ROME — The end of a 200-year-old UK tax regime sheltering offshore assets presents a “great opportunity” to Italy and to the superrich interested in moving there, said Dott. Roberto Ciccioli, head of tax and advisory services at Consulting Centre, a Rome- and Milan-based consultancy firm. 

 UK residents domiciled elsewhere — known as res non-doms — have long enjoyed a special tax status which shields all their foreign assets from regular taxation. Provided that they keep their foreign assets out of UK banks and of UK soil, res non-doms pay an annual flat tax of only 30,000 or 60,000 pounds, depending on the taxpayer’s time spent in the regime, on all those non-UK assets.

 Non-dom status has made the UK a desirable home for droves of wealthy foreigners like former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s wife, Akshata Narayana Murty. The London School of Economics reported that in 2022, 12% of the adult populations of London, Westminster, and Kensington had at some point claimed res non-dom status. So had a third of all people in Britain who earned five million or more pounds annually. 

 But UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves announced last year that this April, the UK's labour government will abolish non-dom tax protection. Reeves argued that the move would raise 12.7 billion pounds in the next five years, with that money earmarked for improving healthcare and school access. Opponents warned that the end of the policy would instead send non-doms, and their bank accounts, fleeing for greener pastures.

 Which has turned out to be the case; so many former non-doms have left the UK in recent months that Chancellor Reeves announced January 20 that her government might restore the tax status in a bid to stop the millionaire exodus. But it was not immediately clear when that would take effect. And in the meantime, said Ciccioli, Milan has emerged as a top candidate for non-doms' move. 

 With the UK program biting the dust, Ciccioli said, Italy becomes “one of the few nations with a regime very favorable to people with lots of assets worldwide.”

 The country’s budget law no. 232/2016 offers an attractive alternative to the UK’s longstanding regime. It is “a very good plan” for any foreigners with assets of more than 500,000EUR, Ciccioli said. 

 High net worth individuals resident, but non domiciled, in Italy may pay an annual flat tax of 100,000EUR on all their non-Italian assets for up to 15 years. They may extend their status to two family members — children, spouses, parents, in-laws of all stripes — whose flat tax on foreign assets shrinks to 25,000EUR a year. 

 By 2022, only 3,000 to 4,000 taxpayers had moved to Italy under the regime, said Ciccioli. But in the wake of Labour’s tax crackdown, he told the Insider that he expects that number to grow significantly. 

 London’s superrich are gravitating towards Milan over other Italian cities, Ciccioli said. In the country’s financial capital, he expects res non-doms will have an “absolutely positive” effect. 

 Non-doms “will improve the performance of the Italian stock exchange by increasing the quality of managers,” Ciccioli said. They will create jobs thanks to the businesses which, in many cases, they are bringing with them — and thanks as well to the lifestyles they are importing. 

 Non-doms “will need drivers,” Ciccioli said. “They will take vacations.” Italy’s tax regime provides high net worth individuals with hefty, entirely legal savings. And “the more money going into their pockets,” said Ciccioli, “the more money they’re willing to spend, the more opportunity for the Italian state to grow.” 

 Plus, said Ciccioli, Milanese should expect res non-doms to bring “paradigm shifts” with them. “Some of these people will push to improve public health,” he said, “and details of quality of life.”

 For further information, please contact Consulting Centre professionals at:

 E: itax@consultingcentre.it

 Rome: +39 06/42017954 - +39 06/42013174

 Milan: +39 02/87157697