Italy Still Draws Millionaires Despite 50% Flat Tax Rise, Report Finds

Italy remains one of Europe's most attractive destinations for millionaires, according to a new report cited by The Local Italy, even after Rome raised its flat tax on wealthy new residents by 50 percent this year. The finding suggests that the country's appeal to high-net-worth arrivals rests on more than the headline rate.

The flat-tax regime, which allows qualifying new residents to pay a fixed annual sum on foreign income rather than Italian marginal rates, was doubled in cost under the change reported this year. Yet the flow of relocating millionaires has not reversed, the report indicates, keeping Italy among the leaders in Europe for inbound wealthy residents.

For Puglia, the significance is indirect but real. The region's coastal and rural property market — the trulli of the Itria valley, the masserie of the Salento — has drawn foreign buyers for years, and any sustained inflow of wealthy arrivals feeds demand for renovation, hospitality and second homes along the Adriatic.

The Local Italy frames the story as a puzzle: a tax rise large enough to be noticed, and yet no visible drop-off in the number of millionaires choosing Italy. That points to the weight of factors the flat tax only partly addresses — lifestyle, climate, proximity to the rest of Europe, and the sheer breadth of the country's property stock.

The report does not break the figures down by region, and there is no sourced evidence that Puglia specifically has gained or lost wealthy arrivals because of the change. What can be said from the foreign coverage is national: the flat-tax increase has not, on this evidence, closed Italy's door to the mobile rich.

That matters for a southern region whose economy leans on tourism, agriculture and construction. Wealthy incomers tend to spend locally on restoration, staff and services, and their presence can lift prices in the small towns they favour. Whether that pressure is welcome is a separate question, and one the report does not address.

The wider context is the European competition for mobile capital. Portugal, Greece and Spain have all adjusted their own incentive regimes in recent years, and The Local Italy's account places Italy's decision to raise the levy against that backdrop. The report's conclusion — that Italy still leads — is a claim about relative attractiveness, not about the absolute size of the inflow.

For now, the foreign coverage offers no regional breakdown and no confirmation of how the higher rate is being received among would-be arrivals. La Veduta will report the Puglian picture only when the international press carries it.