For German emigrants, life in Italy is just as expensive as it is here. However, several regions attract retirees with lower taxes.
Year after year, Italy ranks at the top of the list of Germans’ most popular travel destinations. The Mediterranean country is considered the ultimate dream destination in this country, with its varied landscape of the Alps, beaches and rolling hills, with pizza, pasta and the Dolce Vita. For Germans of retirement age who emigrate abroad, Italy is not quite as popular as other countries. However, several regions favor emigrants with lower taxes.
Most of the money from the German pension insurance goes to Italy, as their figures show. However, the majority of it goes to foreign insured persons, i.e. Italian citizens who have acquired their pension entitlements in Germany and many of whom are likely to return to their home country to retire. Otherwise, a good 7,600 German pensioners lived in Italy last year. By comparison, Austria is much more popular with more than 27,000 German pensioners, followed by Switzerland (26,000) and Spain (22,000).
Source: Stern
