Retire in Italy, and get rewarded with a 7% flat tax for 10 years.

When I first heard of this I tried my best guess is an amplified story but when I confirmed it my question is why then I remember an Italian proverbs that says

When the roots are rotten, the branches can Simply not bear fruit

Italy’s economy is telling us a story beyond the looks and find building and of course awesome food Italy’s economy is stagnant, and Giorgia Meloni’s government is running out of excuses.

I mean they are growing the curves look great but deep in it a country that achieved a trillion dollars economy more than 35 years ago and still in 2.4 Trillion in 2025 tells a lot of stories.

But before I mistakenly base this article on the Italian economy let's go back to the matter that brought us here

The €200,000 flat tax aimed to lure in billionaires has lured billionaires
are they successful? Yes of course and even made international celebrities to set up shop in Italy, which has successfully turned the country into a luxury tax haven for the ultra-rich.

But while Milanese penthouses are filling up, Italy’s small towns and industrial heartlands are fading out.

Now for ordinary Italians, wages are flat, jobs are scarce, and the national growth rate has been cut down to an embarrassing 0.6%. oh my God.

It's clear that Italy has traded genuine reform for quick cash from rich foreigners

On the surface level, Meloni’s strategy looks clever and simple

Attract capital, bring in wealthy residents, and fuel construction booms in fashionable cities.

But the problem Italy’s bureaucracy is a structural problem and Italy is still suffocating businesses, its youth are still leaving for Berlin, London, or New York, and its aging population is draining welfare budgets.

Without deep reform and structural adjustments like simplifying regulations, modernizing infrastructure, and fixing education the beauty of Milan are nothing but a façade.

Countries that depend on foreign wealth rather than domestic productivity often create a bubble. When the wealthy leave (and they always do when the incentives dry up), what’s left? Empty skyscrapers, half-finished projects, and a local economy too weak to stand on its own.

Italy risks becoming the Monaco of Europe exclusive, glamorous, but irrelevant on the global economic stage.