is the question what are the income taxes if you are working in Italy and not retired? Income tax in Italy is calculated using a progressive rate system. If we said you made 50k per year, which of course you might make much more or much less than that, the first €15,000 × 23% = €3,450, next €13,000 (€15,001-€28,000) × 25% = €3,250, next €22,000 (€28,001-€50,000) × 35% = €7,700. Total Tax: €3,450 + €3,250 + €7,700 = €14,400. Expect local taxes to account for another 1,000. This would put you somewhere in the range of 34.5k in after tax income. You would also pay this same progressive tax rate if you did have a retirement pension but did not want to live in one of the 7% towns. For example, Ostuni, which is close by, is not a 7% town. We did a video on Ostuni. We also did a video recently comparing living in the USA and Tuscany at various income points. The taxes are obviously greater in Italy. But there are other factors you might want to consider.

People can have really different definitions of what middle class retirement income is, and institutions like the Pew Research Institute will provide us with somewhere between 50k and 160k per year, which is a very wide range. But, I think we could agree that retirement income is less than what it is for someone who is employed full time, on average. As an example, if we said 75k was the retirement income for a middle class couple, you would save roughly 10k in taxes per year in the US (that number depends on too many factors to get to a precise number, but that’s a rough number). But, if we are doing an apple’s to apple’s comparison, what location in the US is similar to Lucca and Tuscany? The first place I think of is California's Napa Valley or Sonoma County, as these regions share similar characteristics such as rolling hills, vineyards, and a Mediterranean climate. Both areas are known for their wine production, picturesque landscapes, and charming small towns, reminiscent of Tuscany’s appeal. Napa Valley would be way more expensive than Tuscany regardless of taxes. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Sonoma County varies slightly by source but generally falls in the range of $2,400 to $2,700 per month. Ok so where else? Another option could be parts of Central Virginia, such as the Charlottesville area, which offers gentle hills, wineries, and a slower-paced lifestyle. The average rent there for a place similar to the ones we looked at in the video is in the area of $1600/month. There you are saving ~1k/month on rent in the two rentals we looked at in Lucca, or $12k/year, which does more than make up for the higher taxes by itself. And everything else will be cheaper in Tuscany. Food, healthcare, internet, cell phone, and so on. The median household price in Charlottesville is currently $533k, about $200k more than what it is in Lucca.

1,150 will get you an upgrade in a Manila slum.

Oh how out of touch you are with the rest of the world

@@GenXWitch67 projection

Apologies for taking a few days to respond. My “real job” got in the way. Electric and gas 150 Water 30 Garbage 20 Parking in Cisternino at an apartment most likely is nothing. If you want to travel around Italy and you will be parking your car in nice areas, that could add up. Buying a car is hard to answer without knowing what you are looking for. I included car prices examples in this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/g3-mhqiGn8mssKM. The information that I included is that from doing a quick search on cars for sale in Puglia, a 2011 Ford Fiesta with 115,000 kilometers is 5500 euros and a 2019 Audi Q2 with the same mileage is 22,000 euros. You want to make sure that you do the conversion to miles if you’re an American, as 115,000 thousand kilometers is about 72,000 miles. The Ford would be about 6,000 US dollars while the Audi would be about 24,000 US dollars. This seems roughly on par with what you would see in the United States based on a search of the same vehicles on cars.com. Cost of car insurance is also difficult to give a precise answer due to factors such as type of coverage, age, driving record, type of car you own, and so forth. Car insurance is generally less expensive than in the U.S., but would still be an expense to consider. You might want to consider that the cost of gas in Puglia is currently about $8/gallon. Healthcare will cost you less than in the U.S.. Especially if you take expensive prescription drugs.

@@WildWorldOfTravel Wow THANK YOU!!!

I think that is what the 7% income tax towns are offering, although the compensation is in reduced taxes rather than upfront compensation. I have heard of countries paying ppl to move there, but I am unaware of the details.

