penalties. They report balances, not income, so people who owe nothing still miss them and still get penalised.
  7. Month 12 onwardThe bona fide residence test needs an uninterrupted tax year abroad, so the first full calendar year is often the first year you can use it. Until then the physical presence test, 330 full days abroad in a 12-month window, is usually the only route to the exclusion.

State residency: the bill people do not expect

Federal filing is the obligation everyone knows about. The one that catches people is the state they left. States set their own residency rules, and several test domicile, meaning your permanent home in intent, rather than where you physically are. Under a domicile test you can spend a full year in Italy and still be assessed as a resident of your old state, on your worldwide income, with none of the federal relief above available against it. The FEIE and the foreign tax credit are federal mechanisms, and a state is not required to follow them.

What severing residency usually rests on, and what to be able to evidence:

  • Ending the lease or selling the home, rather than keeping it available to you.
  • Surrendering the state driver's licence and voter registration.
  • Moving vehicle registration, professional licences and mailing address out of state.
  • Where dependants live and where school-age children are enrolled.
  • Day counts, kept contemporaneously. A calendar reconstructed three years later convinces nobody.
  • Filing a final part-year return for the state, which is what formally closes the file.

Check your specific state's rule before you leave, not after. It is easier to establish that you left cleanly on the way out than to argue it from Rome two years later.

What to keep, from day one

  • A day-count log with arrival and departure dates for every trip, including trips back to the US. Both the physical presence test and Italy's own residency rule are decided on days.
  • Local payslips and the annual Italian tax assessment, which is the evidence of foreign tax paid that a credit claim rests on.
  • Year-end statements for every non-US account, plus the maximum balance during the year, which is what the FBAR asks for and what banks rarely show by default.
  • Cost basis and acquisition dates for anything you owned before you moved, in USD at the time.
  • Your certificate of coverage, if a totalization agreement applies to you.
  • The exchange rates you used, and the source of them, applied consistently across the year.

Tax questions about Italy

Do I still pay US taxes if I live in Italy?

Yes. US citizens file worldwide regardless of residence. For 2026 you can exclude up to USD 132,900 of earned income under the foreign earned income exclusion, but most Americans in Italy get a better result from the foreign tax credit, because Italian rates of 23 to 43 percent plus surcharges usually exceed US rates. FBAR and Form 8938 reporting continue, and Italian bank accounts count.

Is my US Social Security taxed in Italy?

Under Article 18(2) of the 1999 US-Italy treaty, social security payments are taxable in the country where the recipient lives, so Italy taxes your US Social Security as ordinary income. The US saving clause does not exempt that paragraph, so the IRS can tax it too and you use foreign tax credits to avoid paying twice. Government service pensions stay taxable only in the US under Article 19(2). Get Italian advice before you move.

Sources and review

The Italy-specific figures on this page, meaning the residency rule, treaty and totalization status, rates and notes, come from the sources below. The general US mechanics are described from published IRS, FinCEN and SSA guidance, linked inline above.

What these numbers are. The headline figures were re-derived from primary sources during review. Some category indices could not be matched to a published statistic and are reasoned estimates, marked as such in the list below. Where a source entry says a value is derived, estimated or crowd-sourced, that is exactly what it is: no international body publishes a like-for-like index for every category, and private insurance premiums are not published at all in most countries. Rent figures are national market averages, so a capital city will run above them. How the dataset is built.

