Retirement

Steps

1. Before leaving, request the S1 form from the body that pays your pension and manages your health insurance (in France, the CPAM). It proves that your country pays for your care.
2. Settle in: residence registration with the Comune (sheet IT-SEJOUR-TOUS-001) and codice fiscale (sheet IT-NIF-TOUS-001).
3. Register your S1 with the ASL (Azienda Sanitaria Locale) of your municipality: you are then registered with the SSN like an Italian insured person, you choose your general practitioner and you receive your tessera sanitaria (sheet IT-SANTE-TOUS-001).
4. Have your pension paid in Italy: each EU country pays its pension into an account in your country of residence (sheet IT-BANQUE-TOUS-001). Tell your funds about your change of address and country.
5. Check the taxation of your pension:
   • as a tax resident in Italy (sheet IT-IMPOTS-TOUS-001), you declare your worldwide income;
   • the tax treaty between your country and Italy says who taxes each pension; the Agenzia delle Entrate points out that treaties generally treat public-sector (civil servant) pensions and private-sector pensions differently. Read yours on the Dipartimento delle Finanze website;
   • French pensioner: declare your basic pension and your Agirc-Arrco in Italy and in France (see "What changes by country of origin");
   • if you settle in a small town in the South, study the optional 7% regime on foreign income (sheet IT-IMPOTS-TOUS-002), and have a tax specialist do the calculation if your country keeps the right to tax your pension.
6. If you have worked in Italy, even for a short time: claim your Italian pension from the INPS (online, on 803 164 or through a patronato). For a career in several countries, the application is submitted to the authority of the country where you live or where you last worked, which forwards it to the others (Your Europe). Find out at least 6 months before you retire: receiving pensions from several countries can take time.

Documents

• S1 form (one per person covered, if your fund issues them for your dependants).
• Valid identity document and codice fiscale.
• Proof of your residence registration with the Comune.
• Pension notifications and career statements from each country.
• Bank details (IBAN) for payment.
• For taxation: annual pension certificates and, in case of double taxation, Italian tax residence certificate.

Costs and timelines

• Care with an S1: same rights as an Italian insured person, with the ticket (co-payment) set by the region on certain services.
• Italian old-age pension (pensione di vecchiaia):
  • age: 67 years in 2026, 67 years and 1 month in 2027, 67 years and 3 months in 2028 (2026 budget law, no. 199/2025, art. 1, para. 185: the life-expectancy-linked increase is spread out);
  • at least 20 years of contributions (15 years in a few cases provided by legislative decree 503/1992); if your first contribution dates from 1996 or later, your pension must also reach at least the amount of the assegno sociale (social allowance);
  • if your first contribution dates from 1996 or later, you can also retire at 71 years in 2026 (71 years and 1 month in 2027) with at least 5 years of actual contributions, whatever the amount of the pension;
  • you must stop your salaried employment (self-employed activity may continue).
• Early retirement (pensione anticipata): 42 years and 10 months of contributions for men, 41 years and 10 months for women, with no age condition in 2026 (EURES); 42 years and 11 months and 41 years and 11 months in 2027 (INPS).
• Career in several EU countries: each country pays its share, pro rata to the years worked there; the periods in the other countries count towards qualifying (for example the 20 years). Each share is only drawn at the statutory age of the country that pays it.
• Timelines: request information at least 6 months before you retire.

Common pitfalls

• Leaving without an S1. The European card (EHIC) only covers temporary stays: once you have settled, it is the S1 that opens the SSN to you.
• Also receiving a pension from the country where you live. If you receive a pension from your country of residence that gives rights to healthcare, that country covers you, even if you have other pensions.
• Thinking that retirement ages are the same everywhere. Your French, Belgian or German pension follows the age of its country, the Italian pension the Italian age.
• Confusing public pension and private pension. The treaty may keep the tax in your country for a civil servant pension: check before choosing the 7% regime.
• French pensioner: declaring your pension only in France. Since 2021, the Agenzia delle Entrate has been reassessing French pensioners who have not declared their pension in Italy; France obtained the waiver of penalties for pensions up to 2023, not of the taxes (ministerial answer of 27/01/2026).
• Forgetting small Italian entitlements. A few years in Italy count: the INPS may owe you a pro rata pension.

What changes by country of origin

• EU and EEA citizens: S1, aggregation of careers and payment of the pension within the EU follow the European social security coordination rules.
• French nationals (France-Italy tax convention of 5 October 1989):
  • basic pension (CNAV, MSA, special schemes) and compulsory supplementary pension (Agirc-Arrco, schemes for the self-employed): shared taxation (art. 18 § 2 and exchange of letters of 20/12/2000). France taxes; you also declare these pensions in Italy, which taxes them and deducts the French tax from its tax, within the limit of the Italian tax;
  • pension of a civil servant of the State or of a local authority: taxed only in France, unless you hold Italian nationality without French (art. 19 § 2);
  • non-compulsory private pension (individual supplementary pension): taxed only in Italy (art. 18 § 1);
  • 7% regime: French tax cannot be set against it (sheet IT-IMPOTS-TOUS-002). For a mixed file, consult a tax specialist in both countries.
• Swiss nationals: Your Europe names Switzerland among the countries whose pensioners keep a right to healthcare in the country that pays the pension and in the country of residence; since 1 June 2002, the European social security regulations also apply in relations with Switzerland (INPS), and the multiple aggregation provided for by the old convention remains in force on the Italian side. On the Swiss side, INPS circular no. 118/2002 specifies that Switzerland does not aggregate periods and grants its pension under its own law alone (a Swiss pension is possible from one year of contributions); this circular dates from 2002 and refers to the former Regulation 1408/71: have the point checked with the Swiss fund. On taxes, the Agenzia delle Entrate ruled (response no. 125/2024) that Swiss AVS annuities (1st pillar) and LPP annuities (2nd pillar, annuity or capital) of an Italian resident are only taxable in Italy, with a substitute tax of 5% (art. 76, para. 1-ter of law 413/1991): a response given on a specific case, to be confirmed for yours.
• British nationals (Scots included): a pensioner who receives the British State Pension can obtain an S1 from the NHS (Overseas Healthcare Services) and register it with the ASL with their passport, their codice fiscale and their residence permit (or the receipt for their application). They first need a right of residence (sheet IT-SEJOUR-TOUS-001). The Agenzia delle Entrate stated (response no. 40/2019) that, under the Italy–United Kingdom convention, the private pensions of an Italian resident are taxed only in Italy, and public pensions only in Italy if the pensioner holds Italian nationality; in the case examined (an Italian resident), the State Pension was taxable in Italy for its full amount. This response only deals with the case of an Italian; for a British national without Italian nationality, the Agenzia has not ruled: the taxation of public and private pensions depends on articles 18 and 19 of the convention, to be examined with your file.
• Pensioner in the South with the 7% regime: conditions, municipalities concerned and duration in sheet IT-IMPOTS-TOUS-002.