Abruzzo, Puglia and Sicily: these are the favourite destinations for foreign pensioners subject to the 7% flat tax

Abruzzo tops the list (221). Next come Puglia (191), Sicily (165) and Sardinia (136). These are the four regions that account for over 76 per cent of the choices made by foreign pensioners who move to Italia and take advantage of the 7 per cent flat tax. Detailed information on the 933 taxpayers who benefited from the preferential scheme in their 2025 tax returns (tax year 2024) was provided in the response from the Ministry of the Economy, read out by Undersecretary Lucia Albano, during Question Time in the Chamber of Deputies’ Finance Committee in response to a question tabled by the Lega (lead signatory Giulio Centemero).

As the reply itself explains, ‘the revenue derived from the substitute tax – amounting to 7 per cent of foreign-source income – are, overall, modest in scale but are gradually increasing, in line with the expansion of the number of taxpayers opting into the scheme’. The number of taxpayers who have opted for the substitute tax “has risen from 61 in the 2019 tax year (the year the scheme was introduced) to 933 in the 2024 tax year (the latest year for which data is available in the tax return database)”.

Let’s take a step back. The tax relief was introduced by the 2019 Budget Act and was subsequently subject to a number of revisions regarding the regions covered. More generally, it consists of the option to apply a flat tax of 7 per cent on foreign-sourced income for foreign pensioners who move to the regions of Sicily, Calabria, Sardinia, Campania, Basilicata, Abruzzo, Molise and Puglia, where the population does not exceed 30,000 inhabitants (the new limit has been in force since 7 April 2026, whereas previously it was 20,000 inhabitants). But that is not all, as foreign pensioners who transfer their residence to one of the municipalities – again with no more than 30,000 inhabitants – affected by the earthquakes of 6 April 2009 (the L’Aquila earthquake) or the seismic events of 2016 (the Central Italia earthquake).

Geographical constraints explain the choice of destinations. As mentioned earlier, Abruzzo has been the most popular choice, a trend that has been evident since the scheme’s first year of operation. The other favoured destinations are Puglia, Sicily and Sardinia. According to the Ministry of the Economy, the scheme has demonstrated ‘an appeal in line with its original aims, with rising revenue and a steadily increasing number of beneficiaries’ and ‘the Government will continue to monitor its progress, not least to assess any areas for improvement in relation to the objectives of territorial development and the strengthening of the research system in Southern Italy’.

The response also sets out the cumulative revenue generated by the measure from 2020 to date, which stands at 11.8 million euros. However, the figure for 2026 (€909,575) is still incomplete, as it is updated to 27 June and includes payment authorisations up to 19 June. A final assessment will therefore need to be made once the situation has settled and the payment data has been fully finalised.