  1. OECD, Purchasing Power Parities detailed results: price level indices for Italy with the United States as base (US = 100), 2024, the latest full comparison available. Household final consumption 67.7; food and non-alcoholic beverages 86.7; transport 99.9; restaurants and accommodation services 89.4; housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels 50.8. The indices published on this page are those figures carried forward to 2026 by a single net factor of 1.05, being the EUR/USD move (1.1623 divided by 1.0824 = 1.074) times relative consumer price inflation from the 2024 annual average to 2026 (Italy +3.3% against the United States +5.6%, a factor of 0.978). That gives col_index 71, groceries 91, transport 105 and dining 94. These four are extrapolations from a 2024 base, not directly observed 2026 figures. — accessed September 4, 2026
  2. Eurostat, Price level indices (prc_ppp_ind), Italy 2024, EU27 = 100: actual individual consumption 98.1; electricity, gas and other fuels 117.9; restaurants and hotels 106.9. Used as a cross-check on the category pattern. — accessed September 4, 2026
  3. Eurostat, Annual net earnings (earn_nt_net), Italy 2025: gross EUR 40,056 and net EUR 27,787.67 for a single person without children at 100% of average earnings. Net figure divided by 12 and converted at USD 1.1622 per euro gives USD 2,691 a month. — accessed September 4, 2026
  4. European Central Bank, euro reference exchange rate: USD 1.1622 per EUR on 4 September 2026, 2026 year-to-date average 1.1623 across the 173 quotation days to 4 September, 2024 annual average 1.0824. All euro amounts on this page are converted at 1.1622. — accessed September 4, 2026
  5. idealista, rental prices in Italy hit a new high in May 2026: national average asking rent EUR 15.0 per square metre per month, Milan 23.2, Florence 21.8, Venice 21.7, Rome 19.8, Caltanissetta 4.6. Aggregated listing data, used because Italy has no official national market-rent series, so treat it as indicative rather than as an official statistic. The one-bedroom figures on this page assume a 55 square metre flat at about EUR 18.7 per square metre in city centres (USD 1,196, rounded to 1,200) and EUR 13 per square metre outside the centre (USD 831, rounded to 830). The square-metre rates and the 55 square metre size are our assumptions, not idealista's. — accessed September 4, 2026
  6. Eurostat, Electricity prices for household consumers (nrg_pc_204), consumption band DC (2,500 to 4,999 kWh a year), all taxes and levies included: Italy EUR 0.2966 per kWh in the second half of 2025. The all-band figure for the same period is EUR 0.3330. — accessed September 4, 2026
  7. Eurostat, Gas prices for household consumers (nrg_pc_202), consumption band D2 (20 to 199 GJ a year), all taxes and levies included: Italy EUR 0.1481 per kWh in the second half of 2025. This is the source for the piped gas price quoted on this page. — accessed September 4, 2026
  8. US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly Table 5.3: average US residential retail electricity price 18.16 cents per kWh year to date 2026, and 18.34 cents in June 2026. Against the Eurostat figure of EUR 0.2966 per kWh (34.5 US cents at 1.1622) this makes Italian residential electricity about 1.9 times the US price. — accessed September 4, 2026
  9. US Energy Information Administration, natural gas prices, US residential: USD 13.96, 14.95 and 16.16 per thousand cubic feet in January, February and March 2026, an average of USD 15.02 across the heating season, which is about 4.9 US cents per kWh at 304 kWh per thousand cubic feet. Against the Eurostat Italian figure of EUR 0.1481 per kWh (17.2 US cents) this makes Italian piped gas roughly 3.5 times the US price. — accessed September 4, 2026
  10. Basis for utilities_index_vs_us (93): the typical monthly household bill, not a unit price. ISTAT, Indagine sulle spese delle famiglie 2024 (dataflow 31_740, Spese per consumi - COICOP 2018, SPESA_MEDIA, average monthly expenditure per household, all Italian households, national total EUR 2,755.09 a month). The four items in scope are COICOP 045 electricity, gas and other fuels EUR 136.92 (of which electricity 66.72, gas 61.67, liquid fuels 1.39, solid fuels 6.45, district heat 0.69), 0441 water supply EUR 16.37, 0443 sewage collection EUR 0.29 and 0442 refuse collection EUR 20.26, a like-for-like basket of EUR 173.84 a month. Repriced from the 2024 annual average to the latest observed month with the Eurostat HICP for Italy (CP045 from 