Date: March 20, 2025
In consideration of the significant temporary presence of Italian teachers and researchers in the United States, it is deemed useful to recall the content of Article 20 of the Italy-U.S. Convention to avoid double taxation on income taxes, which allows for exemption from tax withholdings for a period not exceeding two years.
In particular, the essential conditions for benefiting from the exemption are:
- Being hired under contract in the position of teacher or researcher;
- Being hired by a recognized educational institution or a medical institution funded, at least in part, by the Government of the United States;
- Being a resident (or having been a resident in the immediately preceding period) of the other contracting state.
The exemption does not apply if the research activity is conducted “not in the general interest but primarily for the private benefit of a specific person or persons.”
Below is the full text of Article 20 of the aforementioned Convention, ratified by Italian Law No. 20 of March 3, 2009.
Article 20. Professors and Teachers
1. A professor or teacher who makes a temporary visit to a Contracting State for a period that is not expected to exceed two years for the purpose of teaching or conducting research at a university, college, school, or other recognized educational institution, or at a medical facility primarily funded from governmental sources, and who is, or immediately before such visit was, a resident of the other Contracting State shall, for a period not exceeding two years, be exempt from tax in the first-mentioned Contracting State in respect of remuneration from such teaching or research.
2. This Article shall not apply to income from research if such research is undertaken not in the general interest but primarily for the private benefit of a specific person or persons.