Europe's high-tax countries rarely offer discounts to anyone. A handful of them make an exception for one group: people who have just arrived. These are the impatriate regimes, special tax rules that reduce the bill for new residents for a fixed number of years, on the theory that a lower rate attracts skilled people who would otherwise go elsewhere.
They are easy to misunderstand. An impatriate regime is not a flat tax country, where everyone pays one rate. It is not a lump-sum regime either, where wealthy newcomers pay a fixed annual amount on foreign income. It is a temporary discount on the income you earn from working in the new country, with conditions attached, a clock running, and in some cases a penalty if you leave too early.
Three of the best-known regimes belong to Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. They share a purpose and almost nothing else. Here is how each works in 2026, according to the tax authorities that run them.
Italy: Half Your Income Tax-Free, With Strings
Italy rebuilt its regime for new arrivals from tax year 2024, under Article 5 of Legislative Decree 209/2023. The Agenzia delle Entrate describes it as follows.
What you get. Employment income and income from self-employed professional work produced in Italy is taxed on only 50 percent of its amount, up to an annual limit of 600,000 euros. If you move with a minor child, or a child is born or adopted while you use the regime, only 40 percent is taxed, provided the child is resident in Italy.
For how long. The year you move your tax residence to Italy, plus the four following tax years. Five years in total.
The conditions. You must not have been tax resident in Italy in the three tax years before the move. If you are coming to work for the same employer or group you worked for abroad, that period rises to six years, or seven if you worked for that employer in Italy before leaving. You must work in Italy for most of the tax year. And you must meet the requirements of high qualification or specialisation defined in Legislative Decrees 108/2012 and 206/2007, the Italian rules on highly qualified workers and recognised professional qualifications, or, under a clause added to Article 5 with effect from 10 October 2025, have carried out research, including applied research, in artificial intelligence technologies.
The trap. You must commit to remaining tax resident in Italy for at least four years. If you leave earlier, you lose the benefit and the Agenzia recovers the tax already saved, with interest. That is not a detail. It turns a tax break into a four-year commitment, and anyone whose job or family situation could change should price that in.
One more point for Italian citizens returning home: they count as having been resident abroad if they were registered in AIRE, the register of Italians abroad, or were resident in another country under a tax treaty.
One change is already on the statute book. Italy's new consolidated income tax code, Legislative Decree 117/2026, in force since 4 July 2026, applies from 1 January 2027. From that date it repeals Article 5 of Decree 209/2023 and carries the impatriate regime over, with the same conditions and percentages, as Article 225 of the new code. For anyone moving in 2026, Article 5 is the provision that applies.
The broader Italy picture, including the other routes for newcomers, is on the Italy country page.
Spain: The Beckham Regime at 24 Percent
Spain's regime is written into Article 93 of the Personal Income Tax Act, still widely known as the Beckham law. The consolidated text in the official gazette was last updated on 9 September 2026.
What you get. Instead of Spain's normal progressive income tax, you can opt to be taxed under the rules for non-residents while remaining a Spanish taxpayer. Your employment income is taxed at 24 percent up to 600,000 euros and 47 percent above that. Savings income such as dividends, interest and gains is taxed on a separate scale from 19 to 30 percent. Because the regime applies non-resident rules, it taxes income obtained in Spain, and for wealth tax you are taxed only on assets located in Spain.
For how long. The year you move, plus the five following tax years. Six years in total.
The conditions. You must not have been resident in Spain in the five tax years before the move. The move itself must result from one of four things: an employment contract (including remote work carried out from Spain, and holders of Spain's international telework visa), becoming a director of a company (with limits if the company is a passive holding entity), carrying out an activity officially classed as entrepreneurial, or working as a highly qualified professional for a start-up or in training, research, development and innovation, where that work provides more than 40 percent of your income. Your spouse and children under 25 can also opt in, subject to conditions.
The trap. All the income from your work during the regime is treated as obtained in Spain, and there is no offsetting of different income items against each other. And all four qualifying triggers involve working, directing a company or building a business in Spain. Someone who simply moves to live off investments does not qualify. The Brief looked at the practical pitfalls in Spain Expat Tax Trap: Beckham Law Warning, and the Spain country page covers the rest of the system.