The first reddit post that I looked at on this topic has this response in comments: www.reddit.com/r/ItalyExpat/comments/17rmx2n/getting_a_mortgage_to_buy_a_property_in_italy_as/ Highlights of this comment include “My wife and I have a mortgage and neither are residents - we also applied as (US) foreigners” “We have a mortgage loan and bank account through Banca Popolare di Sondrio. It was relatively painless to obtain.” “The difference between a resident and non resident/foreigner is that the latter needs to put at least a 40% deposit on a property.” “My wife and I are not special cases and we don't have connections within the bank. We were just referred to them by a consultant and it was off to races. We just closed on a house in Puglia a month ago ;-)” The one point that might require further consideration is that perhaps the down payment that I am assuming is still too low. I am still gathering information on this. This redditor is saying 40% is the minimum. I have seen a wide range of testimonials on this question. For the second point, it is true that banks often require a younger family member to act as a guarantor if the primary borrower is over the typical age limit. This ensures that the loan can still be repaid if something happens to the primary borrower. This point was covered in the Martina Franca video. However, it is not a law and it would be inaccurate to represent it as such.

By tax bracket do you mean which country would you pay taxes to first and/or does double taxation treaty still apply given dual citizenship? You are considered a tax resident in Italy if you spend more than 183 days in the country during a tax year or if your primary place of business or interests is in Italy. So one question would be whether you have lived in Italy for more than 183 days in the year. The tax treaty between the United States and Italy provides guidelines to avoid double taxation. It allows for credits and exemptions to ensure you are not taxed twice on the same income. You can claim a credit on your U.S. tax return for taxes paid to Italy, reducing your U.S. tax liability by the amount of tax paid in Italy on the same income. For the second question, citizenship itself does not necessarily disqualify you from this 7% income tax benefit. However, your eligibility depends on your residency status and where you have been a tax resident in recent years. If you have dual citizenship (Italian and U.S.) and you meet the residency requirements (live in a region such as Puglia in which the 7% tax applies; live in a town of less than 20k inhabitants; lived in Italy for more than 183 days in the calendar year), you could still qualify for the 7% tax regime. The main point is that you should not have been a tax resident in Italy for the five years preceding your move. In regard to gross vs. net, can I assume that you mean, for example, an individual earns a salary of $50,000 per year. This is their gross income. After deducting taxes, health insurance premiums, retirement contributions, and other deductions totaling $10,000, the individual's net income is $40,000. These are made up numbers just to ensure we are defining terms the same way. If so, the $34,000 in passive, or retirement, income required for an individual and $42,000 for a couple are gross income numbers. The monthly cost of living numbers would be after taxes have been paid and therefore net income numbers.

yeah, the last four videos are not AI Voice Over, including this one.

@@WildWorldOfTravel plz go back to whatever you were doing back then

Yep ! AI is crap isn’t it ? These advertisers will soon get the message that ordinary people can’t stand the fake, rubbish AI.

@@londonbabe2467 yeees its the uncanny valley feeling

@@cynthiacindyfatalmhc3822 😁 Happy Sunday Cynthia

Thank you so much 😀

Lecce is definitely on the list for an upcoming video. Unfortunately not a 7% town though. Yes I think there are some interesting properties there for sure.

​@WildWorldOfTravel thank you so much, looking forward for the Lecce video. ❤❤❤

7% flat rate tax villages in south , the population should be below 20000, Lecce is quite biger town, close to 100k

thank you for the kind words

Interesting! Thank you for the info. I will look into the second point on getting mortgages and percent down required in Italy for an immigrant. I believe you but just would like to look at the data (if it's discoverable).

I will be experimenting with a few different voice over options in the next several videos and try to learn what viewers like best. Thank you for the feedback I do appreciate it.

I agree. He's selling properties in Italy and can't pronounce the towns correctly. The info is good tho.

Thanks. Still working out some of the kinks. Will be experimenting with different voice over options in the next few videos.