Italian towns will pay you to work remotely
edition.cnn.com
edition.cnn.com
Instead of sprinkling fairy magic, these articles should at least hint at these.
That is already covered in any standard rent agreement in Europe. If you are the tenant you can't sub-rent it, it makes no sense.
> huge renovation cost in an area where craftsmen are largely unavailable or untrusting of foreigners
Unless you have direct first hand experience this is just speculation.
> desolate areas without shopping opportunities
Check on a map where these towns are and see for yourself.
These sound as very reasonable strings for what you get in exchange and given the motivation behind the exchange (which isn't merely to benefit the taker).
Not spot on at all.
A lot of these places have never really recovered since the 2008 crash. You can see many empty half built buildings. Closed nightclubs. Maybe half the businesses open that there used to.
Right before coronavirus many people were investing in fixing up old buildings for AirBnBs. Who knows if they’ll ever get that money back.
Tourism is really all a lot of these places have left. The kids all want to leave for Germany or Australia where they know they can afford to live with an okay job. There’s no work for tradesmen that would have worked on building-related trades.
Graffiti is way more common everywhere than it was 10 years ago. It’s just really really hard to see.
Income Up to €15,000: 23%
€28,000 – €55,000: 38%
Employer payroll tax: 35%
Employee payroll tax: 10%
VAT in Australia: 10%
Income up to €12,000: 0%
€24,000 – €58,000: 32.5%
Employee payroll tax: 5.5%
Employee payroll tax: 9.5%
This is why people are moving to Australia. Where does this money go in Italy? To pensions (17% of GDP) and a corrupt bureaucracy.
If Italy is serious about climbing out of its demographic death spiral, it needs to raise the pension age to 70 pronto, record all welfare payments against assets owned and reclaim them at death, and adopt English as an official second language.
With the savings they should dramatically cut taxes, especially VAT and payroll taxes which distort the economy and drive businesses towards unofficial hiring and cash transactions.
1. It's very hot in the summer - you'll be OK inside, but personally I can't spend much time outside during the hottest days of the summer. The altitude helps a bit.
2. You have everything you need, and the sea is not far away (an hour drive away; count two hours if by public transport).
3. You basically need to have a car if you want to move. The public transport is mostly fine, unless it's Sunday and you missed the last bus. The taxis are terribly expensive (the ride to/from the nearest city can easily cost more than the €100 rent mentioned in the article).
4. You need to be prepared to spend money on gas which is used for heating during the winter. It's important to always be prepared and never run out of gas otherwise you'll need to move to your friend's house to avoid freezing.
5. People are very friendly.
6. There are many immigrants from Bangladesh working in the local vineyards. After some initial conflicts things are more or less normal now. I wouldn't say there is some integration (except the kids at schools), but people get along fine.
7. If you plan to come, I'd suggest starting around now and leaving in September. In October you'll already need gas, definitely in November. Winters are beautiful if the snow falls, but the curvy roads get even more dangerous.
8. Local food is delicious. You can get liters of high quality wine and excellent olive oil from local producers extremely cheap. There are also many green vegetables and various ways of cooking them that you'll learn with time.
9. If you have a car, it's worth visiting various small local restaurants, some of them you'll never forget.
10. The air feels very pure and you'll sleep well at night (also during the day if you wish - all windows have shutters).
But I mostly visited more frequented cities; remote work is fun, but preferably not in the middle of nowhere.
Also, I already felt like I'm taking advantage of the situation (and of the less fortunate Italian locals, whereas "we", the wealthier digital nomads use this opportunity as spoiled rich kids). I hope there will be a sustainable model in the future for these towns to welcome (and somewhat integrate) remote workers while respecting locals and their culture too.
Sample translation of what this means in practice: if you have something like a toilet clog, prepare to wait a week to have it fixed, at least; much longer if you do not speak Italian.
Source: I spent a few months living in another small Italian town. The scenery is beautiful, but dealing with bureaucracy and mundane tasks like repairs or furniture delivery is a horrifying and unpleasant nightmare, especially if you do not speak the language.
Necessity is the mother of invention, or in this case: learning something new (if you haven’t done it before).
I moved to Thailand 8 1/2 years ago. I fully expect to buy a less-than-stellar house when we move back to Australia and do a lot of the renovations myself, using the skills I was forced to learn here, because of a lack of reliable tradesmen.
