Income threshold by household, requirements, application and the tax regimes that make the move work for remote workers and freelancers.
Search for the income you need for the Italy digital nomad visa and you will find six different numbers. Five are wrong, and the sixth is only right for a single applicant with no family. The decree does not set an amount at all: it sets a formula, indexed to a healthcare figure and scaled by household. Get it wrong and you either disqualify yourself for no reason or arrive at the consulate short.
This page starts there, and then deals with the part almost nobody covers: what happens to your tax position the day you land.
It is a national long-stay visa for non-EU nationals doing highly qualified work remotely. The right was created in 2022 by an amendment to article 27 of the Consolidated Immigration Act, but it sat unusable until the interministerial decree of 29 February 2024, in force from 5 April 2024, set the conditions. Italians call it the digital nomad visa Italia or visto per nomadi digitali.
Two features make it unusually accessible: it sits outside the flows decree quotas, so there is no queue and no cap, and it needs no work authorisation. You go straight to the consulate. People search for it as the Italian remote work visa, Italy remote work visa, Italy remote working visa, remote work visa Italy, remote working visa Italy, Italian nomad visa or digital nomad Italy visa: it is all the same instrument.
Whether you search for Italy nomad visa requirements, Italian digital nomad visa requirements or digital nomad visa Italy requirements, the answer is the same six conditions. Two of them account for most refusals, and neither is the one applicants worry about.
The decree requires annual income from lawful sources of at least three times the minimum level for exemption from healthcare cost-sharing. That base is €8,263.31 for a person with no dependants, giving about €24,790; it rises to €11,362.05 with a dependent spouse, and by a further €516.46 for each dependent child.
So the requirement scales with your household, which is why the published figures diverge so wildly: different sources copied different points on the same scale without recognising it is a scale.
If your means are passive, this is the wrong visa and the elective residency visa is the right one.
The visa borrows the EU Blue Card definition, with four alternatives: a tertiary qualification from a course of at least three years; the requirements of a regulated profession; five years of professional experience at a comparable level; or, for ICT managers and specialists only, three years of experience in the previous seven. The obstacle is not qualifying but proving it: a foreign degree usually needs recognition through CIMEA or a Declaration of Value, which takes time applicants rarely budget for.
You need a lease, rental contract or deed in your own name, covering the whole duration of the visa, and a lease must be registered with the Revenue Agency. A hotel booking, an Airbnb or a hospitality declaration is not accepted, and the file is refused. Several widely read English guides say the opposite; following them costs an application.
The difficulty is obvious: you commit to a year of Italian rent, in a city you may not know, before anyone tells you whether you will get the visa. Solve it first, not last.
Private cover for treatment, hospitalisation and repatriation, valid throughout Italy for the whole stay, with a minimum of €30,000. The consular network states that inadequate cover is the number one cause of refusal, ahead of income and qualifications. An insurance card is not proof; a certificate setting out the cover is.
You must show at least six months of previous work in the activity you will carry on from Italy: tax returns, invoices, payslips, client contracts. And you must declare no criminal convictions in the previous five years, which the consulate verifies.
The employment contract must show a salary at least equal to the applicable Italian collective agreement and, in any case, not below the Italian median salary. The employer must declare that it has not been convicted in the last five years of offences linked to illegal immigration, exploitation of minors or illegal labour intermediation. The permit can be refused or revoked if convictions emerge, including non-final judgments and plea agreements: your status depends on your employer's record.
This is the section that decides whether the move works financially, and the one English-language sources skip or get wrong. Searches for Italy digital nomad visa taxes and Italy digital nomad tax return pages that say Italy has issued no guidance, or that list ordinary rates and stop.
Unlike the golden visa, which can be held without living in Italy, this visa is built around being here. Once registered and present for more than 183 days, you are an Italian tax resident, taxed on worldwide income. Ordinary rates run from 23% to 43%, plus regional and municipal surcharges, plus social security contributions. Left there, the arithmetic is discouraging. It is not meant to be left there.
A qualifying person who moves tax residence to Italy can have 50% of employment or self-employment income excluded from tax for five years (60% with a minor child), up to €600,000 of income a year. The regime targets highly qualified people arriving from abroad, exactly the population this visa selects. There is a commitment: residence must be kept for at least four years, or the benefit is clawed back. Details are on our impatriati regime page.