163.3 to 154.6 in December 2025, a factor of 0.947; CP044 from 116.5 to 120.9, a factor of 1.038) gives EUR 167.94 a month, which is USD 195.18 at USD 1.1622 per euro. The consumption assumption is Italy's own national household average as measured by ISTAT rather than a fixed dwelling size or a fixed kWh block, so it already reflects small Italian flats, mild southern winters and the roughly one household in five that does not use piped gas. The denominator is this site's standard US reference basket of about USD 210 a month for the same four items, which gives 195.18 divided by 210, an index of 93. That USD 210 anchor is an editorial constant used across every country page rather than a published statistic, and it is conservative: on the closest official US measure, the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey for 2024 cited below, a US consumer unit spent USD 268 a month on the same four items, which would put the index nearer 73. Two known biases run the other way for Italy: where a building has riscaldamento centralizzato, heating and sometimes water reach the tenant through the spese condominiali, which ISTAT books under COICOP 0444, other services relating to the dwelling, at EUR 55.73 a month and does not split out, so the all-in figure for those households is higher than EUR 168; and the ISTAT average covers owner-occupiers as well as renters. — accessed September 4, 2026
  11. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Survey, average annual expenditure per consumer unit, all consumer units, 2024 (series CXUELECTRICLB1101M): electricity USD 1,833. The companion series give natural gas USD 493 (CXUNATRLGASLB1101M), fuel oil and other fuels USD 62 (CXUFUELOILLB1101M) and water and other public services, which covers water, sewer and trash, USD 826 (CXUWATERLB1101M). Those four sum to USD 3,214 a year, USD 268 a month, the like-for-like US counterpart of the ISTAT Italian basket. Telephone services, USD 1,460 a year, are excluded from both sides. Retrieved through the BLS public data API because bls.gov refuses automated page requests. — accessed September 4, 2026
  12. ARERA, the Italian regulator for energy, networks and the environment, press release Elettricita: Maggior Tutela +4,6% nel III trimestre 2026 per i clienti vulnerabili: annual electricity spend for the regulated typical household (2,700 kWh a year on a 3 kW connection) is EUR 591.86 for 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026, down 0.9% from EUR 597.30 in the previous twelve months, about EUR 49 a month. Used as a regulator cross-check on the ISTAT electricity line of EUR 66.72 a month, which is higher because most Italian households have left the regulated tariff for the free market and many consume more than the reference user. — accessed September 4, 2026
  13. Methodology note for rent_index_vs_us (55). The rent index is anchored on the OECD price level index for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, category A0104 in the dataset linked here, which is 50.8 for Italy against the United States in 2024, or 53 after the same 1.05 carry-forward applied to the other indices. It is nudged up to 55 because that OECD aggregate includes the expensive Italian utilities counted separately on this page and leans heavily on imputed rents rather than market rents. The 55 is our estimate rather than a published index; no official series compares Italian and US market rents directly. — accessed September 4, 2026
  14. Basis for typical_private_insurance_usd_month (200): an estimate anchored on the statutory minimum voluntary SSN contribution of EUR 2,000 per year (USD 194 per month at 1.1622), which is the realistic floor an elective residency holder pays for comprehensive cover. Commercial expatriate policies meeting the EUR 30,000 visa requirement span roughly USD 120 to USD 400 a month depending on age and deductible. The EUR 2,000 floor is statutory and verified in the Gazzetta Ufficiale text of Legge 213/2023 linked here, art. 1 comma 240 at page 46; the USD 200 figure itself is our estimate, not a published statistic. — accessed September 4, 2026
  15. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U, all items, US city average, not seasonally adjusted (series CUUR0000SA0): 2024 annual average 313.689; January to July 2026 average 331.18, the latest seven months published, a rise of 5.6%. Used for the US side of the price-level carry-forward. Values read through the BLS public data API, since bls.gov refuses automated page requests. — accessed September 4, 2026
