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LIVING IN ITALY

No wifi, no parcels: What to expect if you live in the Italian countryside

Many people move to rural Italy looking for a quiet life, but just how disconnected will things be? From phone lines to waste collection, Silvia Marchetti tells us what to expect.

Published: 12 April 2023 17:44 CEST
Updated: 14 September 2023 13:08 CEST

Life in the Italian countryside isn't always all it's cracked up to be. Photo by Gabriel Tamblin on Unsplash

Everyone loves the idea of living the Italian rural idyll, in a cosy country house with a garden, far from the city crowds. But often, this lifestyle comes with disadvantages to be aware of.

If you happen to be in the countryside, public services in general can be poor compared to those in the nearest village. Transport, waste pick-up, mail delivery, mobile and broadband coverage are all lacking in certain areas, especially if your house is located far out in an isolated spot surrounded by meadows and forests.

I happen to have the misfortune of living right at the border between two very small towns in Rome’s countryside, and lately services have been getting worse.

Given I’m far from the central piazza of my comune of residence, letters sent to me tend to pile up at the post office; only once a month the postman remembers and delivers a heap of envelopes that spill out of my mailbox. I read letters with a two-month delay at times, so I regularly stop by the post office to check if there is anything pending with my address. A letter from Milan once arrived in Rome within two days but was delivered at my place a month later.

If you’re expecting an important letter or package, the best thing to do is to track it on the postal operator’s website, using the shipping number given to you.

My town recently launched waste sorting, and again, because I live on the outskirts of the area, my house is the last one, the truck stops by at 2pm for pick-up. My rubbish bags just lie at the gate for half a day, with cats regularly opening them and scattering banana peels all over.

Delays with waste collection can be an issue if you live in a rural part of Italy. Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

These rural hassles are due to “long” distances and low population density, or so I have been told several times by the comune authorities. Services tend to be wanting if there are few residents, aka taxpayers, living in a specific street or area.

Postal couriers can never find my house, so if I make an online order or I’m waiting for wine from Sicily, I have to guide the driver by phone till he gets to my place, even though I live on a provincial road.

Rural areas also come with many phone operator traps, which are often impossible to avoid without turning your house into an off-grid monastery. Cable coverage is poor, and you only find this out once it’s too late.

From personal experience, this can be hell. All phone operators have the same rules:

You can easily agree to a ‘linea’ (contract) by phone by sending your ID card, and that’s when the contract kicks in – even if the phone line and wifi don’t work even after the technician has come to check.

If you terminate the contract before the end of a two-year period, you pay a fine of up to €350. Nobody tells you that in your rural area infrastructure won’t be upgraded due to the low number of clients, or that the centralina (control unit) is five kilometers from your house so the signal will forever stay poor.

Forget broadband. No matter how many times you call the operator or ask for a technician (who seldom shows up) to fix your landline that is not working, you’ll keep receiving bills, and if you don’t pay them you end up in a list of ‘morosi’ (defaulters).

I’ve had to cancel my pay-per view TV subscriptions, change my heating unit from wifi to manual and stick to working with mobile internet, using my iPhone as a hotspot. When I called the operator, I was told it would be better if I moved house.

I tried switching to radio wifi signal to capture internet coming from the opposite hillside, but the dish fell at each gust of wind.

It’s always best to check coverage before signing a contract, ask the neighbors or just stick with a mobile connection.

Internet and digital infrastructure is one area targeted for improvement under the new Recovery Fund investments – but I doubt services in rural areas will improve.

Enjoying the bucolic ‘arcadia’ comes at a price; you just need to know what exactly you’re signing up for. Actually, I know many people who crave an off-grid, isolated spot, so it could be exactly what you want. In my case, not really.

If you live in the Italian countryside, how does your experience compare? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Member comments

Anonymous - 13 April 2023 at 10:58 CEST

That review was way too negative! We live in remote small valley in the Umbrian hills. Our road is a rutted dirt road, but we receive regular mail. We also receive deliveries of Amazon packages and other shipments. Our rifiuti is collected at trash bins that are several km away. For wifi, we have Telecom Italian wifi that comes from an antenna on a nearby mountain. The TIM wifi is about 4 Mbps. But we recently got a Starlink dish that costs 50 euro per month, the speeds are 160 Mbps!
Anonymous - 17 April 2023 at 09:45 CEST

Recommend finding an apartment building in town that has a porter and for a small fee have parcels and important documents sent there. People in our apartment do it all the time

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With income declarations now open in Italy, there are several details of the Italian tax system that you need to know, especially if this is the first time you file.

From deadlines to rules on foreign income and assets to second homes, here is our guide to the 2024 tax season.

2024 tax deadlines

Late spring is generally the busiest time of year for Italian taxpayers as that’s when the window to file the yearly income tax declaration (or dichiarazione dei redditi) opens.

Barring some rare filing exemptions, anyone who’s considered an Italian resident for tax purposes (or fiscal resident) is required to file income taxes in Italy.

But even if you’re not an Italian tax resident, you may still have to file and pay Italian taxes on any income generated in Italy.

Depending on your personal tax situation and income source, you’ll have to file one of two forms, whose official deadlines for this year you can find HERE. The window to file either form is open as of May 20th.

It is strongly advisable to keep the main income tax dates in mind as the Italian taxman shows little in the way of leniency when it comes to late filing and failure to file.

