From territorial taxation to worldwide. That is the real move.

If you are relocating from Singapore, Hong Kong or Malaysia, you are not moving from a low rate to a higher one. You are moving from one principle to another.

Those systems are broadly territorial: foreign-source income is largely outside the net, and there is generally no capital gains tax. Italy applies worldwide taxation to its residents — every category, every jurisdiction, plus annual wealth-type charges on assets held abroad and a reporting obligation that covers them.

The practical consequence surprises people. A portfolio that produced no tax event for a decade in Singapore begins generating an Italian liability the day residence attaches. A property in Kuala Lumpur becomes reportable and subject to IVIE. A holding company that was simply a holding company acquires an Italian dimension.

Australia is a different case: it already taxes residents on worldwide income, so the principle is familiar. The problem there is the exit — ceasing Australian residence triggers a deemed disposal of certain assets, and its timing relative to the Italian arrival is one of the few genuinely irreversible decisions in the whole move.

• Treaty coverage is uneven. Italy has double tax treaties with Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and China. Hong Kong is covered by its own arrangement, and the position of a Hong Kong resident is not automatically the same as a mainland one.
• Trusts and offshore structures. Vehicles that were fiscally invisible in a territorial system can become transparent, or taxable, once a resident beneficiary or settlor sits in Italy. This is checked before the move.
• Timing across hemispheres. Tax years do not align — Australia runs to 30 June, Italy to 31 December — which creates both traps and, occasionally, useful gaps.
• Foreign asset reporting. Outside the flat tax regime, the RW section, IVIE and IVAFE apply to property and financial assets held abroad. The penalties attach to the omission, not to the tax.