I immigrated from the Netherlands as a child to the US. I recently went through a fairly lengthy process to regain my Dutch citizenship (so many apostilles!). I'm a few years from retirement. I'm not clear on the implications of staying in Europe for extended periods. E.g. when do I start paying European taxes (which I don't think I want to do), etc. Any suggestions on good resources (books, websites) for this?

The place to ask questions such as this is ExPats in Italy

While Cristina's site is a wonderful source for information about living in Italy, you asked about paying European taxes in Europe itself (it's unclear what country you're specifically asking about, and there are differences between being an EU citizen and one moving for a short period on a visiting visa holding a foreign passport). What you may wish to do is to go to the EU's governmental site. They have an absolute wealth of information regarding your level of taxation in each country. I used these sites extensively to answer most of my questions:

Taxation and Customs Union
Independent EUR site for taxation
Portal for the official EU site on taxation

While getting my european hospitality management diploma, I had to research the levels of taxation in various European countries, both for businesses and personal, write essays about the levels and make comparisons. There are a lot of variations depending on which country. So, I do think your best source of information will be the EU commission's site, which has links to each country's specific information (including timing for each country for you to register, if you plan to live there, etc.). As things are constantly changing here, as you well know, you will always have correct, up-to-date information for an EU citizen.

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Originally posted by MariaV:
While Cristina's site is a wonderful source for information about living in Italy, you asked about paying European taxes in Europe itself (it's unclear what country you're specifically asking about, and there are differences between being an EU citizen and one moving for a short period on a visiting visa holding a foreign passport). What you may wish to do is to go to the EU's governmental site. They have an absolute wealth of information regarding your level of taxation in each country. I used these sites extensively to answer most of my questions:

The problem is a persons tax issues won't depend soley on the EU country.

The current country may have it's own ideas. There may be treaty issues. Different types of income are treated differently.

Considering the costs of a long term move paying an international tax lawyer/accountant to give you an idea isn't that bad an idea.

Regardless of the other countries the US always wants its pound of fleash.

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Originally posted by Nick z: The problem is a persons tax issues won't depend soley on the EU country. The current country may have it's own ideas. There may be treaty issues. Different types of income are treated differently.

Exactly. Tax is an issue that's best left to those that know each country's specific rates and levels. Each country is different, and also will be different if you living in a country on an EU passport (which is what the original poster asked) or on a visa with a foreign (i.e., American, Canadian, non-EU, whatever) passport/citizenship. The EU sites have issues like this broken down (or at least in a general way so an idea can be gotten) on the tax parts of their sites.

It's too imoprtant of an issue to be left to non-professionals who may or may not be guessing about what's needed, and thinking that one EU country is the same as another with EU citizens being the same as non-EU citizens may have serious implications.

I don't disagree with Maria in that the best place for any information is from a country itself; however, the recommendation to visit the Expats site still stands as on pages such as this one Site references are included. It is difficult sometimes to find websites for info. Cristina provides links to important sites that focus on legal, monetary, property etc. concerns. It is a good resource. Scroll down that page and you will find references for taxes, health, education, property ownership, visas, etc.

Additonally, the talk forum is a good place to ask questions regarding where to go for reliable info.

So, Maria is right but Expats offers a way to begin to follow her advice.

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Originally posted by Jane: . . . provides links to important sites that focus on legal, monetary, property etc. concerns. It is a good resource. Scroll down that page and you will find references for taxes, health, education, property ownership, visas, etc. . . .but Expats offers a way to begin to follow her advice.

For Italy Thereur asked about "staying in Europe". If s/he means Italy, then I would certainly agree to go by Cristina's site (which I've been a member of for many a year, and have always said it's a great site). However, there are 26 countries in the EU ("staying in Europe") it's getting HUGE besides Italy, with 3 more candidates. Not everyone wants to live in Italy (heck, take a look at all the Italians here in London!)


Maria