Your reply seems to be making a lot of nonapplicable assumptions. #1, I'm not American, so I don't know why you're ruminating about the 'brains of Americans'. #2, I know how to use a plunger and drain cleaner, my comment was referring to issues that a lay person cannot readily fix; hence the need for a repair person and the lack of ready availability of such in small rural towns.
Because Americans often seem to have a fascination with living in shoe-boxes and divesting themselves of any personal responsibility for things like this.
Homer Simpsons "can't someone else do it" attitude, effectively.
> my comment was referring to issues that a lay person cannot readily fix
There aren't that many things that can go wrong in the home, and that you would expect a person to come and repair, that you the occupant, can't also repair. Yes you will possibly need to learn something new. Welcome to life.
A blocked toilet is most definitely one of the things you can fix. Calling a plumber for a blocked toilet is like the oft-quoted calling IT support for the unplugged computer.
Until it is something about electricity or, even worse, gas.
I don't know what it's like in Italy, but here, it's arguably more dangerous to call an "electrician" because everything is "mai pen rai" (don't worry about it), including things you personally might actually worry about like, you know, having outdoor power sockets in a waterproof box, or sealing the underground conduit, or connecting an earth, or not just twisting wires together and taping them up, or turning off the breaker before connecting things to existing circuits. (Literally all things I've had to fix because "a professional" did it).
Besides the wiring from the meter to the breaker boxes (yes boxes, plural, because $reasons), and the wiring to the A/C units, there isn't much in this house where I haven't had to change/fix some aspect of the wiring. Occasionally just to do something different, but almost always that inevitably ends up involving a fix for whatever retarded thing the previous "professional" did.
Then you are a bit naif if you expect everyone to cater to your language. You can't expect a foreign country to bend over backwards to accomodate you.
That said, if a given city only speaks one language, that is a good indicator of how homogenous and monocultural it will be. For example, if you take a vibrant multicultural city like Toronto or London, you can almost certainly find a plumber who speaks your native language.
Which is not intrinsically bad, as you implicitly depict it.
Wrong on the fixing side. At the contrary such places have full of people willing to help and with good engineering knowledge.
*They may increase this to 100k.
Income tax is around 20-25%. What is expensive is the pension (27.5%), but as you said those are not taxes.
If you're freelance and earn <€65k then you can use the 'regime forfettario' and pay a flat 5% tax + pension contributions.
If you earn more & have lived abroad for the past few years, then you can get tax relief on 90% of your income in your southern region (less in the centre/north).
It's normally 27.5% [1] of pension (so not taxes), plus income taxes (which hardly hit 30%).
Personally even being digital nomad most of my time and living abroad right now I still have my company in Italy, as the final saving isn't that much if you care about having a good pension in future.
[1] this may change if you're part of a profession related pension system, the value I wrote is for the default one.
The US government does not have these agreements in Croatia (which is also part of the European Union), for example, which means that if you are a dual US|EU citizen (such as Croatian, like me) living in Croatia, you get double taxed on all of your income. You still get to live like a king or a queen though, working for a US based company as a contractor being paid US income in dollars, as Croatia is cheap and very nice.
US tax law is complicated. Also, if you are hired as a contractor by your US based employer then there are different rules than if you are a full time US citizen worker working outside the United States. (By the way, your US based employer has to know where you are domiciled when you are working for them. It is a legal requirement and they can get reamed by the IRS! It is not just about you!)
There is also the Foreign Earned Income Tax Exclusion and the Foreign Tax Credit, one of which typically you must elect.
The younger generation usually do speak some English even in smaller "non-touristy" places.
The Croatian language seems fairly easy to learn to me but I'm biased on this being a native speaker of a Slavic language so your mileage may vary.
If you do decide to visit, I would recommend the Istrian peninsula around Pula, a beautiful Roman-style city. You won't have any issues with English there and you're gonna see much less tourists than you would in the more "traditional" vacation places like Zadar.
You can get reasonably priced accommodation in the surrounding towns and there is a huge nature reserve with beaches (cape Kamenjak). They charge a fee for entry but IMO it's quite affordable. The point of entry is the Premantura town but I would recommend against getting accommodation there as it's gonna be more expensive.
Personally I'd recommend looking for a BnB in Pomer, a small town 2-ish kilometers from Premantura. If you're a more "posh" traveler, Pula has nice and more-less reasonably priced hotels.
Also, you will want to rent a car there, the public transport is OK but won't get you everywhere...
