Sicily's 50% IRPEF refund for new residents: how it really works

Since April, friends abroad keep forwarding me the same headline: Sicily will give you back half your taxes if you move here. It is true, more or less. The "more or less" is the part that costs money if you skip it. The refund comes with a property condition that most coverage leaves out, and the implementing decree adds others that matter just as much: you must come from abroad, you need employment or pension income, and you must keep residence and property until the end of the second year after the move.

Below is what the law and the decree say, in the order you need it. I updated this article in November 2026 after reading the full text of the decree, which settled most of the doubts I had flagged in September. One is still open.

General information, not tax advice. Before you move, buy or sign anything, talk to a commercialista (an Italian chartered accountant).

The law behind it

The refund is in article 25 of the regional stability law, L.R. 5 January 2026 n. 1. The Region announced it on 10 April 2026. A decree followed (DA n. 30, published on the Region's site in May 2026), then the implementing DDG n. 1017 of 5 August 2026 of the Dipartimento Finanze e Credito, which quotes article 25 word for word and contains the application form (Mod. ICNRS). On 12 August the Region published the procedure for applying.

IRPEF is Italy's personal income tax, the big one on your payslip or tax return. A small piece of history explains why the rules look the way they do. In December 2025 the ARS budget committee approved an earlier version, as reported by QuiFinanza. That draft covered employees, similar workers and pensioners, a limit the final text keeps, and the Region estimated 50 transfers in 2026, 100 in 2027 and 50 in 2028. Two hundred people in three years. Whatever you read on social media, this was never designed as a mass relocation scheme.

Who qualifies

According to article 25 and DDG 1017, you need all of the following:

• You are a natural person who moves residence from abroad to Italy and fiscal domicile to a Sicilian comune between 1 January 2026 and 31 December 2028.
• You have employment income, income treated as employment income, or a pension, taxable in Italy. Self-employment and business income only count on top of that: in that case the refund is granted under the EU de minimis rules (Reg. 2023/2831), with DURC (social-contribution compliance) and anti-mafia checks.
• Within 12 months of setting up your fiscal domicile you buy a habitable property in Sicily, or carry out renovation work on a property you already own there.
• You keep residence, fiscal domicile and ownership of the property until 31 December of the second year after the year of the move.
• You have not received, or applied for, other state or regional tax incentives meant to attract new residents.

Two of these points used to be fuzzy, and the decree settles both against the generous reading. The move must be from abroad: article 25 speaks of transferring residence "dall'estero in Italia", so it is a legal requirement, not press framing. If you are moving from Milan or Turin rather than from Berlin or London, you are out. And income matters: April's release spoke of employment, self-employment, business or pension income, but in the decree self-employment only comes as extra income. On the text, a freelancer whose only income comes through a partita IVA (Italian VAT number) does not appear to qualify. Have a commercialista confirm your case.

This is not the impatriati regime

People mix the two up all the time, so here is the difference. The regime impatriati is a national scheme (art. 5 D.Lgs. 209/2023). For moves from 2024, it taxes only 50% of qualifying income (40% if you move with a minor child), up to €600,000 a year, for five tax years, if you were not Italian tax resident in the previous three years and meet the qualification rules. Since 2024 there has been no extra bonus for moving to the South.

The Sicilian refund is regional and works differently: you pay your IRPEF first, then claim part of it back. Can you use both? Very probably not. The decree excludes anyone who has received, or even applied for, other state or regional tax incentives for attracting new residents. It does not name the impatriati regime or the flat tax for new residents, but those look like exactly what the clause is about. Get a written opinion before planning around both. More on the national side in our guide to taxes and tax residency.

The condition most coverage leaves out

Here it is again, because it decides everything: you must buy a habitable property in Sicily or renovate one you own, within 12 months.

Renting does not count. If you plan to spend a year in a rented flat in the Kalsa and see how it goes, this refund is not for you, at least not yet. It rewards people who commit with bricks: buy a flat, or fix up the family house in the village that has been sitting empty since your grandmother left it.

The law also says how long you must hold on: the property, together with your residence and fiscal domicile, until 31 December of the second year after the year you moved (31 December 2028 if you moved in 2026). Sell early or move away, and the Region revokes the refund and asks for the money back. The decree also treats a quick "double move" (from Sicily abroad and back again) made to qualify as a sign of abuse.

