Italy vs Singapore
$100,000 of real income is €64,482 in Italy and $102,381 in Singapore. After income tax and every compulsory contribution, Singapore leaves you $17,408 a year more to spend than Italy — and what each tax buys back is the half of the question no dataset prices.
Singapore leaves $17,408 a year more than Italy on the same real income, after income tax and compulsory social contributions.
Singapore leaves you $17,408 a year more to spend than Italy
The figures on this page are in international dollars, and that choice is the whole reason the comparison means anything. Converting EUR to SGD at the exchange rate would measure what your money is worth if you carried it abroad. What you want to know is what it buys where you earn it, and for that the right conversion is purchasing power parity — a basket of what households actually buy, priced in each country.
So: $100,000 of real income is €64,482 in Italy and $102,381 in Singapore. Those two salaries buy the same thing before tax. They do not buy the same thing after it.
After everything compulsory — income tax and the social contributions that come off a payslip — Italian take-home is €38,897 and Singaporean take-home is $79,581. Back in the common unit that is $60,321 against $77,729, a difference of $17,408 a year and $174,081 over 10 years.
Grey columns are what a year of Italy and a year of Singapore are worth in the same money. The bars between them are each thing that changes, in the order it changes: green adds, amber takes away.
Per month, which is how anyone actually reads a payslip: €3,241 in Italy and $6,632 in Singapore — $5,027 and $6,477 once both are put in the same unit. The $1,451 a month between them is the figure worth carrying into a negotiation.
Italy takes 39.7% of the gross and Singapore takes 22.3%.
Income tax is only part of it, and the smaller part in Singapore
Most comparisons between countries stop at the income tax rate. That is the number governments publish and the number newspapers repeat, and on a payslip it is routinely the smaller of the two deductions.
Italy, on €64,482: income tax €17,344 and compulsory contributions €8,242 — 26.9% and 12.8% of gross. The contributions are ivs pension contribution, employee share (€6,009), addizionale regionale all’irpef, lazio (€1,707), addizionale comunale all’irpef, roma capitale (€526).
Singapore, on $102,381: income tax $3,601 and compulsory contributions $19,200 — 3.5% and 18.8%. Made up of central provident fund, employee share, age 55 and below ($19,200).
The base the tax is charged on is not the same thing in the two countries either. Italy taxes reddito imponibile and Singapore taxes chargeable income — which is why comparing headline rates on gross salary gets the answer wrong before any arithmetic starts.
Cheaper in Singapore than ItalyDearer in Singapore than Italy
Each bar is how far apart Italy and Singapore are on that component, and which way. Housing almost always runs several times wider than everything else — which is why a single blended index tells you very little.
Neither country hides its contributions inside the income tax figure, so the two lines above are directly comparable: in both, what is labelled income tax is income tax and what is labelled contributions is everything else compulsory.
This is the part that took the longest to get right on this site, and it was wrong here before: the country pages used to show income tax alone and call the remainder take-home. On a salary like this that overstated what you keep by $18,753 a year in the worse of the two.
What the tax buys is the other half, and this page cannot measure it
Everything above measures what leaves your pay. It says nothing about what comes back, and between two countries that is not a detail — it is the larger half of the question.
In one country the tax bill includes your healthcare, your children's university and a pension you will actually live on. In another it does not, and you buy those yourself out of the money the page just told you that you kept. A comparison that declares a winner on take-home alone is the same trick as comparing top tax rates, which is the thing this site exists to argue against.
We looked for a way to put that half into a comparable number and there is not one. No international dataset measures the value of what a tax system returns to a household. Saying so is more useful than a made-up index.
One piece of it does exist as a figure, and here it is. Out-of-pocket health spending per person, 2023: $1,114 in Italy against $1,665 in Singapore. That is what households pay directly, after whatever the public system covers — so it is a partial, honest measure of what the tax is not buying. A household in Singapore pays $551 a year more directly, which eats into the take-home advantage above.
The same figure as a share tells you more than the amount does. Italy spends $4,993 per person on health altogether and 22.3% of it comes straight out of households; Singapore spends $6,551 with 25.4% out of pocket. The two split the bill between the public purse and the household in similar proportions, so on this one line the systems are more alike than their tax rates suggest.
And health is one line of several. Pensions, childcare, university fees, unemployment cover and the quality of what the money buys are all outside these figures — some of them larger than health. Read the numbers above as what you keep, not as who is better off.