Besides income tax deadlines, there are two other dates you need to be mindful of if you own property in Italy. The first instalment of Italy’s tax on second homes IMU (Imposta Municipale Unica) is due by June 16th, whereas the second instalment is due by December 16th. You can find these and other key tax dates for 2024 in our calendar.

First-timers

If this is your first time declaring tax in Italy, your first task will be to request a codice fiscale (a personal identification number similar to an American Social Security number or a British National Insurance number) if you don’t already have one. Find a guide to doing that HERE.

The 2024 income tax declaration covers the 2023 tax year, which runs from January 1st 2023 to December 31st 2023. As a result, if you moved to Italy after January 1st 2024, you will not have to complete the declaration until next year.

On the other hand, IMU payments are always relative to the year when you make the payments – in this case 2024.

Online v paper

Most people in Italy file their tax declarations and make payments using the personal profile area (area riservata) of the Italian tax office (Agenzia delle Entrate) website.

This is also where taxpayers can find a pre-compiled version of tax return form 730 (or modulo 730) – which is the income tax declaration form generally used by employees and retirees in Italy.

Though most tax declarations can be filed online, there are provisions for people who don’t have internet access or are not comfortable completing tasks online. In this case, you can visit or call your local tax office and request paper versions of the forms, which you can then submit at the same office or, in some cases, at local post offices.

Income tax brackets

Italy’s income tax Irpef applies to employees, many self-employed workers (regular partita Iva holders, but not those on the flat tax rate) and pensioners.

The Italian government cut the number of available tax brackets from four to three last December, but the change only applies to income generated from January 1st 2024.

This means that your 2023 income will be taxed based on the four-bracket system below:

Up to 15,000 euros: 23 percent
Between 15,001 and 28,000 euros: 25 percent
Between 28,001 euros and 50,000 euros: 35 percent
Over 50,000 euros: 43 percent

Like income taxes in many other countries, Italy’s Irpef is a progressive tax, meaning that you only pay the higher rate on the portion of your income that is over the relevant threshold (for instance, 43 percent on the portion of income exceeding 50,000 euros).

Foreign income

It’s not unusual for foreigners in Italy to have some or all of their income coming from outside Italy – whether that is a pension paid from an overseas country, remote working for a non-Italian company or rental income from a property outside of Italy.

If you’re an Italian tax resident, you’ll be required to declare your global income – that is income generated not just in Italy but anywhere in the world.

It’s important to note though that declaring your foreign income does not necessarily mean you will have to pay tax on it.

Italy has dual taxation agreements with most countries, including the UK and US, meaning that if you have already paid tax on your income in another country, you won’t be taxed on it again – though you’ll still have to tell the Italian taxman about it.

Foreign assets and bank accounts

Italian tax residents who hold financial assets abroad – this includes real estate, financial investments, unit trusts, and even foreign bank accounts – are required to declare them by completing the foreign assets section of their yearly tax return form (section W of form 730 and section RW of form Redditi PF).

Depending on the types of assets you own abroad, you may have to pay Italy’s tax on foreign real estate (IVIE) and/or a tax on foreign financial activities (IVAFE).

It’s worth noting that retirees who’ve opted for Italy’s special seven-percent flat tax rate are exempt from the requirement to declare (and pay IVIE and/or IVAFE on) foreign assets.

You can find further info about declaring foreign bank accounts HERE.

Tax breaks

Italy has a number of tax breaks to help taxpayers, especially those with lower incomes, reduce their tax bill each year.

These are generally divided between tax deductions (deduzioni fiscali), which lower your taxable income, and tax reductions (detrazioni fiscali), which lower your final tax bill.

Tax reductions for 2024 apply to anything from rent to public transport to education expenses, and include a 19-percent tax break on medical expenses applicable to amounts exceeding 129.11 euros. You can find a full list (in Italian) of tax reductions and deductions here.

It’s also worth noting that Italy offers a number of favourable multi-year tax regimes for residents – these include the so-called ‘impatriate’ tax scheme and the seven-percent flat rate for foreign pensioners – as well as a number of home renovation bonuses.

Tax for second-home owners

If you live outside of Italy but you own property in the country which you use as a second-home or holiday home, there are a few things to be aware of, with the first being whether or not you are an Italian tax resident.

If you use your Italian property just for holidays then you probably won’t be. But if you tend to spend a significant amount of time in your Italian property, you should keep in mind that Italy’s tax office will consider you a tax resident if, for at least 183 days a year, you are registered with Italy’s National Registry of the Resident Population (or Anagrafe) or have your place of “residence or habitual residence” in Italy.

The other thing to consider is whether you have any Italian income through renting out your property, including on Airbnb. If you do, you will need to declare this income in Italy.

Finally, even if you’re not an Italian tax resident and don’t generate any income in Italy, you’ll still have to pay Italy’s property tax IMU (Imposta Municipale Unica), which is owed by all owners of second homes. You can find this year’s IMU deadlines HERE.

Getting help

If you’re completely daunted by the Italian tax system, don’t panic: help is available.

If you have a fairly simple tax situation (e.g. you have a single employer and no other sources of income) and speak some Italian, you may be able to get the assistance you need at one of Italy’s tax support centres (Centri di Assistenza Fiscale, or CAF).

If, however, you are self-employed, are starting or operating a business, are earning income in multiple countries, or simply find the whole process too difficult, you may need the help of a chartered tax accountant, or commercialista in Italian.

Please note that The Local is unable to advise on individual cases. Find more information on the Italian tax office’s website or seek independent advice from a qualified tax professional.

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