Italy · administrative route
Emigrating to Italy
Italy asks no permit — it asks order. The codice fiscale before everything, the home before the residenza, the residenza before the health card, and then the vigile comes round to check whether you really live there. Alongside, the story few people know: fiscally this is the most favourable country on this site for pensioners. This page shows how it really works.
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- Kind of journey
- EU — register, no visa
- The chain
- Codice fiscale → home → residenza → tessera sanitaria
- Note
- The order is the pitfall — every step is the proof for the next
Last updated: August 2026
The journey
Five phases, from the region choice to the vigile
A route of orders: the tax number you already arrange from the Netherlands, the rental contract that's your entry ticket, the registration that's done in two working days — and the residence check that follows. Plus the clocks of the car and the child allowance that only comes when you apply for it.
- 1
Orientation
The chain, and the choice North or South
Italy has no permit but an order: codice fiscale, home, residenza, health card — every step is the entry ticket for the next. In this phase you learn that chain, and make the choice that weighs nowhere as heavily as here: the North of the jobs and the high rents, or the South of the space and the half prices. Plus the honest conversation about the language, the wage level and the pace of the bureaucracy.
- 2
Closing the Netherlands
A pension treaty from the friendly school
The familiar list — healthcare, benefits, deregistration, documents — with pension rules that are among the most favourable on the site: the treaty from 1990 assigns AOW and company pension exclusively to Italy, the country-of-residence factor is 0.4641 (not even half the Dutch base), and whoever moves to a small village in the South can pay 7% on all foreign income for ten years. The certificates travel apostille-free — with the multilingual model form, because Italy only accepts Italian.
- 3
The move
The Gotthard or the Brenner
Within the EU moving is administratively nothing — the drive is the planning: eleven hundred to seventeen hundred kilometres via Switzerland or the Brenner. The car deserves its own decision, because the clocks of the Netherlands and Italy have to start in the right order: first the Italian process, only then the RDW export notification. The dog comes along without tapeworm treatment, but has to go into the regional register quickly after arrival.
- 4
Registration in Italy
Two working days — and then the vigile comes
The codice fiscale you already arrange from the Netherlands, free via the embassy. Then the home with the registered contract (deposit legally at most three months), the residenza declaration that's done in two working days with retroactive legal effect, and the residence check of 45 days in which the vigile drops by unannounced. After that everything opens: the health card via the ASL, the Italian ID card that clears the way to SPID, and the bank account you're legally entitled to.
- 5
Arrival
Three months for the car, an ISEE for the child allowance
The car on Italian plates within three months — via one counter, without registration tax, and with the Dutch BPM refund as a windfall. The child allowance only comes once you've first arranged the ISEE income certificate, the collective agreement in your employment contract is your de facto minimum wage, and the small print teaches: the waste tax goes in your name, the broadcasting fee sits in the electricity bill, and the ZTL cameras of the city centres know no mercy.
Look inside
This is what one step of your plan looks like
Not a brochure but the real thing: this is one of the steps of the Italy journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan — with the deadlines, the counters and the sources.
Step 4.3 of your plan
The residenza: two working days, and then the vigile comes
- Lead time
- registration 2 working days; residence check up to 45 days
- Costs
- free; the certificate ± € 17
Make the dichiarazione di residenza at the anagrafe of your municipality (or online via the national ANPR portal — even your DigiD works there via the European link). Working people show the employment contract; non-active people show means — the guideline is the annual amount of the assegno sociale, about € 7,100 for a single person, by self-declaration — plus comprehensive health insurance (the S1 form counts; the blue EHIC card doesn't). The registration is complete within two working days, with legal effect from the date of declaration. After that the municipality has 45 days for the residence check: the vigile comes by unannounced. Put your name on the doorbell and the letterbox — and if no response from the municipality follows, the registration counts as tacitly confirmed.
This is step 4.3 of 32. The other 31 are ready for you — each with the same sources, the same counters and a planning that watches your dates.
What it costs
A rough indication for your situation
A few short questions, and you get a range instead of an amount. That's deliberate: an exact figure would suggest a precision nobody has.
Count on a total of
€ 2.300 – € 8.100
Where does that difference come from?