Two practical details from the decree: a purchase is proven with the notarial deed and the notary's registration certificate, and renovation means recovery, restoration, conservative refurbishment or renovation work. Ordinary maintenance does not count.

How much you get, and the cap

The cap only matters at very high incomes. At 50%, you reach €100,000 when your IRPEF bill hits €200,000 a year. At 60%, around €166,700. Most remote workers reading this will never see the cap.

The 60% rate is the interesting part for inland Sicily, where plenty of comuni are small. Before you fall in love with a village, check its ISTAT population at 31 December of the year before your move. If you're curious about the Madonie, I wrote about remote work in Castelbuono and the surrounding towns.

Timeline and application window

So if you moved in 2026, no money arrives in 2026. You apply in the autumn of 2027, once the 2026 return is filed and the tax paid, and then again in 2028 and 2029: one application per year, on the Mod. ICNRS form. The decree says it is filed through an online tool that "will be made available". As of 4 November 2026 no platform has been announced, so nobody can apply yet.

A worked example (hypothetical round numbers)

These numbers are invented to show the mechanics. They are not an estimate of anyone's taxes.

Take an employee of a foreign company who moves residence from abroad and fiscal domicile to Palermo in March 2026. In January 2027, inside the 12 months, they buy a habitable flat. Their 2026 return shows €12,000 of IRPEF actually paid.

• At 50%: €6,000, claimed between 1 September and 31 December 2027.
• If they had settled in a comune under 5,000 inhabitants instead: 60% gives €7,200.
• If the IRPEF bill stayed at €12,000 for all three years: €18,000 in total at 50%, or €21,600 at 60%.

Now the caveat. The law speaks of 50% of the IRPEF owed and paid in full, and refers to the Region's share of IRPEF only for the year of the move. The decree describes the refund as 50% of the IRPEF "di spettanza della Regione Siciliana", the part that belongs to the Region. Yet the example in the Region's 12 August release (€100,000 of IRPEF, €50,000 back) only works if the refund is calculated on total IRPEF. The texts don't settle it, so it comes down to interpretation. If the narrower reading prevails, the figures above shrink considerably. This is the single most important question to put to a commercialista before you treat the refund as part of a house budget.

What the decree settled, and what is still open

In September I listed six open points. Reading DDG 1017 settled most of them:

1. From abroad. Required by law. Moves from another Italian region don't qualify.
2. How long you must stay. Until 31 December of the second year after the move, for residence, fiscal domicile and the property. The April release's "year after" was wrong.
3. Combining. Excluded with other state or regional incentives for new residents, whether received or only applied for.
4. What counts as renovation. Recovery, restoration, conservative refurbishment and renovation; not ordinary maintenance.
5. Later application windows. One a year for three years (see the timeline).

Still open:

1. Regional share or total IRPEF. See the worked example.
2. Which national regimes the exclusion covers. The impatriati regime and the flat tax for new residents are very likely caught, but the decree doesn't name them.
3. The online tool. Not available as of 4 November 2026.

None of these is a reason to panic. They are reasons not to sign a preliminary purchase contract on the strength of a headline.

Checklist before you count on it

• Confirm you will move both residence (anagrafe registration at the comune) and fiscal domicile between 2026 and 2028.
• Make sure you are moving your residence from abroad: moves from elsewhere in Italy don't count.
• Make sure you have employment or pension income taxable in Italy. Partita IVA income on its own does not appear to qualify.
• Check that you have not received or applied for any other tax incentive for new residents.
• Plan the purchase or renovation within 12 months, and keep every deed, invoice and permit.
• If you're eyeing a small town, check its ISTAT population (the 60% threshold is 5,000).
• Ask your commercialista about the regional-share question and about combining it with the impatriati regime.
• Put 1 September – 31 December 2027 in your calendar if you moved in 2026, and the same dates in 2028 and 2029.
• Decide in advance: bank transfer or tax credit.
• Don't sell the property or move residence or fiscal domicile away before 31 December of the second year after the move.

For the rest of the picture (the national regimes, South Working, what is open and what has expired), start with our guide to incentives for moving to Sicily. If you are an employee rather than a homebuyer, the regional South Working incentive may fit you better, though that money goes to your employer. And if the residence paperwork is the next hurdle, the codice fiscale, bank and healthcare chapter covers the first steps.