Returning to Italy from the UK

The return to Italy after years abroad is not one act but a sequence, and each office acts on the record left by the previous one. The comune registers the residence and cancels the citizen from the AIRE, the customs office admits the household on the strength of that registration, the Motorizzazione registers the car on the strength of the residence, the health authority registers the family on the residence and the codice fiscale, and the tax authority treats the returning worker according to the years spent abroad. This page follows that order, for a resident of the United Kingdom who moves to Italy for good.

The comune first

A citizen who returns permanently declares it to the comune in which he settles, in person at the registry office or online through the national population register, and the date of the return is the date of the declaration. The comune cancels him and the Italian members of the household from the AIRE, registers them in the ordinary population register and informs the consulate, which closes its file. The declaration is due within the time which the regulation of 1989 on the population registers allows, and an omitted or late declaration is punished with an administrative fine. From the registration follow the identity card issued by the comune, the registration with the national health service, which the local health authority makes on the residence and the codice fiscale and which gives the family doctor, and the electoral registration in the comune. A citizen who keeps a home in Britain and intends to divide the year should know that the registration in Italy is the first fact which the tax authority examines, and that the residence for tax purposes follows rules of its own.

The household and the car

The household goods and the car come into Italy free of customs duty and of value added tax under the European regulation of 2009 on relief from customs duty, which applies to a person who has had the normal residence outside the European Union for at least twelve months. The goods must have been owned and, apart from the consumables, used at the former residence for at least six months, the car among them, must enter within twelve months of the move, in one or several consignments, and are not sold, lent, hired out or pledged for twelve months after the entry without notice to the customs, which would otherwise claim the duties. Alcohol, tobacco, commercial vehicles and the tools of a trade are excluded. The application goes directly to the customs office, by the citizen or by the removal firm which acts for him, on form F-01A after the move or on form F-01B, with a guarantee, where the goods arrive before it, with the list of the goods, the identity document, the documents of the vehicle, the proof of the residence abroad and the proof of the residence in Italy, for which the London consulate recommends the historical certificate of registration in the AIRE issued by the comune. The London consulate issues no certificate of repatriation, unlike some consulates in other countries, and the file does not pass through it.

The car, once in Italy, is registered in the Italian register within three months of the registration of the residence, under article 93-bis of the Highway Code, after the permanent export has been declared to the British agency on the V5C and the remaining part of the document produced to the Motorizzazione of the province. The British licence is used for one year from the residence and exchanged within that year at the same office, without a test, under the agreement between the two countries, and the page on driving licences sets out the conditions.

Pensions and healthcare

The British State Pension continues to be paid to a resident of Italy, into an Italian account if the pensioner prefers, with the annual increases, and the International Pension Centre is informed of the move and of the new account. A pensioner of the British system registers with the Italian health service on the form S1 issued by the National Health Service, at the cost of the United Kingdom, and a person who returns to work registers on the residence alone. The Italian pension already in payment abroad is transferred to an Italian account through the INPS, and the proof of life, which the bank required abroad, ceases with the return. The pensions are taxed in Italy from the year in which the residence is acquired, under the Convention of 1988, apart from a British public-service pension, which stays taxable in the United Kingdom unless its recipient is an Italian national resident in Italy, and the page on pensions explains the rule.

The tax regime for those who return to work

A worker who transfers the tax residence to Italy is taxed, for the year of the transfer and the four following years, on half of the income from employment and from self-employment produced in Italy, up to six hundred thousand euro a year, under article 5 of Legislative Decree 209 of 2023, provided he was not resident in Italy for tax purposes in the three tax years before the move, which become six where he works in Italy for the same employer or group as abroad and seven where he had worked for them in Italy before leaving, that the work is performed mainly in Italy, that he holds the qualification or the specialisation which the decree requires, and that he undertakes to remain resident in Italy for at least four years, on pain of repaying the benefit with interest. The taxable share falls to forty per cent for a worker who moves with a minor child, or to whom a child is born or adopted during the period, provided the child lives in Italy. For an Italian citizen the years abroad are counted on the registration in the AIRE or on the residence in the other State under the Convention. The regime applies to those who moved from 2024, while those who moved earlier keep the previous one. From 1 January 2027 the article is replaced by the corresponding provision of the new consolidated text on income taxes, Legislative Decree 117 of 2026, and the conditions of a move planned for that year are read in the new text before the move. The regimes for teachers and researchers and the substitute tax for those who transfer the residence with large foreign income follow rules of their own.

The papers to bring back

A marriage, a divorce or the birth of a child never transcribed in Italy is transcribed before the return, through the consulate, because the comune registers the family as the Italian records show it. The British certificates which will be needed in Italy, for the school of the children, for a succession, for a bank, are obtained in certified copies and apostilled before the departure, since the apostille is issued in Britain and is slower to obtain from abroad. The records of national insurance and of the pensions, the P45 and the P60, the certificates of the school of the children, the V5C of the car, the licence and the historical certificate of the AIRE complete the file, and the translations are made once, by a translator whose work the Italian offices accept.

If you are planning the return, send us the date, the composition of the family and the documents you hold. We tell you which declarations are due, in which order and with which papers, and we prepare the transcriptions, the apostilles and the translations before you leave, while they are still easy to obtain.