Before you start

Codice fiscale
A determination of whether you are tax resident for the year
Employment or business records, and details of foreign income and assets
SPID or CIE for the Agenzia delle Entrate portal

Step-by-step

1
Establish when tax residence begins
Registration in the anagrafe for more than half the year, or having your habitual abode or main centre of interests in Italy for more than 183 days, makes you resident for the entire calendar year.
OnlineWho: You
2
Model the regional surcharge before you accept a salary
Puglia's 2026 scale runs 1.33% to €15,000, 2.13% to €28,000, 3.23% to €50,000 and 3.33% above. It is withheld the year after the income year, in instalments from March to November, so the first full year's bill lands after you have set your budget.
Via employerWho: You
3
Claim the family deduction if it applies
The regional decree provides a €20 deduction per child against the surcharge for taxpayers with more than three dependent children, rising by €375 for a child with a disability under Law 104/1992. It is not automatic on a foreign employee's file — check it appears.
Via employerWho: You
4
Test the impatriate regime against the post-2024 rules
For transfers of residence from 2024, 50% of qualifying employment and professional income is exempt up to €600,000 a year for five tax periods, conditional on high qualification or specialisation, three prior years of non-residence, mainly working in Italy, and a four-year residence commitment. The old 90% southern rate is gone and does not apply in Puglia.
Via employerWho: YouBefore the first payroll run
5
If you are a pensioner, choose the comune before the flat
Article 24-ter TUIR's 7% substitute tax on all foreign-source income requires residence in a qualifying comune in one of eight southern regions. Puglia qualifies; Bari does not, because the ceiling is 30,000 inhabitants — raised from 20,000 by Law 34 of 11 March 2026 with effect from 7 April 2026.
OnlineWho: You
6
Consider the forfettario, declare foreign assets, and budget TARI
The forfettario is a 15% substitute tax — 5% for the first five years of a genuinely new activity — on revenue up to €85,000, replacing IRPEF and both surcharges, with INPS on top from the first euro. Residents must also report foreign assets on the RW section and pay IVAFE and IVIE, and file a TARI declaration on moving in and out.
OnlineWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Codice fiscale and SPID or CIE
Certificazione Unica from the employer
Records of foreign income, accounts and property
Deduction receipts — medical, mortgage interest, renovation works, university fees
Registered lease, for tenant deductions and the TARI declaration

Things most newcomers don’t know

Puglia's regional surcharge was raised in 2026 by a health-deficit recovery mechanism, and it now tops out at the legal maximum.

Italian law requires a region that fails to cover its health-service deficit to raise the regional IRPEF surcharge to recover it. Puglia's accounts to the fourth quarter of 2025 triggered that: decree no. 3 of 28 May 2026, issued by the Regional President acting as commissioner, redetermined the rates for the 2026 tax period, and the comunicato was published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale on 10 June 2026. The result — 1.33% / 2.13% / 3.23% / 3.33% — puts Puglia at the ceiling for higher incomes, against Sicily's flat 1.23% and most northern regions well below it. On €60,000 of taxable income that difference is worth more than a month's rent every year.

Source: Dipartimento delle Finanze; Regione Puglia decree 3/2026

The comune pulls the other way, and the exempt band is unusually generous.

Bari's municipal surcharge is the ordinary 0.8%, applied under a delibera of 31 July 2012, with taxable income up to €15,000 exempt entirely — a more generous floor than Catania's €7,500 or Genoa's €14,000, and better than Palermo's, which has no exempt band at all. On low incomes the municipal side of a Bari payslip is genuinely nothing. The regional side is where the money is, and the two are set by different bodies for different reasons.

Source: Dipartimento delle Finanze

There is a family deduction inside the regional surcharge that payroll frequently misses.

The regional decree gives taxpayers with more than three dependent children a €20 deduction per child against the addizionale regionale, rising by €375 for a child with a disability recognised under Law 104/1992. It is small in absolute terms but it is a regional provision that a payroll bureau configured from a national template will not apply on its own, and it is worth checking on the first Certificazione Unica rather than assuming.

Source: Regione Puglia; Regional Law 40/2015

The 90% southern impatriate exemption is gone, and southern Italy is where the stale advice still circulates.

Until transfers of residence in 2023, the impatriate regime exempted 90% of qualifying income for people moving to the southern regions, Puglia included. D.Lgs. 209/2023 replaced the whole regime for transfers from 2024 with a flat 50% exemption capped at €600,000 and no geographical uplift — and the relief is clawed back with interest if you leave Italy inside four years. Anyone modelling a move to Bari on the 90% figure is out by forty percentage points, and in Puglia the regional surcharge widens the error further.

Source: Agenzia delle Entrate; D.Lgs. 209/2023

Common mistakes to avoid

Budgeting a Puglia salary on the national IRPEF bands and ignoring a regional surcharge that reaches 3.33%.
Modelling a move south on the abolished 90% impatriate exemption.
Missing the regional family deduction for a fourth or subsequent dependent child.
Registering residence in Bari as a pensioner and forfeiting the 7% regime available in smaller Puglian comuni.
Failing to file the TARI declaration on move-in and move-out.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.