To live the same in Singapore you would need $78,031
The question behind most of these searches is not which country is cheaper. It is "I have an offer — is it enough?"
Matching what $100,000 buys you in Italy takes $78,031 of real income in Singapore, which is $79,889 at Singaporean prices. That is 22.0% less than you earn now — you could take a cut of $21,969 and be no worse off.
It is solved by inverting the whole calculation rather than scaling it. Brackets, contribution ceilings and deductions that do not move with pay all break the straight line, and they break it exactly at the salaries where people negotiate. A rule of thumb gets this wrong by thousands.
The dashed line is the salary you earn now. The solid line is what matches it in Singapore. If the relationship were a simple multiplier the two would be parallel — they are not, because brackets, the Social Security ceiling and a property tax that does not move with income all bend it.
The figure also moves with the salary, which is why the chart below is a line and not a number: Italian and Singaporean systems are progressive to different degrees, so the gap between them is not a fixed percentage.
The answer changes with the salary, and sometimes it flips
Both systems are progressive, but not in the same way and not at the same points. Resolved at six levels of real income:
On $30,000 — Italy by $710 a year. Italy keeps $24,640 of it, Singapore $23,930; effective rates 17.9% and 20.2%.
On $50,000 — Singapore by $3,358 a year. Italy keeps $36,106 of it, Singapore $39,464; effective rates 27.8% and 21.1%.
On $75,000 — Singapore by $9,782 a year. Italy keeps $48,285 of it, Singapore $58,066; effective rates 35.6% and 22.6%.
On $100,000 — Singapore by $17,408 a year. Italy keeps $60,321 of it, Singapore $77,729; effective rates 39.7% and 22.3%.
On $150,000 — Singapore by $37,505 a year. Italy keeps $84,018 of it, Singapore $121,522; effective rates 44.0% and 19.0%.
On $250,000 — Singapore by $69,298 a year. Italy keeps $134,655 of it, Singapore $203,953; effective rates 46.1% and 18.4%.
The answer inverts across that range. Italy is ahead on a modest salary and Singapore on a high one, so which country suits you depends on where you sit, not on which has the friendlier reputation.
Contribution ceilings are usually what bends these lines. Where a country caps its social contributions, the effective rate falls away above the cap; where it does not, it keeps climbing. That single design choice moves high salaries more than any headline rate does.
What is strange about each of these two systems
A bracket is a bracket everywhere. What separates two tax systems is the exception each one carries, and neither of these appears in a table of rates:
Italy — top rate 43.0%, reached at €50,000, and no exempt band: relief comes as a credit against the tax. Three rates, and a marginal rate that is almost never one of them because the employment credit shrinks as income rises.
Singapore — top rate 24.0%, reached at $1,000,000, with $20,000 exempt at the bottom. Twelve gentle steps to a 24% top rate, and a long list of things Singapore does not tax at all.
They also relieve the bottom of the scale in different ways — Italy through a credit subtracted from the tax itself and Singapore through an exempt band of income taxed at nothing. That sounds technical and it is not: a credit is worth the same to everyone, while an exempt band is worth more to whoever has the higher marginal rate. On a modest salary the two designs give visibly different answers.
The top rate is the figure that gets quoted and it is rarely the one that matters: what decides a normal salary is where the scale starts biting, how the relief at the bottom is given, and whether social contributions are capped. All three are above.
A raise is worth more in Singapore, whatever the averages say
The effective rates above are averages over the whole salary. They are not what you feel when you get a rise, and the two can point in opposite directions.
On the next $1,000 of real income at this level, Italy takes 52.6% and leaves you $474; Singapore takes 11.5% and leaves you $885.
That is a gap of 41.1% on every extra unit earned — and it runs the same way as the average rates.
Marginal rates are where contribution ceilings, tapering allowances and surcharges show up. They are also what decides whether a promotion, a bonus or a second job is worth the trouble, and they are almost never in a comparison of headline rates.
Whether the contributions ever stop is the difference nobody looks at
Income tax scales are progressive almost everywhere. Social contributions are not: most countries stop charging them above a ceiling, a few never stop, and that single design choice moves high salaries more than any rate in a table.
Italy: contributions take 12.8% of a $100,000 salary and 11.2% of a $250,000 one. They are capped — the share falls away as pay rises, so the Italian system leans on income tax at the top.
Singapore: 18.8% at $100,000 and 7.5% at $250,000. Capped as well, on the same pattern.
