Page 1 of 4

MSCA-IF Salary in Italy

Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2021 11:54 am
by HSK00
Hi everyone!
I got MSCA-IF to Italy.
I Curious about the salary, what is subjected to taxes (live, family, and mobility)allowances? and if the net salary is good for a family to live in Italy?
Thank you in advance.

Re: MSCA-IF Salary in Italy

Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2021 6:01 pm
by iteration
Expect at least a third to be gone in taxes.
This leaves you with at least 3500 euros.
As the median salary in Italy is about 1500 euros, this puts a couple just slightly above that.

You can have an average lifestyle, but definitely you are not rich and need to pay attention to expenses.
But check with your host institution, maybe things are different for foreigners.

Re: MSCA-IF Salary in Italy

Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:57 pm
by HSK00
Thank you very much
iteration wrote:
Wed Feb 17, 2021 6:01 pm
Expect at least a third to be gone in taxes.
This leaves you with at least 3500 euros.
As the median salary in Italy is about 1500 euros, this puts a couple just slightly above that.

You can have an average lifestyle, but definitely you are not rich and need to pay attention to expenses.
But check with your host institution, maybe things are different for foreigners.

Re: MSCA-IF Salary in Italy

Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2021 9:31 pm
by vrcota
Hello there!

I am in the same situation as HSK00. I am going to Genova as an MSCA fellow. I do have the right to family and mobility allowances which are paid monthly, as far as I understood it. Yet, for foreigners like me, our major expenses lie right in the beginning of the fellowship, when you have to afford flight tickets, advanced rent payments, furniture for the new place, etc. Do you guys know if any of the grant resources are advanced to help you out with this?

Cheers!

Re: MSCA-IF Salary in Italy

Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2021 11:22 am
by Dodo
With 3500 euros in Italy you live like Cresus.

Re: MSCA-IF Salary in Italy

Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2021 1:56 pm
by vrcota
Dodo wrote:
Tue Mar 02, 2021 11:22 am
With 3500 euros in Italy you live like Cresus.
Cresus, the king? Of course, you are using an idiomatic expression, but it is a strong one, isn't it? Is it that good? Even considering northern Italy?

I am bringing my whole family, including two kids and probably the dog, so I am a bit worried we will have to live very simple lives. On the other hand, we so much want to get to know Europe. I am afraid that will not be exactly possible.

If you guys have any thoughts on that, I would like to know.

Dodo, have you been successful in your application? If so, where are you going to?

Re: MSCA-IF Salary in Italy

Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2021 8:25 pm
by iteration
For a single person 3500 euros is plenty, it is basically a full professor salary.
Note that it is 3500 if you can be hired with a no tax contract usually reserved for postdocs (assegno di ricerca). In this case you only have pension deductions of about 34%.
Otherwise, if you are hired as a researcher and need to pay tax on personal income, as far as I know you go down to about 2000-2500. Not good.
I am not sure what you will be offered as a foreigner.

If you also have the family allowance, in the best case you get about 4000 euros.
In a relatively large city in the north, for a family with 2 kids that has to pay rent, 4000 euros are enough to have a reasonably good lifestyle.
A lot of middle class employed couples make about that (or maybe 3k but they own a house).
If your partner has or plans to find a job, then you can live very comfortably.

You can travel around Europe very cheaply with low cost airlines such as ryanair and sleeping in airbnb houses.
Except London, Paris, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and a few others, cost of living is similar or lower than northern Italy so I see no problem with that.

Re: MSCA-IF Salary in Italy

Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2021 1:23 am
by vrcota
iteration wrote:
Tue Mar 02, 2021 8:25 pm
For a single person 3500 euros is plenty, it is basically a full professor salary.
Note that it is 3500 if you can be hired with a no tax contract usually reserved for postdocs (assegno di ricerca). In this case you only have pension deductions of about 34%.
Otherwise, if you are hired as a researcher and need to pay tax on personal income, as far as I know you go down to about 2000-2500. Not good.
I am not sure what you will be offered as a foreigner.

If you also have the family allowance, in the best case you get about 4000 euros.
In a relatively large city in the north, for a family with 2 kids that has to pay rent, 4000 euros are enough to have a reasonably good lifestyle.
A lot of middle class employed couples make about that (or maybe 3k but they own a house).
If your partner has or plans to find a job, then you can live very comfortably.

You can travel around Europe very cheaply with low cost airlines such as ryanair and sleeping in airbnb houses.
Except London, Paris, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and a few others, cost of living is similar or lower than northern Italy so I see no problem with that.
Thanks a lot for the detailed answer.

The position is for a post-doc and we will sign a so called "type A" contract. According to the manual (https://ec.europa.eu/research/participa ... -20_en.pdf), the allowances are:

Living: EUR 4,880 * 1,044 = 5,094.72 (*adjusted for Italy)
Mobility: EUR 600
Family: EUR 500

I am considering a 43% discount on the living allowance as income tax. If these calculations are correct, the final net salary would thus be EUR 4004.00.

Are these your calculations too?

Re: MSCA-IF Salary in Italy

Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2021 9:10 am
by iteration
They were just back of the envelope calculations, there may be other small deductions.
Basically, for an assegno di ricerca contract (no income tax, only pension deductions to INPS gestione separata 34.23%), I would expect:

Living: EUR 4,880 * 1,044 = 5,094.72 (*adjusted for Italy)
+
Mobility: EUR 600
+
Family: EUR 500
=

6194.72 * 0.6577 = 4074.27 NET ..more or less..
I am not sure if the country coefficient is also applied to mobility and family allowance, in this case the total would be slightly higher.

I may have neglected other costs, etc.
So I suggest you to ask your host institution, I may have missed something.

Re: MSCA-IF Salary in Italy

Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2021 1:30 pm
by vrcota
Very good explanation. Thanks a lot for that. I will double-check with my institution.