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 municipal surcharge in brackets, not as a flat rate
Genoa exempts taxable income up to €14,000 and then charges 1.0% up to €28,000, 1.1% to €50,000 and 1.2% above, under delibera 55 of 19 December 2024. Almost no payroll template expects a bracketed municipal rate above the ordinary cap, so check the first Certificazione Unica carefully.
Via employerWho: You
3
Look up Liguria's regional surcharge for the current year
The regional addizionale is set by the region and published on the Dipartimento delle Finanze lookup. Rates are revised annually and a figure from a secondary site can be a year out — take it from the official database.
OnlineWho: 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.
Via employerWho: YouBefore the first payroll run
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

Genoa is one of very few Italian comuni with a genuinely progressive municipal surcharge, and it is above the usual ceiling.

The addizionale comunale IRPEF is normally a single flat rate capped at 0.8%, or 0.9% for a provincial capital. Genoa instead exempts the first €14,000 of taxable income entirely and then applies 1.0%, 1.1% and 1.2% in brackets mirroring the national ones, under delibera 55 of 19 December 2024. For a lower earner that is genuinely generous — nothing at all below €14,000. For a good salary it is the steepest municipal rate of the four cities added here. Either way it is the line that a relocation calculator built from a national template gets wrong.

Source: Dipartimento delle Finanze; Comune di Genova

Take Liguria's regional surcharge from the official database, not from a summary.

Regional surcharges are revised annually and published by the Dipartimento delle Finanze; the official database is authoritative and the aggregator sites frequently carry a figure that is a year old or has mixed up a base rate with an applied one. For Liguria in particular, secondary sources disagree with each other. Look it up for the specific tax year before you model a salary, and use the lookup rather than a blog.

Source: Dipartimento delle Finanze

Genoa's low rents are partly a demographic phenomenon, and the tax picture does not offset them.

Liguria has the oldest population in Italy and Genoa has been shrinking for decades, which is a large part of why a big northern Italian city has rents closer to the south than to Milan. The local tax load does not follow the rents down: the municipal surcharge is above the national ceiling. The net position is still good — cheap housing beats a fraction of a percent on income tax — but the two facts have the same root cause and it is worth understanding why the city is affordable.

Source: Istat; Dipartimento delle Finanze

The 2024 impatriate rewrite claws relief back if you leave inside four years.

The regime is conditional on remaining tax resident for at least four tax years after the transfer, and leaving early recovers the relief already taken, plus interest. It is a contingent liability that should be weighed before accepting a fixed-term posting or a two-year shipping contract — and in a port city with a lot of rotational and fixed-term work, that is a more common situation than elsewhere.

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

Common mistakes to avoid

Assuming a flat 0.8% municipal surcharge — Genoa's is bracketed and runs to 1.2%.
Taking Liguria's regional rate from a secondary site rather than the official lookup.
Taking impatriate relief and leaving Italy inside four years on a fixed-term contract.
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.