The Netherlands: The 30 Percent Allowance
The Dutch regime works differently again. It does not change the tax rate at all. Instead, the employer may pay part of the salary as a tax-free allowance for the extra costs of working away from home.
What you get. According to the Belastingdienst, the employer can pay up to 30 percent of salary tax-free. The allowance is capped: in 2026 it can be at most 78,600 euros, reached at a salary of 262,000 euros or more for a full year. The exemption also applies to employee insurance premiums. Alongside it, the employer can reimburse moving costs and international school fees tax-free.
For how long. Up to five years, according to the government's explainer.
The conditions. You must be employed by the Dutch employer, be recruited from abroad, and have specific expertise. That is measured by salary: for 2026, taxable salary above 48,013 euros, or above 36,497 euros for people under 30 with a Dutch master's degree or equivalent. The employer applies to the tax authority, which issues a decision.
The trap. The regime has been changed repeatedly. The government's own explainer describes a phase-down introduced from 2024 and a plan to change the rules again from 2027, which that page describes as not yet final. The percentage you can count on depends on when you arrived and on legislation still in progress. Anyone relocating now should have the employer confirm in writing what applies in each year. And because the benefit runs through the employer, a job change can end it.
Side by Side
Compare the three on the dimensions that matter:
- Mechanism. Italy exempts half your work income. Spain replaces the normal scale with a flat 24 percent. The Netherlands lets your employer pay up to 30 percent tax-free.
- Duration. Italy five years, Spain six, the Netherlands up to five.
- Waiting period before the move. Italy three years of non-residence (longer for intra-group moves). Spain five. The Netherlands requires recruitment from abroad.
- Cap. Italy 600,000 euros of income. Spain none on eligibility, but income above 600,000 euros is taxed at 47 percent. The Netherlands a maximum allowance of 78,600 euros in 2026.
- Exit penalty. Italy claws back the benefit if you leave within four years. Spain and the Netherlands have no equivalent clawback in the texts cited here, but the Dutch benefit ends with the job.
- Who it suits. Italy: qualified employees and self-employed professionals, especially with children. Spain: employees, directors, entrepreneurs and start-up specialists with high earnings. The Netherlands: employees of Dutch companies who were hired from abroad.
A rough sense of scale helps. On a salary of 200,000 euros, Spain's regime means a flat 24 percent, or 48,000 euros of income tax. In Italy, only 100,000 euros of that salary enters the tax base, taxed at normal Italian rates. In the Netherlands, 60,000 euros can be paid tax-free and the remaining 140,000 euros is taxed normally. Each is a large discount on the standard system. None is zero.
What These Regimes Are Not
Two neighbouring categories are often confused with impatriate regimes.
Lump-sum regimes. Italy also offers wealthy newcomers a fixed annual tax on foreign income under Article 24-bis of its income tax code (Article 246 of the new code from 2027), an entirely separate regime aimed at people living off capital rather than work. The Brief has covered it in Italy's Flat Tax Mirage and in the context of wealthy Britons moving after the end of the non-dom regime in London After Non-Dom. Lump-sum regimes serve investors; impatriate regimes serve workers.
Flat tax countries. A country with one income tax rate for everyone treats you the same on day one as on day three thousand. An impatriate regime is the opposite: it is generous at the start and ends on a fixed date. When it ends, you pay the country's normal progressive rates. Which countries still run a genuine single rate is set out in Flat Tax Countries in 2026.
Portugal is often mentioned in the same breath. The Brief's honest assessment of Portugal in 2026 covers it in detail.
The Question to Ask Before You Choose
Every impatriate regime has an end date, and that end date is the most important number in the file. It is tempting to compare the discount. It is wiser to compare what happens afterwards.
Ask three questions. Will you still be there when the regime ends? If yes, you will pay the full rates of a high-tax country for the rest of your stay, and the regime was only a head start. Can you commit to the minimum period? In Italy, leaving early costs you the benefit with interest. Does your income fit the regime? Spain's regime ignores passive investors, Italy's requires qualifications and work in Italy, and the Dutch one requires a Dutch employer.
For a professional planning five or six years in one country, these regimes can be worth a great deal of money. For someone who might move again in two years, or whose income is mostly investment income, they can be worth much less than they look, or nothing at all.
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