Salary, Taxes, Pension, Benefits and Reimbursements Is the tution fee for PhD registration covered by MC fellowship? Is my scientific stay…

Marie Curie in UK, tax residence in Italy

by Seta Noventa

2 min read Jun 28, 2017

Dear all, I'm writing to you because I need some information about the taxation of the income of my Marie Curie fellowship. I'm a Marie Curie Fellow in a UK University (Individual fellowship), but I'm "resident for tax purposes in Italy (fiscally resident in Italy) ". In the UK the TAX paid on the annual income of my fellowship is £4462 (equivalent to 5072 euros). According to the Italian regular taxation rules, the tax on the same income is 15294 euros, that means that I have to pay approximately 10000 euros in Italy as difference. This sounds to me quite unfair, even more because Marie Curie fellows in Italy are tax free (IRPEF free) because they are employed through an "assegno di ricerca" (i.e. a kind of contract which is free tax). So, my question is: • Are there any agreements, rules that guarantee a similar taxation of the income of the MC fellowships in the different countries, in order to ensure similar net salaries (regardless of the tax residency)? • In my specific case, are there any rules/agreements to prevent my Marie Curie income to be taxed in Italy as a regular income of a job carried out in a foreign Country? By considering that the grant amount is corrected for a factor which accounts for the effective living costs in the different countries, I think that there should be an agreement which guarantees similar taxation rules and "protect" the net salary of researchers funded by the same fellowship. Do you know anything about this? Thanks very much in advance for any help. Best regards

6 Comments

Margherita Castronovo

Jun 29, 2017

Hi Seta

there are some things I do not understand from your situation. I am also italian and I have a MSC fellowship in UK. When you move to UK and in order to proceed with all the bureaucracy you need to register and they give you a National Insurance Number (NIN) which is basically the social security number that we have in Italy (codice fiscale). This is why I do not get how it is possible that you are "resident in Italy for tax purposes".

In UK the taxation work according to the "pay as you earn". So if you do not own anything in Italy the only taxes you have to pay are the one in UK which are alreasdy calculated and deducted from your gross salary. In case you have properties in Italy, I think you have to declare them in UK and then you pay a bit more of taxes in the UK (but not in Italy - as in Europe there is no "double taxation"policy).

Another issue, it is better not to compare the way Italy handles MSC fellowship as the situation is different in all countries and each country and each institution has its own rule to handle these contracts. I have been one year in Germany and the way it was handled is much different from the way it is organized now that I am in UK.

Hope this helps,

Margherita

Arianna Landini

Apr 26, 2019

Sorry to re-open this thread after more than one year, but I'm finding myself in a similar situation and I would like to ask for your opinion.

I'm Italian as well and moved recently to the UK for a Marie Curie ITN (so I'm a PhD student but at the same time I'm employed by my University as a staff member).

Last year I spent most of my time in Italy (for the income I produced in Italy I've already paid taxes in Italy) and only 4 months working in the UK (for which income I've already paid taxes in the UK). I signed myself into AIRE only starting from the current year, so now I'm afraid that for 2018 I will have to pay in Italy the difference between UK taxation and Italian taxation for what I've earned in the UK (because considering 2018, I was officially still resident in Italy according to tax legislation, this is my understanding).

There is something that maybe I've misunderstood? Do you have any suggestions for dealing with this situation? I'm asking beacuse even my accountant is not that sure about how to proceed.

Thank you so much!
Best wishes

Arianna

Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky

Apr 29, 2019

Dear Arianna,

Thank you for your e-mail. Concerning my case, here in Venice, I pay INPS contribution only as we are registered with the authorities as ''assegnisti di ricerca." Perhaps it could be useful for you to find out if PhD students do have to pay taxes on their income or they are equivalent of 'assegnisti di ricerca' and therefore, do not need to pay taxes.

Hope this helps,

Sincerely,

Andrea

Nuoya Chen

Apr 28, 2019

Hi,

For my situation, I have paid tax in the UK before and have then moved to Italy.

I tried to contact my previous employer in the UK and ask for a form P45 or something. It is faily convenient if you can have the form and submit to the british government website. They do a tax return every year.

Unfortunately, my previous employer never gave me that form, so I cannot get the tax return.

Hope it helps.

Nuoya

Andrea-Bianka Znorovszky

Apr 29, 2019

Dear Arianna,

Hope this helps,

Sincerely,

Andrea

Jacopo Calevo

Jun 28, 2024

Dear all,

sorry to bring this conversation back but since things may have change after Brexit I need some clarification.

I am basically in the same situation. I'm Italian, I got a MC global fellowship a couple of years ago with a british hosting institution and an Australian for the outgoing phase, and therefore I have a NIN in UK. However, for several reasons I was not registered to AIRE during these two past years. Last year my italian financial advisor said I was supposed to pay taxes also in Italy, and so I did, but now I really think I should not since after paying taxes I have nothing left and it looks really unfair (since there are deduction from my gross salary in UK).

Do you confirm that I do not have to pay any extra tax to Italy? Does any of you have a link to the regulation so I can forward that to my financial advisor? I wasn't unable to find anything official about that.

Thanks for your help
Jacopo