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Customs and Transfer of Residence Relief for Moving to Italy

Italian customs publishes two request forms, one declaring a residence in Italy you have already set up and one declaring an intention to move there. Here is what each asks you to declare, and what it leaves out.

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A few short questions. Nothing is sent until you check and confirm.

Can your household goods enter Italy free of duty and VAT?

Household goods can come into Italy free of customs duty and VAT when your normal home is moving there from outside the EU and you meet the conditions. Italy’s customs and monopolies agency, the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli (ADM), says so in its answers to frequently asked questions (opens in a new window), and the two ADM forms below are its prepared model for the request.

Graphic of two form sheets, one with a seal, beside a round customs stamp mark

Moving from Great Britain counts as arriving from outside the EU. The European Commission’s page on the UK (opens in a new window) says that for customs “the UK is now treated as any other non-EU country”, and that “EU customs rules and procedures generally continue to apply to goods entering and leaving Northern Ireland”. ADM’s pages don’t mention the UK or Northern Ireland, so a move from Northern Ireland is a question for the customs office.

We introduce people to movers and do not do the moving ourselves. When you send an enquiry, we pass it to a removal company in our partner network. That company checks whether it covers the move, assesses your belongings and quotes. Your removal company will tell you what it needs from you and when. Italian customs, not the removal company or us, decides whether the relief applies.

Everything below concerns the Italian end. What happens before the goods leave the UK, export declaration included, is in our UK customs documentation checklist. A move in the other direction has different steps. This page does not set them out; our page on moving from Italy to the UK does. If you are giving up a rented home in Italy for Great Britain and want the relief there, HMRC’s transfer of residence relief (opens in a new window) guidance asks for the ToR1 application before your goods are shipped and says “You must get approval from HMRC before claiming the relief.” Work back from the date your lease ends.

Two ADM forms: one for a residence already set up, one for an intention to move

ADM’s page of duty-free forms (opens in a new window) lists two for a transfer of residence to Italy: Mod. F-01 A (opens in a new window), which it describes as senza garanzia (without security), and Mod. F-01 B (opens in a new window), con garanzia (with security). The page doesn’t say when to use which and shows no date. The forms show the split. In Mod. F-01 A you declare a normal residence in Italy established no more than 12 months before (stabilita da non oltre 12 mesi), in a comune (municipality) you name. In Mod. F-01 B you declare the intention to move your normal residence to Italy within 6 months (entro 6 mesi).

ADM’s FAQ adds that the request for the relief can be made on plain paper, on the prepared model, or by a substitute declaration (dichiarazione sostitutiva dell’atto di notorietà), so the forms are the model rather than the only way to ask. The English renderings of Italian wording on this page are ours.

Both forms are signed as declarations under Italian presidential decree 445/2000. They warn of the criminal penalties in its Article 76 for untrue statements, and of the loss of whatever was granted on them, so the dates and the list have to be right. Both also have a box for who carries out the import: you, or a delegated person (soggetto delegato) acting for you. Ask your removal company who will deal with the customs office.

The three ADM conditions, and the exceptions the regulation adds

ADM’s FAQ gives the conditions in three numbered points, and both forms repeat them as declarations. The tests are EU-wide: Articles 3 to 11 of Regulation 1186/2009, which we read in the consolidated text of 1 July 2026 on EUR-Lex (opens in a new window); the 2026 amendment leaves those articles as they were in 2009. What is Italian is the form, the proof it asks for and the way ADM words each test. In two places the regulation allows an exception that ADM’s answer does not mention: the six months of possession below, and the import window in the next section.

  • Twelve consecutive months outside the EU.

    The FAQ asks for residence outside the EU for at least twelve consecutive months. It adds that if the stay ended sooner you must show you meant to stay that long and attach supporting papers, for example an employment contract that ended early. The regulation’s Article 5(2) backs this: the authorities may grant exceptions for someone who clearly meant to live outside the Union’s customs territory for an unbroken 12 months at least. The customs office decides if your case qualifies.

  • Six months of possession.

    The forms ask you to declare that the goods were possessed for at least six months before your previous residence ended. The FAQ counts the six months before the date of the transfer (prima della data del trasferimento) instead, and ADM doesn’t reconcile the two, so find out which date the office counts from. The regulation’s Article 4(a) counts back from the date you cease to have your normal residence in the country of departure, applies the use test only to goods you do not use up, and lets the six months be waived “in special cases justified by the circumstances”. ADM’s pages name no such case, so ask before relying on one.

