Expat Living Italy

7% flat tax for foreign pensioners moving to southern Italy

Individuals holding foreign-source pension income who move their tax residence to a qualifying southern comune can elect a 7% flat substitute tax on their foreign-source income, in place of ordinary IRPEF, for the year of transfer plus the following nine tax periods — ten in total, non-renewable.

A small fan of envelopes and a pen on a sunlit table, with a red coffee cup beside them.
The statute admits 3 routes. This page covers 3.
  • listedAnywhere in eight southern regions. A comune in Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Puglia, Sardegna or Sicilia whose resident population is at or below the threshold. (TUIR art. 24-ter, comma 1 — first limb)
  • listedThe 2016–17 Central Italy seismic crater. Comuni in Abruzzo, Lazio, Marche and Umbria listed in the three annexes to D.L. 189/2016. These are named individually in the legislation, not described by a criterion, so this route can only be encoded by transcribing the annexes. (TUIR art. 24-ter, comma 1 — second limb ('comuni di cui agli allegati 1, 2 e 2-bis al decreto-legge 17 ottobre 2016, n. 189, convertito, con modificazioni, dalla legge 15 dicembre 2016, n. 229'), subject to the same 'avente comunque una popolazione non superiore a 30.000 abitanti' cap as the first limb (raised from 20,000 by L. 11 marzo 2026, n. 34, art. 26, comma 1 — see meta.verificationNotes for how that scope question was resolved). Comune list: Allegati 1, 2 and 2-bis to D.L. 189/2016 itself, read directly from the decree text (arts. 1 and 6).)
  • listedComuni affected by the 6 April 2009 L'Aquila earthquake. The 2009 Abruzzo earthquake crater. A separate list from the 2016–17 annexes, defined by its own emergency decree, and overlapping them only in part. (TUIR art. 24-ter, comma 1 — second limb ('comuni interessati dagli eventi sismici del 6 aprile 2009'), added to art. 24-ter by D.L. 27 gennaio 2022, n. 4 (Decreto Sostegni-ter), conv. con modificazioni dalla L. 28 marzo 2022, n. 25; subject to the same 'avente comunque una popolazione non superiore a 30.000 abitanti' cap as the other two limbs (raised from 20,000 by L. 11 marzo 2026, n. 34, art. 26, comma 1). Comune list: the 2009 'cratere sismico' — 49 comuni named by Decreto del Commissario delegato n. 3 del 16 aprile 2009 (Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 89 del 17 aprile 2009), plus 8 more added by Decreto n. 11 del 17 luglio 2009 (Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 173 del 28 luglio 2009) — 57 total, read verbatim from both decrees' own Gazzetta Ufficiale publication text; see sourcingNotes.)
2,535
qualifying comuni
8
regions
≤ 30,000
residents per comune
10,898,860
people living in them
The 20 cheapest of these towns, illustrated →Ranked by OMI purchase price per m² — with a landmark, a well-being highlight, and a link to each town’s own profile.

How this list is built: the rule is stored as data, not prose, and the towns are derived by applying it to this site’s comune population — never hand-listed. A comune that crosses 30,000 residents in a future update drops off this page on its own. The threshold binds to ISTAT's annual municipal demographic survey (“Rilevazione comunale annuale del movimento e calcolo della popolazione”) as of 1 January of the year PRECEDING the first tax period of the option, and that figure stays binding for the whole run unless the taxpayer moves to a different qualifying comune. This site applies the threshold to ISTAT resident population at 1 January 2025 — which is exactly the binding figure for someone whose first tax period is 2026. Someone starting in 2027 binds to 1 January 2026 instead, so a comune close to the line should be checked against its own year.

A qualifying town is not a qualifying person. Where you move is only one of the conditions. The rest are about you, and no map can check them: Holds pension income paid by a foreign source. Was not tax-resident in Italy in the five tax periods preceding the one in which the option takes effect (art. 24-ter comma 2). Transfers residence from a country with an administrative-cooperation agreement in force with Italy (art. 24-ter comma 3).

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The rule, and what still needs checking

Criteria checked against the statute and the Agenzia delle Entrate guidance above on 2026-08-23. Still not tax advice — the personal criteria in particular are worth a commercialista’s eye.

Sources · data as of 2026-10-03
  • Qualifying comuniExpat Living Italy — rule applied to ISTAT population — Comuni admitted by the 7% pensioner regime. Routes covered: Anywhere in eight southern regions (2,424 comuni); The 2016–17 Central Italy seismic crater (133 comuni); Comuni affected by the 6 April 2009 L'Aquila earthquake (56 comuni). The population threshold is 30,000 residents. Derived by applying the rule to the resident population in this site's comune spine — not a hand-maintained list — so a comune crossing the threshold leaves on the next run. Shaded by population. Personal eligibility depends on criteria no map can check.