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 residence for tax begins
Registration in the anagrafe for more than half the year, or having your habitual abode or main centre of interests in Italy for over 183 days, makes you resident for the entire calendar year. Arriving in autumn usually leaves you non-resident for that year and resident from 1 January.
OnlineWho: You
2
Test the impatriate regime against the post-2024 rules
For transfers from 2024, D.Lgs. 209/2023 exempts 50% of qualifying employment and professional income up to €600,000 a year for five tax periods, conditional on a high qualification or specialisation, three prior years of non-residence — six or seven if returning to the same employer or group — mainly working in Italy, and a four-year commitment to remain resident. The taxable share falls to 40% with a minor child.
Via employerWho: YouBefore the first payroll run
3
Let payroll handle withholding and collect the CU
Employees are taxed at source and receive a Certificazione Unica each March. Many with only employment income file nothing, or accept the pre-filled 730 the Agenzia delle Entrate has already populated.
Via employerWho: YouMarch
4
File a 730 or a Redditi PF return where required
The 730 is the simplified return for employees and pensioners, due in September; Redditi PF covers the self-employed and anyone with foreign income and runs to a later autumn deadline. Foreign income and assets normally push you into Redditi PF.
OnlineWho: YouMay–October
5
Complete the RW foreign asset declaration
Residents must report foreign financial assets and property in the RW section and pay IVAFE on foreign financial assets and IVIE on foreign property. The obligation is independent of whether those assets produced income, and omission penalties are heavy.
OnlineWho: You
6
Budget for TARI, IMU and the two surcharges
TARI is billed by Roma Capitale to whoever occupies the flat, tenants included. IMU is an owner's tax that does not apply to a main home outside luxury cadastral categories. The Lazio regional and Roman municipal IRPEF surcharges are added to national rates and Rome's municipal rate is at the top of the range.
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, renovations, university fees
Registered lease, for tenant deductions and the TARI declaration

Things most newcomers don’t know

The impatriate regime everyone quotes is the pre-2024 one, and it is 20 percentage points more generous than what applies now.

Until transfers of residence in 2023, the regime exempted 70% of qualifying income and 90% in the southern regions, with a five-year extension. From 2024 it is 50%, capped at €600,000 of income, with no southern uplift, a high-qualification test, three years of prior non-residence and a four-year commitment to stay. Relocation packages have been negotiated on the old numbers by mistake. Check which set of rules your transfer date falls under before you model anything.

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

Rome's municipal IRPEF surcharge sits at the top of the permitted band, which no job negotiation mentions.

Roma Capitale applies the addizionale comunale at the maximum the law allows, connected to the city's long-standing debt repayment plan, on top of Lazio's regional surcharge. Two identical salaries, one in Rome and one in a comune levying little or nothing, produce visibly different net pay. Liability follows where you are resident on 1 January, so a move across the municipal boundary in January and in December have different consequences for the whole year.

Source: Roma Capitale; Ministry of Economy and Finance

International-organisation staff are outside the domestic regime entirely, and the two guidance sets get mixed up here more than anywhere.

FAO, WFP, IFAD and similar bodies operate under headquarters agreements that give their officials a distinct status for income tax and residence. That has nothing to do with the impatriate regime and does not stack with it. Rome is the one Italian city where both populations are large, so advice circulating in expatriate circles is frequently the wrong advice for the person reading it. Take the position from your own organisation's legal office, not from a forum.

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs

TARI follows the occupier, so tenants inherit the waste bill and sometimes the last tenant's arrears.

Unlike IMU, TARI is charged to whoever occupies the property, and you must file a declaration with Roma Capitale when you move in and again when you move out. Failing to close it means being billed for a flat you left. Ask the landlord for evidence that the previous occupier's TARI account was closed before signing — an unclosed one becomes your dispute to have with the comune.

Source: Roma Capitale

Common mistakes to avoid

Negotiating on the pre-2024 70% impatriate exemption.
Taking impatriate relief and then leaving Italy inside four years, which claws it back with interest.
Ignoring Rome's maximum municipal surcharge when comparing offers between cities.
Skipping the RW declaration because the foreign assets produced no income.
Not filing 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.