Sicily's €30,000 South Working incentive: who actually gets the money

On 30 June at 12:00, IRFIS opened the online platform for Sicily's South Working incentive. Within a day my inbox had two kinds of message. Sicilians in Milan and Munich asking how to "get the €30,000". And a couple of foreign freelancers asking the same thing.

Short answer for both: you don't get it. Your employer does. That doesn't make the measure useless for you, but it changes how you use it. You don't apply; you negotiate.

General information, not legal or tax advice. If you are about to change contract or residence because of this, check the details with a commercialista or an employment lawyer.

What the measure is

The incentive is in article 3 of the regional stability law, L.R. 5 January 2026 n. 1. It survived a rocky passage: rejected in a first ARS vote in October 2025, then approved in the December 2025 stability law. The Region published the call (avviso) on 15 April 2026. It is managed by IRFIS FinSicilia, the Region's financial company, which hosts the avviso PDF and the application platform.

The numbers:

• €30,000 per worker, a non-repayable grant;
• paid to the employer in five annual instalments of €6,000;
• total budget €18 million a year for 2026–2028, €54 million in all;
• first come, first served until the money runs out.

Some English-language headlines have called it a bonus "to live and work in Sicily". Read the avviso and you'll find a hiring subsidy for companies. The money never touches your bank account.

The conditions, in one table

A rough way to read the last line: on a typical working year, 20% is about one day a week, or a few weeks a year spent at headquarters. How your company counts those days is something to settle in writing.

Who this is for, and who it isn't

It fits a specific profile: someone employed (or about to be) by a company based outside Sicily, who wants to live in Sicily and work from here for the long haul. Think of the Palermo engineer in Turin who goes home every Christmas and doesn't want to go back in January.

It does not fit:

• freelancers and the self-employed, because the sources only describe employees on permanent contracts;
• people employed by a Sicilian company, because the employer must have its production unit outside the island;
• short-stay digital nomads, because you must become resident in Sicily and stay five years. For a foreigner on a three-month stay, this measure doesn't exist.

Four misreadings worth clearing up

"It's €30,000 in one go." It isn't. It arrives as five annual instalments of €6,000, which mirrors the five-year commitment. A company budgeting for it should think in years, not in a single cheque.

"Any company can use it." Only companies with a production unit outside Sicily. A Catania software house hiring a developer who lives in Palermo is out, however remote the job.

"I've had a permanent contract for years, so I'm the ideal case." On a plain reading of the avviso, the hire or the conversion to permanent must date from 9 January 2026. A permanent contract signed before then doesn't seem to fit. If that's you, ask HR to check with IRFIS before anyone gets excited.

"Foreigners can't use it." Nationality is not among the conditions in the sources I've read; residence and contract are. A foreign employee of a company in Germany who becomes resident in Sicily fits the profile on paper. Non-EU citizens still need the right to live here first: see our visa and permits guide.

How to pitch it to your employer

You can't apply, but you can make it very easy for your company to say yes. Here's how I would do it.

1. Check the basics before you open your mouth. Is the employer's production unit outside Sicily? Is your contract permanent, or could it be converted? Was the hire or conversion made from 9 January 2026, or could it be?
2. Sort out your residence. You must be resident in Sicily when the grant is awarded, which in practice means registering at the anagrafe of your comune. Our codice fiscale, bank and healthcare guide covers the paperwork around it.
3. Put the numbers in front of HR. €6,000 a year for five years, for a remote arrangement they may be willing to grant anyway. Send them the IRFIS page and the avviso, not a newspaper article.
4. Agree the 20% in writing. How many days at headquarters, who pays for the trips, and how they are counted. The rule is on the company, so a careful HR team will want this clear before applying.
5. Talk about the five years honestly. Ask how the company would handle it if you left early or moved away. The obligations sit with the employer, which is exactly why they'll ask.
6. Move fast. It is first come, first served, and the platform is already open.
7. Negotiate what you get out of it. The grant goes to the company. It's fair to ask whether part of the saving could cover something useful to you, such as a coworking membership or the travel for those office days. That's a negotiation, not a right.

If you're weighing where to base yourself, our Palermo neighbourhoods guide is a practical starting point.

What freelancers can use instead

If you invoice clients rather than receive a payslip, look elsewhere. Our guide to taxes and tax residency covers the details; the main options are these.

• Regime forfettario, Italy's flat-rate scheme for small businesses with a partita IVA (VAT number). Revenue up to €85,000; a 15% substitute tax on a deemed profit, or 5% for the first five years for genuinely new activities that meet the conditions.
• Regime impatriati, the national scheme for people moving their tax residence to Italy: 50% of qualifying income exempt (60% with a minor child), for five tax years, under strict conditions. No extra bonus for the South since 2024.
• The regional IRPEF refund for new residents (art. 25 of the same regional law): 50% of IRPEF back, 60% in comuni under 5,000 inhabitants, but only if you move from abroad, have employment or pension income, and buy or renovate a property in Sicily within 12 months. Pure freelancers do not appear to qualify.
• Resto al Sud 2.0 (Invitalia), for people under 35 starting a business or self-employment in the South. Invitalia lists it as active (November 2026): a voucher of up to €40,000 (€50,000 with the increase), or a 75% grant on projects up to €120,000 and 70% between €120,000 and €200,000, from a €356.4 million budget.

The overview of all of them sits in our guide to incentives for moving to Sicily.

Checklist for employees

• My employer has a production unit outside Sicily.
• My contract is permanent, or can be converted, with a date from 9 January 2026.
• I can be resident in Sicily by the award date.
• I can commit to at least 5 years working mainly from Sicily.
• Office presence outside the island stays at or under 20% of annual working days, agreed in writing.
• HR has the IRFIS page and the avviso, and knows applications are first come, first served.
• I've asked what I get out of the arrangement.

Update, November 2026. As of 4 November 2026 I found no public report that the funds have run out. On 4 September the Region's press office covered the opening of the Madonie Nomad Residency in Castelbuono, where the director general of IRFIS spoke and the Region's President was reported to have visited Castelbuono's public coworking in the previous weeks. I wrote about that coworking in remote work in the Madonie. For balance: in July 2026 Linkiesta published a critical piece arguing that the measure turns Sicily into a residential outpost for firms based elsewhere, without creating Sicilian companies or local innovation. Since September I've also covered the regional 50% IRPEF refund for new residents in detail.