Retiring to Albania from Italy: residence, pension and taxes (2026)

The game changed in June 2025. Law 43/2025 added Article 33/1 to the law on foreigners: citizens of EU countries may live in Albania longer than three months without any residence permit, provided they have sufficient means and a health insurance policy. The only formality is an online registration within three months of arrival, which produces a registration certificate; the implementing rules make it an online application checked within two working days, free of the service fee. After five years of continuous residence you acquire the right of permanent stay. The published texts do not put a money figure on "sufficient means" - a pension statement is the natural evidence.

The pensioner residence permit of Article 85 still exists and is the second option: up to one year, renewable, requiring pension income of at least 1,200,000 lek a year (about EUR 1,000 a month) and allowing no work. Take it if you specifically want permit status - for most Italian pensioners the registration route is now the simpler path.

Who taxes your pension is decided by the 1994 Italy-Albania convention, in force since 1999. A private-sector pension, the ordinary INPS pension included, is taxable only in the state where you reside: move your tax residence to Albania and Italy must stop taxing it. A public-service pension (ex-INPDAP) stays taxable only in Italy, unless you are an Albanian resident who also holds Albanian citizenship.

On the Albanian side, the income tax law 29/2023 does not list pensions as a taxable category, and its Article 11/a excludes income from compulsory social insurance schemes without saying "Albanian". In practice Italian pensioners are not taxed on the pension; what is still missing is an official clarification of the tax administration that Article 11/a covers foreign schemes, and a draft law stating the exemption expressly was approved by the government in April 2026 but has not been confirmed as passed. Plan on the favourable outcome, keep the caveat in mind, and read our page on the Italian pension tax question for the full picture.

You become an Albanian tax resident by spending 183 days or more in the tax year in Albania, or by having your permanent home or centre of vital interests there.

Six administrative steps carry the whole move. The dates matter: AIRE and the online registration have deadlines, the tax switch has a day count.

The fixed monthly basket of one person renting a one-bedroom flat runs about EUR 650 in Durres, EUR 680 in Sarande and EUR 865 in Tirana at October 2026 prices; a retired couple pays about EUR 520 a month of fixed costs in Durres before food. The difference between cities is almost entirely rent.

Our cost-of-living page breaks the basket down city by city, the retirement page budgets for a couple, and the ferry page prices the Bari-Durres crossing if you come with a car. If the move ends in a purchase, start from our guide for Italian buyers before any deposit.