- De eerste maanden€ 2.200 – € 7.500
Open the breakdown below: there you'll find per item where the upper and the lower limit come from.
- Aanvraag en papieren
- € 20 – € 200
- De verhuizing
- € 100 – € 400
- De eerste maanden
- € 2.200 – € 7.500
View the itemsPer item the amount, the source and whether it's a rate or an estimate
Aanvraag en papieren
- ID-kaart (CIE) en attesten€ 20 – € 55
- Akten en eventuele vertalingen(estimate)€ 0 – € 100
De verhuizing
- Reis(estimate)€ 100 – € 400
Elfhonderd kilometer naar Milaan, zestienhonderdvijftig naar Rome, met twee bergroutes: via Zwitserland (jaarvignet CHF 40, tunnels inbegrepen, maar boven de 3,5 ton geldt de kilometerheffing) of via de Brenner (tiendagenvignet € 12,80 plus Brennertol). Tel de Italiaanse autostrada mee — zo'n € 7-8 per honderd kilometer — en een overnachting onderweg voor wie in één gezinsauto rijdt.
De eerste maanden
- De eerste maanden(estimate)€ 2.200 – € 7.500
De borg is wettelijk maximaal drie maanden huur (gebruikelijk één à twee) en bovenop de huur komen de spese condominiali (€ 50-200 per maand) en de TARI-afvalbelasting op jouw naam. De huren lopen nergens zo uiteen als hier: Milaan rekent zo'n € 23 per vierkante meter, Rome € 19-20, het Zuiden € 8-11 — je regiokeuze bepaalt deze post meer dan wat ook. Tel de dubbele lasten van de zoekweken mee en het eigen energiecontract op de vrije markt.
And if you buy a house?
This calculation assumes renting: the first months include deposit and rent in advance.
If you buy, count on 4 to 15% of the purchase price on top of this amount. On a home of € 250,000 that's € 10.000 to € 37.500.
Alles hangt aan één vraag: geldt de prima casa-regeling? Verplaats je je woonadres binnen achttien maanden naar de gemeente van de woning, dan betaal je 2% registratiebelasting over de kadastrale waarde in plaats van 9%. Voor een emigrant is dat goed haalbaar, en het scheelt op een woning van twee ton al gauw vijftien- tot twintigduizend euro. De notaris rekent 1 tot 2,5% en is in Italië verplicht. De onderkant is dus prima casa, de bovenkant een tweede woning zonder die regeling.
An order of magnitude based on averages, not a quote. The real amounts depend on your occupation, your route, the season and dozens of choices you still have to make.
Rates checked on 22 August 2026.
Your complete, personal cost picture — with your route, your documents and your deadlines — you get in Vertrekklaar.
That was the move. And once you live there?
Who may tax your pension once you live in Italy, is there a favourable regime, and how do you become insured? That depends on where your income comes from. Tick it and you see which rules apply to you — with the source.
See the financial conditionsThe departure guide
Five mails, and you see your whole journey
Not ready to start yet? Then we'll send you the departure guide for Italy: five mails in a week and a half, with the order, the pitfalls and the real costs. After that only a short update when something in Italy really changes — at most one a month, no newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
Read on
The knowledge base on Italy
Per phase, the articles that are already there. They're written from the same journey and go deeper than what fits above.
Arrival
- 3 min
Buying a house in Italy: the notaio does a lot — but three choices determine your bill
At first sight Italy looks like the Netherlands: the notaio checks, collects the taxes and registers your ownership. The difference lies in what *you* choose beforehand: taxation on the cadastral value (prezzo-valore), whether or not to take the prima-casa benefit with its 18-month deadline, and buying from a private individual or a builder. Those choices make a difference of thousands of euros.
Updated 28 August 2026
- 3 min
Healthcare in Italy: the ticket, the classes and the exemptions
GP and hospital are free, for a specialist and diagnostics you pay the ticket of at most € 36.15 per prescription — and the priority class on that prescription determines, bindingly, how long you may have to wait. Whoever knows the classes, the exemptions and the intramoenia route gets out of the Italian system what's in it.
