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
Budget the two local surcharges separately
Sicily levies a flat regional addizionale of 1.23%. Catania levies the ordinary municipal 0.8% with an exemption for taxable income up to €7,500, under a delibera of 22 January 2019 confirmed each year since. Both are withheld the year after the income year, in instalments from March to November.
Via employerWho: You
3
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 Sicily.
Via employerWho: YouBefore the first payroll run
4
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. Sicily qualifies; Catania 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
5
Consider the forfettario if you are self-employed
A 15% substitute tax — 5% for the first five years of a genuinely new activity — on revenue up to €85,000, with a profitability coefficient applied by sector. It replaces IRPEF, both surcharges and IRAP, and INPS contributions are due on top from the first euro.
OnlineWho: You
6
Declare foreign assets on the RW section and budget TARI
Residents must report foreign financial assets and property and pay IVAFE and IVIE on them whether or not they produced income. TARI is billed by the comune to whoever occupies the flat, tenants included, and needs a 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

Catania's combined local surcharge is among the lightest in urban Italy, and the shape is the reason.

The regional addizionale ranges from 1.23% to 3.33% across Italy. Sicily applies the flat national floor of 1.23% where Lazio and Campania charge the maximum and Puglia now reaches it on higher incomes; Catania's own municipal rate is the ordinary 0.8%, with taxable income up to €7,500 exempt. That combination — floor region, ordinary comune, real exempt band — is genuinely unusual, and it is the concrete counterweight to Sicilian salaries being low. Palermo, in the same region, charges 1.03% municipally with no exempt band.

Source: Dipartimento delle Finanze

The 7% pensioner regime is a reason to look outside the city, and the threshold moved in April 2026.

Article 24-ter TUIR gives a foreign pensioner who has not been Italian tax-resident for five years a 7% substitute tax on all foreign-source income for nine tax periods, if they take residence in a qualifying comune in Sicily, Calabria, Sardinia, Campania, Basilicata, Abruzzo, Molise or Puglia. Law 34 of 11 March 2026 raised the population ceiling from 20,000 to 30,000 with effect from 7 April 2026, bringing more of the Etna and Ionian-coast towns inside it. Catania, at around 300,000 people, is not eligible and never will be — which for a pensioner can matter more than every other difference between two addresses.

Source: Agenzia delle Entrate; Law 34/2026 art. 26

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, Sicily 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 at all — and the relief is clawed back with interest if you leave Italy inside four years. Anyone modelling a move to Catania on the 90% figure is out by forty percentage points.

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

The forfettario's 15% headline excludes INPS contributions, which start at the first euro.

Self-employed people in Italy pay social security from the first euro of income, not above a threshold, through the Gestione Separata or a professional fund. On top of the 15% substitute tax that is a substantial further percentage. Catania's low cost base makes freelancing here attractive to remote workers, and the contribution is the number most often left out of the comparison.

Source: INPS; Agenzia delle Entrate

Common mistakes to avoid

Modelling a move south on the abolished 90% impatriate exemption.
Taking impatriate relief and leaving Italy inside four years.
Registering residence in Catania as a pensioner and forfeiting the 7% regime available in smaller comuni nearby.
Comparing the forfettario's 15% with foreign rates while ignoring INPS contributions from the first euro.
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.