  16. Eurostat, HICP monthly index for Italy (prc_hicp_midx, CP00, 2015 = 100): 2024 annual average 122.26, 2025 annual average 124.28, December 2025 124.9. Extended at the prevailing rate this gives cumulative Italian inflation of about 3.3% from the 2024 average to 2026, the Italian side of the price-level carry-forward. — accessed September 4, 2026
  17. Agenzia delle Entrate, IRPEF rates and calculation: 23% to EUR 28,000, 33% from EUR 28,000 to EUR 50,000, 43% above EUR 50,000, after the 2026 Budget Law cut the second bracket from 35%. — accessed September 4, 2026
  18. Agenzia delle Entrate (English), VAT in Italy: standard rate 22%, reduced rates of 10% and 4%. — accessed September 4, 2026
  19. Agenzia delle Entrate, optional regime for foreign pensioners (art. 24-ter TUIR): 7% substitute tax on all foreign income, valid for nine tax periods, for municipalities of up to 30,000 inhabitants in Sicily, Calabria, Sardinia, Campania, Basilicata, Abruzzo, Molise and Puglia. The 30,000 threshold applies from 7 April 2026, up from 20,000. — accessed September 4, 2026
  20. US Department of the Treasury, Convention between the United States and Italy for the avoidance of double taxation, signed 25 August 1999. Article 1(2) saving clause and its exceptions; Article 18(2) on social security payments; Article 19(2) on government pensions. — accessed September 4, 2026
  21. IRS, Italy tax treaty documents (1984 and 1999 conventions and technical explanations). — accessed September 4, 2026
  22. IRS, tax inflation adjustments for tax year 2026: foreign earned income exclusion USD 132,900, up from USD 130,000 for 2025. — accessed September 4, 2026
  23. Social Security Administration, Totalization Agreement with Italy (SSA Publication 05-10171), effective 1 November 1978; covers Social Security taxes including the Medicare portion but not Medicare benefits. Copy hosted by the Consulate General of Italy in Philadelphia, as ssa.gov blocks automated retrieval. — accessed September 4, 2026
  24. Ministero della Salute, Assistenza ai cittadini dei Paesi extra UE in Italia (page updated 23 December 2024). This is Italy's national health authority's own guidance for foreign residents and is the official_url shown in the healthcare block on this page. What the page itself states, verbatim in substance: access to the SSN varies with the reason for the stay; a stay of no more than 90 days, such as a tourist's, brings no SSN enrolment and urgent or elective care is paid at regional tariffs, except for students and au pairs; a holder of a valid permesso di soggiorno enrols at the ASL of the comune of anagrafe residence, or of the comune of effective domicilio shown on the permit; enrolment brings the choice of a medico di base and extends to lawfully resident dependants; and enrolment is either obbligatoria or volontaria. The page is a hub and links the two enrolment routes as separate sub-pages; it does not itself print the euro amounts, so the EUR 2,000, EUR 700 and EUR 1,200 minimums, the F24 payment channel and the calendar-year rule are cited to the statute in the Gazzetta Ufficiale entry below rather than to this page. Verified by rendering the page with a browser user agent; the Ministry portal returns a cookie-check wall to plain retrieval and serves a 200 shell for URLs that do not exist, so sub-page slugs on this site should not be trusted without rendering them. — accessed September 4, 2026
  25. Gazzetta Ufficiale, Legge 30 dicembre 2023, n. 213 (2024 Budget Law), full text in Supplemento ordinario n. 40/L to Serie generale n. 303 of 30 December 2023, art. 1 commi 240 and 241 at pages 46 and 47 of the PDF. Comma 240 amends art. 34 of the immigration consolidated act (D.Lgs. 286/1998): in comma 3 the words 'al contributo minimo previsto dalle norme vigenti' are replaced by 'a euro 2.000 annui', and a new sentence in comma 5 sets floors of 'euro 700 annui' for the cases in comma 4 letter a) and 'euro 1.200' for letter b). A new comma 6-bis lets a joint Health and Economy ministerial decree adjust those minimums annually. Comma 241 requires payment to the region where enrolment is sought 'utilizzando esclusivamente il modello F24'. This is the legal source for the EUR 2,000 minimum quoted on this page. Cited to the Gazzetta Ufficiale rather than to Normattiva because the Normattiva view of this act paginates art. 1 and does not render commi 240 and 241. — accessed September 4, 2026