  • The same use afterwards.

    The goods must be intended for the same uses in your new home, the forms say.

Timing: the twelve months to import, and each member of the household

The FAQ says relief is granted only for goods declared for free circulation within 12 months of the date you established your normal residence in the Union’s customs territory. The goods may arrive in several loads. ADM’s answer doesn’t mention this, but the regulation’s Article 7(2) allows release in several separate consignments inside the period. Relief after that window is possible only “in special cases” under Article 7(1), and ADM describes none. So plan to meet the twelve months, particularly if some of your things sit in storage in the UK.

The FAQ also says the relief on cars, motorbikes and other effects or movable items is granted to each member of the household who transfers their residence, provided each meets the conditions.

Possession, ownership and used goods

Both forms ask you to declare that the goods were possessed (posseduti) for six months, yet each closes with a declaration made as owner (in qualità di proprietario) of the goods being imported. The Agenzia delle Entrate, Italy’s revenue agency, addressed possession in its answer no. 105/2026 (opens in a new window), given to a UK resident planning to move to Italy with a boat. Following the Court of Justice (case C-170/03), it reads possession as economic availability of the goods, “ossia l’effettivo controllo su di essi” (that is, effective control over them).

The revenue agency’s answer was given on one person’s facts, about a boat held through a company structure, and it concerns the VAT exemption only; duties are for ADM, as the duty and VAT section explains. It says the actual possession needs a factual check that an interpello, the formal request for the agency’s view, cannot make. It does not speak to household furniture. If goods are held in a partner’s, a company’s or another person’s name, ask customs before you rely on it.

On used goods, ADM’s FAQ says the six-month condition for non-consumable goods “si intende assolta” (is understood as met) where the goods are used goods. For registered movable goods, such as vehicles, it says proof of when possession and use began must always be given. The agency’s answer repeats this and cites an ADM circular, no. 22 of 2004, which we did not read. ADM’s circular 1/2022 (opens in a new window), which sends its offices to the FAQ and forms, says it replaces circular 22/D.

What the forms ask you to attach

Both forms ask for the list of household and personal effects (lista masserizie, effetti personali), a copy of your identity document and the codice fiscale, the Italian tax code, of the person applying. They have you state the value of the goods, vehicles apart, in figures and in words, for customs purposes only (ai soli fini doganali). They also ask for proof that you lived outside the EU, with at least one of these ticked:

Mod. F-01 A, for a move already made, adds proof of residence in Italy. You attach a substitute declaration of your residence certificate (dichiarazione sostitutiva del certificato di residenza, under Article 46 of decree 445/2000). Alternatively you attach a copy of the notice that the residence procedure has started, or a copy of your application to the comune, together with one of three further papers: a lease (with its registration) or a property deed, a utilities contract, or an employer’s attestation or employment contract.

Because the form lists the application to the comune as an alternative, ask the customs office whether it will accept that application while your registration is still pending. Mod. F-01 B asks for no proof of Italian residence. It has the deposit rule instead, covered below. Neither form says which of its documents must be originals or translated, so ask.

Goods that arrive first: the security and the deposit in Mod. F-01 B

Mod. F-01 B, the form that declares an intention to move, is the one that carries the security (garanzia). ADM’s FAQ says the relief can be granted before you establish yourself in the Union if you undertake to move there within six months. The undertaking is backed by suitable security in the forms usually used for it, with an insurance policy and a security deposit as examples, in an amount the territorially competent customs office considers appropriate. No amount appears on the FAQ or the form. The form reserves a space for the office to enter the form and amount of the security under Article 9, so find out what amount it will require before shipping.

Mod. F-01 B also has you acknowledge that you have no right to the return of the deposit (deposito cauzionale) if the substitute residence certificate isn’t filed with ADM within six months of the import. The FAQ calls the security a garanzia that can be a policy or a deposit. The acknowledgement in Mod. F-01 B speaks of a deposit, while the office box at the end of the form leaves the form of the security open, so ask which kind your office will take.

On this route, Article 9(2) of the regulation says the six-month period in Article 4(a) is calculated from the date the goods are brought into the Union’s customs territory, instead of from the end of your previous residence. Anything you leave behind is on the 12-month clock that starts when you establish your residence, under Article 7. If you will ship in stages, say so to your removal company early.

