Paying 20% taxes as a Remote Software Engineer in Italy
Not many people know about it, but you can pay <30% in taxes in Italy as a Tech Worker.
🌊 Regime Forfettario 🌊
What is it?
A flat-rate income tax for freelancers and small business owners:
5% for your first five years
15% afterwards
Works only if you operate under a sole proprietorship (”Partita Iva”), and only if your revenue is below €85’000 per year.
Profit margins are calculated “automatically”:
You can’t deduct business expenses
Instead: 78% of your revenue (in case of tech workers) is considered taxable
Then, you pay the income tax on that 78% of revenue.
On top of this, you also need to pay social security: called “INPS”, in Italy.
The amount will depend on a few details, but it’s around 26%
This also is applied just on the 78% taxable base
Some example math at €60k revenue:
Case 1: 5% income (first 5 years after opening):
Taxable base: €60k × 78% = €46,800
INPS (26.07%) = €12,200
Income tax (5% on €34,600) = €1,730
Total burden = ~€13,930 (~23% of gross)
Case 2: 15% (normal / after 5 years):
Taxable base: €60k × 78% = €46,800
INPS (26.07%) = €12,200
Income tax (15% on €34,600) = €5,190
Total burden = ~€17,390 (~29% of gross)
At other income levels, it’s still roughly the same:
23% for the first 5 years
~29% afterwards
It’s not single digit tax rates.
But: 23% first, and 29% later, total tax, for Italy... It’s not too bad!
The 85k revenue cap will be low for many people.
But there’s a clear segment of people for which this is an interesting proposition:
Remote worker making 50-85k per year
Prioritising WLB and lifestyle
Living in Rome, Catania, or some other good value Italian town
It’s not a bad life.
Real estate in Italy outside of Milan is dirt cheap.
Save some money working abroad, move to Italy with Forfettario, buy a house, live rent free, enjoy some of the best lifestyles in the world while working a chill job.
3.5-5.5k euros per month gets you very far in many Italian cities.
What do you think?
Would you do it?
Let me know replying to this email! I read all the replies.
Nic
This article is brought to you by:
Euro Top Tech - The #1 SaaS for top-paying tech careers in Europe:
2000+ top paying tech jobs in Europe from big tech companies, HFT firms and high-paying scale-ups.
1000+ jobs from 100+ fully-remote companies paying $100-600k per year.
Private guides - like this one - to help you land these jobs.
Remote GOATs - The operating system for high-earning remote workers:
Curated job board with thousands of six-figure remote tech roles (Europe-remote, global-remote, NA, LATAM, APAC).
Career Lab: practical guides + AI tools to land and negotiate top remote roles.
AI Relocation Software: decide where to live using data, not vibes.
Real-world data from remote workers on income, taxes, cost of living, and overall life satisfaction.
Private network of location-independent operators building borderless lives.Full access to paid content, deep dives, and the Remote GOATs community.
Six Figure Euro Engineer - Maxx your pay and lifestyle as a tech worker in Europe:
Work 1:1 with me (Nicola Amadio, author of this newsletter), and join the other engineers who were able to 2x/3x they pay and freedom in the past few months!