  26. Consulate General of Italy in New York, Elective Residency visa requirements: roughly EUR 31,000 per year, passive income only, employment income excluded, registered lease or deed in the applicant's name required. — accessed September 4, 2026
  27. Consulate General of Italy in New York, Digital Nomad and Remote Worker visa: minimum income EUR 24,789 per year, health insurance of at least EUR 30,000 or USD 50,000, degree or five years of experience (three for ICT), one-year renewable residence permit. — accessed September 4, 2026
  28. Gazzetta Ufficiale Serie Generale n. 79 of 4 April 2024 (full issue PDF, decree begins at page 5): interministerial decree of 29 February 2024 on entry and residence of non-EU digital nomads and remote workers. Article 3(1) requires income from lawful sources of 'non inferiore al triplo del livello minimo previsto per l'esenzione dalla partecipazione alla spesa sanitaria', health insurance valid in Italy for the stay, documented accommodation, at least six months of prior experience in the activity to be carried on, and a work or collaboration contract or binding offer. The decree states only that formula; the euro figure of EUR 24,789 comes from applying it to the exemption threshold of EUR 8,263.31 and is the number the Consulate General in New York publishes, cited separately above. Article 1(2) places these entries outside the decreto flussi quotas, and article 3(2) and (3) remove the nulla osta requirement, which is why this route needs no Italian employer. — accessed September 4, 2026
  29. Ministero del Lavoro e delle Politiche Sociali, decreto flussi 2026-2028: 497,550 entries in total, 164,850 for 2026, 165,850 for 2027 and 166,850 for 2028. — accessed September 4, 2026
  30. Investor Visa for Italy, Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy: EUR 250,000 innovative startup, EUR 500,000 limited company, EUR 1,000,000 philanthropic initiative, EUR 2,000,000 government bonds; two-year visa. — accessed September 4, 2026
  31. Gazzetta Ufficiale, Legge 23 maggio 2025, n. 74 converting Decreto-legge 28 marzo 2025, n. 36 on citizenship, in force from 24 May 2025. — accessed September 4, 2026
  32. Consulate General of Italy in New York, citizenship: application fee EUR 600 per adult applicant, non-refundable, and summary of the Law 74/2025 restrictions on citizenship by descent. — accessed September 4, 2026
  33. Ministero degli Affari Esteri, official Italian visa portal listing all visa types and requirements by nationality and purpose of stay. — accessed September 4, 2026
  34. World Bank, population total for Italy: 58,915,656 in 2025. — accessed September 4, 2026
  35. World Bank / WHO Global Health Expenditure Database, current health expenditure as a share of GDP: Italy 8.44% (2024, latest available) and United States 16.69% (2023, latest available). The two countries' latest data points fall in different years. — accessed September 4, 2026
  36. World Bank, life expectancy at birth, 2024: Italy 84.0 years, United States 78.9 years. — accessed September 4, 2026

Nathan Brooks · Editor, Your New Country

Nathan builds and maintains the Your New Country dataset, reconciling figures from the OECD, Eurostat, the World Bank and national statistics offices, and reading each country’s immigration and tax guidance at the source before it is published.

  • Reads each country’s immigration, tax and health guidance in the original official source rather than in secondary coverage
  • Reconciles every published figure against OECD, Eurostat, World Bank and national statistics releases on a quarterly cycle
  • Publishes the derivation and the access date beside each number, and marks estimates as estimates

Data reviewed September 4, 2026 · source confidence: medium ·methodology

Your New Country publishes reference information, not tax advice. Tax positions are fact-specific and the penalties for getting a cross-border position wrong are heavier than the fees for getting it checked. Before you file, take advice from an accountant who works both systems, and confirm everything against Italy's tax authority and the IRS, which administers the US rules described here.

Keep going on Italy

Cost of livingCategory-by-category price levels, rent and a worked monthly budget.Visas & residencyEvery route a US citizen can actually use, with costs and official links.HealthcareHow the system works, what foreigners can access, what cover costs.US vs ItalyEvery figure on this site, side by side against the US baseline.

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