Updated 28 August 2026
Leaving the Netherlands — for every destination
- 2 min
Keeping a bank account and DigiD: the two lines you never cut
After your deregistration you still need the Netherlands for years — for the M return, refunds and your pension. Within the EU your bank account is a right, towards Australia a favour from the bank. And your DigiD you arrange before departure, not after.
Updated 11 August 2026
- 3 min
The protective assessment: the bill that travels with you, and that never expires for one item
On emigration the Netherlands imposes an assessment on your pension, your annuity and your substantial shareholding that you don't have to pay — as long as you do nothing that makes it collectable. For pension and annuity it usually lapses after ten years. For a substantial shareholding it doesn't: that one remains valid indefinitely.
Updated 27 August 2026
- 2 min
Emigrating with children after a divorce: the consent that comes before everything
With joint custody you can't just go abroad with the children — you need the consent of the other parent, or substitute consent from the court. What the court weighs, and why leaving without consent is legally child abduction.
Updated 11 August 2026
- 3 min
Emigrating on early retirement: the CAK route is expected to close as of 1 November 2026
Whoever moves to the EU or Switzerland with a Dutch pension arranges their healthcare via the CAK. That door is closing to a crack: as expected, from 1 November only new applicants with AOW, Anw, WAO, WIA or Wajong will be admitted. Early retirement and RVU fall outside it — whoever is already a customer keeps their rights.
Updated 16 August 2026
- 2 min
The M form: the tax return for the year in which you emigrated
For the year of your departure you lived partly inside and partly outside the Netherlands, and a separate return goes with that. Nowadays it can be done online — but you have to think of it yourself, because an invitation rarely comes by itself.
Updated 9 August 2026
- 2 min
Your AOW accrual stops on departure — and you have one year to repair that
Every year outside the Netherlands costs you 2% AOW (the Dutch state pension), for life. The SVB has a voluntary continuation that closes that gap — but signing up is only possible in the first year after departure, and almost everyone misses that deadline.
Updated 11 August 2026
- 3 min
Your Dutch pension abroad: what comes along, and who levies
The AOW (the Dutch state pension) travels fully to the EU and to Australia — the latter thanks to a treaty from 2001. Your company pension too, but *where* you pay on it depends on the tax treaty, and the exemption you arrange yourself.
Updated 11 August 2026
- 3 min
Cancelling your health insurance without a gap
Your Dutch basic insurance is tied to living or working in the Netherlands and stops being a given on emigration. The art is to have the end date match your new cover — and to know which route belongs to your situation.
Updated 28 August 2026
- 2 min
Taking medicines across the border: certificates, supply and the 90-day ceiling
For medicines under the Opium Act you need a certificate — and the Dutch system only carries you for three months. What you arrange with the CAK, what Australia wants to see at the border, and why finding a local doctor simply belongs to your first weeks.
Updated 11 August 2026
- 9 min
Partner comes along without a job of their own: deregistering, healthcare, AOW and the house
Your partner has a job, a visa or a right of residence there; you come along without a job of your own. Administratively you're then no passenger: the deregistration, the end of your health insurance and your AOW accrual apply to you separately. What you get back if you arrange it well, what it costs if you let it slide — and why "just staying registered" isn't an option.
Updated 7 September 2026
- 2 min
Stopping allowances on emigration: do it yourself, and in time
Housing allowance, healthcare allowance, childcare allowance and child budget don't stop by themselves on the day you leave. Whoever lets them run gets a reclaim months later — this is what you arrange per allowance.
Updated 9 August 2026
- 3 min
Deregistering with the municipality: when exactly, and what stops then
Deregistering from the BRP is only possible from five days before departure, and is compulsory as soon as you're away for more than eight months a year. What stops at that moment, what stays, and which piece of paper you have to ask for right away.
Updated 9 August 2026
- 6 min
When does your pension stay taxed in the Netherlands? The three pots and the three conditions
"Your pension is taxed in your new country of residence" is right by approximation and not in the details. Your AOW, your company pension and your government pension each follow a rule of their own, and with the company pension the Netherlands can still levy if three conditions apply at once. This article explains which three, and which four questions you have to answer for your own situation.
Updated 27 August 2026
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