As a self-employed digital nomad you will need an Italian VAT number, and a second option opens: the flat-rate regime for revenues up to €85,000, with a 15% substitute tax, reduced to 5% for five years for genuinely new activities. Whether the start-up rate applies when you simply continue the work you did abroad, whether forfettario and impatriati can be combined, and which comes out ahead depends on your income, costs and how long you stay. The choice is harder to reverse than to make: see our forfettario page.
If your country has a social security agreement with Italy, it governs your contributions; if not, Italian rules apply for the whole permit. Freelancers must open a VAT number and invoice from it. And compliance is not only a tax matter: tax or contribution failures are grounds for revoking the permit. On this visa, your accountant and your immigration file are the same problem.
The application goes to the Italian consulate with jurisdiction over your place of legal residence, not the most convenient one. Appointments are booked on the Prenot@Mi portal, and in busy districts the wait for a slot alone runs two to four months. Consulates require you to apply in person.
Building in four to six months from first document to visa in hand is realistic; anything shorter assumes nothing goes wrong.
Within eight working days of entry you apply at the Questura. The permit, issued as "digital nomad – remote worker", is valid for one year and renewable while the conditions hold. Two consequences people do not expect: the Questura notifies the Labour Inspectorate and sends a copy of your contract, so the arrangement is visible from day one; and unlike the investor permit, this one requires you to be here. Prolonged absence puts renewal at risk, and you should not expect to be out of Italy for more than half the permit's duration.
After five years of continuous lawful residence you can apply for the EU long-term permit (A2 Italian); naturalisation needs ten years of effective residence (B1). More on the residency permit page and on citizenship by residency.
Yes, but more narrowly than most guides suggest. The Italian consular network states that you may sponsor a spouse and children under 18, and expressly not adult children or parents, even if dependent. Other sources say they can join in some cases. The two readings lead to very different plans, so confirm with your consulate first. And remember the income scale: a spouse raises the threshold by about €9,300, each child by about €1,550.
Where it fits, it fits very well: a qualified professional with real foreign clients or employer, willing to actually live in Italy, gets a renewable permit outside the quotas, family included, and access to a tax regime built for exactly that profile. Getting the tax election right at the outset matters more than the visa itself. If you are still deciding between categories, start from our overview of the Italian visas.
We handle the visa and the tax set-up together, because on this visa they are one file.
Most firms handling this visa stop at the consulate door. But on the digital nomad visa in Italy the immigration file and the tax file are the same: your VAT position, regime election, social security and compliance record all feed back into whether the permit is renewed. Avv. Marco Mesina, a member of the Milan Bar (Ordine degli Avvocati di Milano) and formerly of Deloitte and Withers, works on both sides at once. We do not publish a single income figure and leave you to find out at the counter that it was the wrong one.
About €24,790 a year for a single applicant. The decree sets three times the healthcare exemption threshold, so it rises with your household: about €34,090 with a spouse, plus about €1,550 for each child.
No. The income must come from the remote work you will do in Italy. Pensions, rents and investment returns are excluded; look at the elective residence visa instead.
No. You need a lease or deed in your own name for the whole duration of the visa, and a lease must be registered with the Revenue Agency.
Budget four to six months overall. The appointment can take two to four months, then about a month for employees and three to four months for the self-employed.
Yes. Prolonged absence puts renewal at risk; do not expect to be away for more than half the permit's duration.
The visa is designed for remote work for clients or employers abroad. Work aimed mainly at the Italian market needs a different visa.
Not necessarily. A regulated profession, five years of comparable experience, or three years in ICT also qualify. A foreign degree usually needs recognition, which takes time.
A spouse and children under 18, yes. The consular network excludes adult children and parents even if dependent; confirm with your consulate.
Yes, you become tax resident on worldwide income. The inbound workers regime (50% exempt for five years) and the flat-rate regime for freelancers can change the picture substantially.
If you are self-employed, yes. Tax and contribution compliance is also a condition for keeping the permit.
It is renewable every year while you qualify. Five years open the EU long-term permit, ten years of effective residence naturalisation.
No. You apply in person at the Italian consulate covering your legal residence abroad.
Avv. Marco Mesina
Founder, Move to Dolce Vita · Avvocato, Milan Bar (Ordine degli Avvocati di Milano)
Marco is an Italian tax lawyer who advises individuals and families relocating to Italy on tax regimes, residency, citizenship, real estate and succession planning. Before founding Move to Dolce Vita he worked at Watson Farley & Williams, Withers and Deloitte in Milan.