Italy has quietly become one of the places the world’s wealthy choose to live. The abolition of the United Kingdom’s non-dom regime in 2025, security worries elsewhere, and a warm welcome from Rome have all pointed the same way, and a steady stream of internationally mobile families has followed, many of them landing in Milan and along the lakes. At the centre of the decision sits one instrument: Italy’s flat-tax regime for new residents. For an international buyer, understanding how it works is often the first step before choosing a home.
What the regime is, and what it is not
The regime, set out in article 24-bis of Italy’s income tax code, lets a qualifying new resident pay a single fixed substitute tax on all of their foreign-source income, instead of ordinary progressive rates. It is worth being precise, because three different schemes are often confused. This is not the regime forfettario, a simplified flat rate for small Italian self-employed businesses. It is not the impatriati regime, which gives a partial income-tax break to workers who move to Italy and earn here. And it is not the 7 percent regime for foreign pensioners who settle in small southern towns. The new-residents regime is the one built for globally mobile, asset-rich individuals, and it is the one that matters most when prime property is part of the plan.
What it costs
The headline is a single annual figure, paid regardless of how much foreign income you actually earn. It began at 100,000 euros a year when the regime launched in 2017. It rose to 200,000 euros for those who took up the regime from the 2025 tax year, and to 300,000 euros for anyone transferring their residence to Italy from 1 January 2026. Family members can be included for an additional flat amount each, which rose from 25,000 to 50,000 euros per person for new entrants in 2026. Importantly, the rate is fixed at entry: anyone who joined before 2026 keeps their original 100,000 or 200,000 euro figure for the life of the regime, a strong reason the earlier movers acted when they did.
Who qualifies, and for how long
Two tests matter. First, you must not have been an Italian tax resident for at least nine of the ten years before you move, which keeps the regime aimed at genuine newcomers. Second, you must actually become resident, the practical threshold being more than 183 days a year in Italy, judged on registration, habitual home and centre of life. The regime then lasts up to fifteen years and cannot be renewed, and it lapses if the annual tax is not paid in full. You opt in through your Italian tax return, and in anything but the simplest case it is wise to request an advance ruling from the tax authority first, to confirm your eligibility in writing.
What it actually covers
The appeal is breadth. The flat tax stands in for ordinary tax on all of your foreign income and gains: dividends, interest, foreign rents, foreign business profits and, with a narrow exception for some shareholdings sold in the first five years, capital gains. Income arising inside Italy is taxed normally. Beyond income, the regime removes the Italian wealth taxes on assets held abroad and the obligation to declare those foreign assets at all, and it limits Italian inheritance and gift tax to assets situated in Italy. For a family with global holdings, that combination, a predictable annual cost and a clean perimeter around foreign wealth, is often worth more than the headline tax saving itself.
What it means when you are buying in Italy
For a buyer, the regime reframes the purchase. A prime Italian home stops being only a lifestyle decision and becomes part of a tax-efficient move, and the maths shifts with the asset. For a family weighing a trophy such as a historic villa on the Como waterfront, a fixed 300,000 euros a year on worldwide income can be modest against the wealth involved, and the inheritance-tax perimeter is especially relevant. For others the calculation is about lifestyle and access, as with a modern villa on Lake Maggiore within an hour of Milan. The same logic drives the demand we describe in our piece on Italy and the world’s millionaires, and one of its most unusual local forms is the cross-border enclave covered in our guide to Campione d’Italia. For the broader market backdrop, see our analysis of Italy’s property market in H1 2026.
When you are ready to combine the move with the right home, Trevi Elite represents a selected prime portfolio across Italy and works alongside your advisers from first viewing to notary.
This article is general information, not tax or legal advice. The figures are current to 2026 and the rules are detailed and fact-specific.
Sources: Agenzia delle Entrate (regime for new residents); PwC Tax Summaries, Italy (individual taxation), accessed June 2026; Italy 2026 Budget Law (Law 199/2025) and Law Decree 113/2024. Figures as of June 2026.
