My wife and I are seriously thinking about moving to Italy with our 7 and 5 year old children. We would probably rent for at least 12 months until we settle in.

We own a financial services firm in UK which will keep on trading with current staffing as all of our clients are UK based. We don't anticipate 'earning' any income in Italy, unless I do a bit of ski instructing during the winter.

The 'idea' is to move to a location near water which has great weather (not too hot like Sicily!), a few hours away from skiing, primary & secondary public schools, and about an hour to an International airport as I'll be coming back for a week each month to see clients.

We've recently spent a couple of weeks in Toscolano Moderno on Lake Garda and loved the area.

Which leads me on to a couple of residency questions.

Can the husband be deemed as a non-resident (tourist) and the wife a resident?
And does that complicate matters, especially regarding tax and schooling?

Grazie!

BillyWhizz

You are legally required to apply for residency if you intend to live here. However, residency and tax residency are two different things. You can be deemed residents here for tax purposes, whether you have official residency or not, if your spend more than 183 days a year p.a. so you will need to get all your ducks in a row tax wise in the UK.

Can't be much more complicated than our pension and tax system.................surely???

Don't you believe it.

In UK there are rules to follow. In Italy the rules change and have changed so often that you can only hope the local bureaucrat likes your face because he can make your life a nightmare (or a dream).
Locals, sort of, know how to follow the system and minimise their losses. You won't know that.
If you can live in Italy as a visitor that might be best until the economic crisis is over.

Answer:
ld you
As a married couple you either are both resident or not.
if you are renting and you are not having no italian income why would you want to pay italian tax.

only when you have italian assets (e.g. primary house) should you look to becoming resident.

This is the same as any person coming to the UK.

Except that you dont have the choice. If you spend more than half the year here and your kids are in school, then you are resident. THe end. Which means you fall under the double tax treaty,IVIE, IVIFIE etc.

How about moving in HERE ?

Yes it can. And it's up to you to work things out. Hard when they change things on a whim.

As I said, residency is one thing tax residency is another. The tax office can decide whether they consider you resident and having kids at school here woud be a bit of a give away. As long a you sort your UK company out tax wise you can all have residency here.

As you will not have an income here you will need health insurance.

Lake Garda is freezing in the winter. Make sure any house you rent has an adequate heating system. As for schools all the lessons will be in Italian .KIds dont start proper school until they are at least 6. As for residency you will have to show proof of funds if you do not intend to work here and unless you have Italian qualifications speak, read and write Italian well you never will

Some really good advice here, thanks everyone!

We intend to move to Italy and, having looked at it in more detail, I am considering qualifying in my current role in Italy as well. Not sure if it's possible to be dual authorised in both UK and Italy - 2x regulators and compliance to deal with!!

We intend to 'fully embed' so will be learning the language before we go as best we can!

I get paid in dividends at the moment, so it'll be interesting to see how the taxation system works. Guess I need an accountant who is experienced in both Italian and UK personal and company tax!

As for Monaco??? Don't think there's much skiing there so I'll give it a miss

Padova and vicenza are quite good locations, can reach skiing resorts and sea side or garda lake easly as you are in between all.

They look great!

Ideally we're looking for somewhere close to a lake for the kids to do watersports. Skiing can be a few hours away as we'd probably go up for a weekend as opposed to just one day. And not too far from Verona airport. And decent schools locally.

Not too much to ask then!!!

The best lake for watersport is Garda then. Not familiar with cities around it as 4 us it is easy to spend just the week end over there.... But please do bare in mind winter is coming and it will cold and foggy around the lake. Perharps look into soave or san bonifacio. not sure how the local schools are, but i am pretty sure those areas are quite therefore schools should be good. Small villages will have good schools but might take longer to settle into the communities......

Well, if we're talking Vicenza and Padova, they both have international schools, they are both close to Verona, Treviso and Venice airports. About an hour from beach, lake, sea, mountain skiing.

Location wise - pretty central to sea and mountains. Location wise, lots of dialect that takes a bit of time to pick up and sometimes the "mountain peasant / old fashioned" mentality is very frustrating.

Personally, I don't like Vicenza. However, homes are far cheaper than here in Verona Padova or Treviso, yes, but not good for water sport though they aren't far from the sea and there are 2 handy airports.

It gets could in the winter here in the north.