Croatia is part of the European Union, and allows US citizens and other third-country nationals (non-EU/EEA/Swiss citizens) in, very easily. This includes during the coronavirus pandemic.
They also have a digital nomad visa, and they allow you to have the national health insurance, like Croatian citizens and EU/EEA/Swiss citizens, are allowed to have. It is quite a good deal.
Croatia basically costs about the same as the US, worst case scenario, and is often much cheaper. It is very nice in Croatia. Also, the people are extremely friendly and accommodating.
Also, coffee and cafes are a huge part of our culture. It is a place to gather and meet with people. We spend a lot of time in cafes. We are also a country where sports is a huge deal.
We all speak English, too. Anyways, I am a dual US|EU (Croatian) citizen living in Croatia (Zagreb, at the moment). I am culturally American, and have lived in the US almost all of my life. Split is also an amazing big city in Croatia.
If you want to experience what the "old Mediterranean" was like, you should absolutely spend time on the island of Vis. It is one of the most preserved islands in the Mediterranean. From post-World War II to around 1994, you could only visit the island if you had family there, as it had a Yugoslav military base on it.
Besides having an very rich history, it is just unbelievably pretty. There is a mountain on the island called Hum. There is also a famous blue cave nearby. Because it is so pretty, people call it the "Hrvatski Capri" (The Croatian island of Capri). You know, as in reference to the island of Capri in Italy.
Pictures and videos do not do justice to how pretty it is. If you want to see how pretty it is, the island of Vis is from 2:27 onward in this video:
Anyways, here is an awesome digital nomad in Croatia page to check out: https://www.total-croatia-news.com/news/digital-nomads-in-cr...
Here is the best site for learning about how to get the digital nomad visa--along with administrative stuff: https://www.expatincroatia.com/
I hope this helps.
I could see a lot of people moving there with a few incentives.. quality of life is immense there, cheap, calm, free roads, nature everywhere, feel of ancient stone houses.
It is far better of a deal as an American to get EU citizenship in any EU country. This confers you Freedom of Movement Rights to live/work/retire in any EU or EFTA country, once you acquire the EU citizenship. You will always be seen as “the American” and also so with your American credentials. For Americans, usually the best country to do this is Republic of Ireland, as a it permits dual citizenship and it only takes 5 years to become a citizen.
With Irish citizenship, you also get Freedom of Movement rights to live/work/retire in the UK, unlike other EU passports due to old treaties and ties with the British.
Also, many people on here could work without having to get sponsorship in Ireland as they have the qualifications to get a skills waiver from the Irish government.
Once you are an Irish citizen, you will legally have the rights to work remote-based US-only jobs anywhere in the Ireland, the UK, EU, and EFTA. You just have your US employer hire you on as a contractor and have an Irish payroll company take care of the US (global income taxation) and Irish (residence based income) taxes. Obviously you forfeit Irish workers rights going this and you are subject to US employment law in this case, generally speaking.
The only situations where trying to obtain Irish citizenship would be advantageous is if you wanted to live in the United Kingdom (Irish citizens have the right to live/work/retire in the UK) or if you have formal qualifications (bachelors/masters degree) in a STEM field. If you have formal qualifications in a tech field with educational degrees, you can often get hired in Ireland much easier than other EU countries due to the Irish Skills Waiver, and you would not need sponsorship.
You have to apply for and timely renew a residence permit. Documents which are required depend on the type of the permit. For work permits you need to demonstrate that you income is above the social minimum. The permit gives you the right to stay on the Italian soil and travel in the EU.
You need to rent a place to live and apply for the residency. Strictly speaking, residency is optional, but it will give you an Italian ID card, and will be required to receive a driver's license. IIRC you have six months before you need to get a local driver's license. Residency will also reduce utility bills and is required in some other situations.
After X years of non-interrupted residency (where X depends on your country of origin) you can apply for a citizenship. And it's a whole new story.
You also need to apply for an Italian fiscal code (and it will one of the first things to do).
Healthcare is guaranteed to all employed and self-employed, but you still have to have your ID, fiscal code, and a residence permit in order, and sign up for _Servizio Sanitario Nazionale_. The service to be renewed on each renewal of the residence permit.
> Ombelicus Italie
Which means
> Italy's belly button
As it was considered the center of Italy and so of their main land. Looks like things changed a lot from that (but you can still have a great Amatriciana there!)...