Twelve months without lending, pledging, hiring out or transferring

Both forms contain a declaration that the goods will not be lent, pledged, leased or transferred, for a price or free, for at least twelve months from import without prior notice to the customs office (senza preventiva comunicazione all’Ufficio delle dogane). The regulation’s Article 8(2) makes the relevant import duties payable on any loan, pledge, hire or transfer inside the twelve months. ADM’s pages don’t say what a notice changes, so before you sell, lend or let anything in that first year, raise it with customs.

The start of the twelve-month restriction is worded differently in the sources. The forms count from the date of import, while Article 8(1) counts from the day customs accepted the entry for free circulation. Ask customs which date applies to your goods. ADM’s FAQ on goods imported for a marriage counts the year from the acceptance of the import declaration, which matches the regulation.

Duty and VAT rest on different legal texts

ADM’s FAQ rests the duty exemption on Regulation 1186/2009 and the VAT exemption on Directive 2009/132 and Decree 489/1997. In answer 105/2026 the revenue agency says customs duties are assessed and collected by ADM, so duties are outside its competence, and that Directive 2009/132 has no specific Italian implementing rule. It adds that one can still rely on the 1997 decree “per analogia sostanziale e per quanto compatibili” (by substantial analogy and as far as compatible), because that decree adapted Italian law to the earlier directive that 2009/132 replaced.

The agency’s reading of the VAT exemption comes from one answer on one person’s facts, with the conditions left unverified. It is not a promise for your move. One more point comes from the FAQ and from ADM’s circular 1/2022: for audiovisual products among the goods you move, such as radios, televisions, video recorders and computers, it says they need not meet the product-safety and electromagnetic-compatibility conformity requirements by bearing the CE marking.

Livigno, Campione d’Italia and Lake Lugano

Italy is not one area for customs and VAT. The Commission’s table of territorial scope (opens in a new window) lists Italy with EU customs, VAT and excise rules applying. For Livigno it shows EU customs, VAT and excise rules as not applying. For Campione d’Italia and the Italian waters of Lake Lugano it shows customs and excise rules applying and VAT rules not applying.

The Commission’s table shows no date. ADM’s FAQ and forms don’t mention these places, so we can’t tell you whether or how the relief works for a move to one of them. Have your removal company check with the customs office for that place before anything ships.

Your own papers: the visa and the Questura

The customs forms rest on your residence, and the route for a British citizen differs from an EU citizen’s. The Questura is the provincial police headquarters, which the consulate calls the Central Police Station, where you apply for a residence permit. The Italian Consulate General in London’s notice of 17 December 2020 (opens in a new window), written ahead of 1 January 2021 and showing no later update, says British citizens planning to stay in Italy for more than 90 days within 180 “will be subject to National visas requirements according to the Italian immigration rules applied to third country nationals”. Other situations, including Italian and other EU citizens, follow different rules, which this page does not set out.

The consulate’s visa page (opens in a new window) says a national-visa holder “must report to the Questura (Central Police Station) within 8 working days from the date of entry” to apply for a residence permit. Article 5 of Italy’s immigration act, in the Normattiva text (opens in a new window), says the permit is requested “entro otto giorni lavorativi dal suo ingresso”, within eight working days of entry. GOV.UK’s Living in Italy (opens in a new window) guidance says “within 8 days of arriving”, without the word working, so check the count with the Questura.

Registering as a resident, and getting a codice fiscale

Registering where you live

GOV.UK’s guidance on living in Italy says that once you have applied for your residence permit you need to register your residency if you plan to stay for more than 3 months. The process is called iscrizione anagrafica, and it is done at the registry office (Anagrafe) of the comune where you live.

Italy’s registry rules give 20 days to declare a move of residence. Article 13(2) of the national registry regulation, as replaced in 2012 (opens in a new window), says registry declarations “devono essere rese nel termine di venti giorni dalla data in cui si sono verificati i fatti”, that is, within 20 days of the date the facts occurred. A prefecture circular (opens in a new window) relaying Interior Ministry circular 35/2024 lists a transfer of residence from another comune or from abroad (trasferimento di residenza da altro comune o dall’estero) among those declarations.

Article 13(2) does not say which date counts as “the facts” for a newcomer who needs a residence permit first, and the Interior Ministry’s circular 9/2012 (opens in a new window) says a non-EU citizen’s registration depends on presenting proof of regular stay with the declaration. Ask the comune when your 20 days start. The customs forms don’t say which document proves the date you established residence, so ask the customs office what it will accept.

The codice fiscale

On the codice fiscale, the Agenzia delle Entrate’s page on the tax code (opens in a new window) (updated 20 October 2026) says people living abroad can ask the Italian diplomatic or consular office in their country of residence. It says people without one can request it with form AA4/8 sent by certified e-mail, and that for foreign citizens who apply for a residence permit the Questura assigns it.

What the relief leaves out, and goods with rules of their own

Excluded goods

The forms and the FAQ exclude alcoholic products, tobacco and tobacco products, commercial means of transport, and professional-use materials, apart from portable instruments of the mechanical arts or the liberal professions. The forms also leave out any other goods that are banned from import or need a licence or authorisation from another public body. The regulation adds that personal property must not be such as might indicate, by its nature or quantity, that it is imported for commercial reasons (Article 2(1)(c)), and the forms limit home provisions to normal family needs (approvvigionamento familiare normale). If something in your load might be one of those, say so in your first enquiry.

Vehicles

The FAQ lists private cars and their trailers, caravans, pleasure boats and tourist aircraft among personal goods. The forms have a separate box for registered used vehicles, with a copy of the foreign registration document or other proof of use abroad for six months before the move. This page leaves vehicles and their registration out. How a car is moved at all is explained in our guide on sending a car overseas with a move.

Dividing the work: your removal company, you and ADM

  • The removal company

    will tell you what it needs from you and when. Ask who will deal with the customs office and whether customs work is charged for, and request both answers in writing alongside the quotation.

  • You

    provide the dates, the list and the papers, and sign the declaration. Your dates must be accurate: when you lived outside the EU, and when residence in Italy begins.

  • Italian customs

    decides whether the relief applies. The forms leave a reserved space in which the office’s director records the duty-free import, and on Mod. F-01 B the security.

For dates, our international moving checklist lists the customs tasks in calendar order. For the money side, our guide to what international removals cost sets out the factors behind a quotation. To find a customs office, ADM lists a public-relations desk for each office (opens in a new window), with e-mail and telephone; the list says nothing about duty-free requests, so it only helps you reach the office.

Italian customs questions, answered

Which ADM form do I use, A or B?

ADM’s page lists Mod.

F-01 A, without security, and Mod. F-01 B, with it, and doesn’t say which to use. The forms point the way: A declares a residence in Italy established no more than 12 months ago, B an intention to move within six months. Ask the customs office which fits your dates.

Can I claim if I lived outside the EU for less than twelve months?

Possibly.

ADM’s FAQ says that if the stay ended before twelve months you must show you meant to stay that long, with documents such as an employment contract that ended early. The regulation lets the authorities grant such exceptions. The customs office decides if yours qualifies.

Must the furniture be in my own name?

The forms ask for goods possessed for six months but are signed as owner.

The revenue agency, in answer 105/2026 on a boat, reads possession as effective control. That was one person’s case, so ask customs before relying on it for goods held in another name.

What if some of my things arrive before I do?

Customs can grant the relief first if you undertake to establish residence within six months and lodge a security.

ADM’s FAQ gives an insurance policy or security deposit as examples, in an amount the customs office sets. Mod. F-01 B says you have no right to the deposit back if the substitute residence certificate isn’t filed within six months.

Can I pass on or lend anything in the first year?

Not without telling customs first.

Both forms declare that the goods won’t be lent, pledged, leased or transferred, for pay or free, for at least twelve months from import without prior notice to the customs office. Under the regulation, doing so inside that period entails payment of the import duties.

Is Livigno treated like the rest of Italy?

Not for customs or VAT, according to the Commission’s table: EU customs and VAT rules don’t apply there.

Campione d’Italia and the Italian waters of Lake Lugano are listed with customs rules applying and VAT rules not. ADM’s pages don’t say how the relief works in these places, so ask first.

Planning a move to Italy? Start with your dates

Send your UK postcode, the Italian town you are heading for and the date from which Italy will be home. Say whether part of the load goes ahead of you, and whether a vehicle, a pet or any drink is travelling too. That lets your movers plan the customs side with the transport.

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