Both behave the same way in this respect, so the comparison between them stays fairly stable as the salary grows — the gap changes in size but not in kind.
Total share of gross taken at the two levels: 39.7% and 46.1% in Italy, 22.3% and 18.4% in Singapore.
These are not equally rich countries, and the price level says so
One more thing has to be said before any of the figures above are read as advice. Italy and Singapore do not have the same salaries to offer.
On the World Bank's index of household prices, where the United States is 100, Italy sits at 72.9 and Singapore at 78.3. That is what the conversion on this page corrects for: $100,000 of real income costs an employer €64,482 in one and $102,381 in the other.
Output per person, also in international dollars: $62,803 in Italy and $163,354 in Singapore. The gap is large, and it matters for a practical reason: a salary of $100,000 in real terms is a far more ordinary job in one of these two than in the other. Comparing the tax on an identical real salary is the right comparison; assuming the salary is equally available is not.
Which is the limit of every figure on this page, stated once more: it prices a salary you already have an offer for. It does not tell you that the offer exists.
Among the 27 countries here, Italy is 27th and Singapore is 6th
Both resolved on the same $100,000 of real income, ranked by what is left to spend:
Thailand keeps the most, $90,352, and Italy the least, $60,321 — a spread of $30,031 on identical real pay.
Italy sits at $60,321 and Singapore at $77,729. They are 21 places apart.
Sitting immediately around them: The Philippines at $77,798, Germany at $61,065, Malaysia at $76,824, Ethiopia at $61,361. If the difference between Italy and Singapore looks decisive, notice how many other countries fall inside the same span — take-home alone rarely separates two places as cleanly as a single pair suggests.
A ranking of what you keep is not a ranking of where to live, and the gap between those two statements is the whole of the previous section. How this is calculated, including what it refuses to claim.
Over 10 years: $174,081
At $17,408 a year, 10 years in Singapore rather than Italy is worth $174,081 in today's purchasing power.
A move between countries is the expensive kind, and none of that is in the figure: visas, shipping, a deposit in a currency you do not yet earn, and in many cases a period of paying into two systems at once. There are also tax-residence rules that decide which country taxes you in the year you move, and they are not modelled here.
The line starts below zero because moving costs about $15,000 and lands entirely in year one. It takes until year 1 for the move to pay for itself. That is the figure a per-year comparison hides.
At three horizons: $52,224 over three years, $174,081 over 10, $522,244 over thirty.
The longer the horizon, the more the part this page cannot measure matters — a pension you accrue, healthcare you will need later, a child's education. A ten-year figure on take-home alone flatters whichever country asks for less now.
The other comparisons people run next
Every country here is resolved against every other on the same real income. The ones most often paired with these two:
Australia vs Italy — Australia by $13,604 a year.
Austria vs Italy — Austria by $4,925 a year.
Canada vs Italy — Canada by $12,115 a year.
Ethiopia vs Italy — Ethiopia by $1,040 a year.
France vs Italy — France by $8,528 a year.
Germany vs Italy — Germany by $744 a year.
Hong Kong vs Italy — Hong Kong by $27,483 a year.
India vs Italy — India by $28,935 a year.
Ireland vs Italy — Ireland by $5,880 a year.
Italy vs Jamaica — Jamaica by $12,223 a year.
Or start from one country: every Italy comparison and every Singapore comparison, each resolving all 26 on one page.
Where every number here comes from
The price level and the conversion between currencies:
World Bank, International Comparison Program — PPP conversion factor, household final consumption expenditure (LCU per international $), 2025 — read 2026-09-11. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/PA.NUS.PRVT.PP
World Bank — Price level ratio of PPP conversion factor to market exchange rate, 2025 (United States = 100) — read 2026-09-11. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/PA.NUS.PPP.03.CD
World Health Organization Global Health Expenditure Database, via World Bank — Out-of-pocket health expenditure per capita, PPP, 2023 — read 2026-09-11. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.OOPC.PP.CD
The Italian figures:
Italy income tax — from the authority that sets it, with the rates and thresholds on the Italy calculator page.
Italy contributions — INPS, circolare 30 gennaio 2026 n. 6 — valori retributivi e contributivi dal 1° gennaio 2026: the annual contribution ceiling is €122,295 and an additional 1% contribution applies to pay above €56,224 a year (€4,685 a month), on top of the ordinary employee IVS rate of 9.19% for employees of industrial firms. Read 2026-09-11. https://www.inps.it/it/it/inps-comunica/notizie/dettaglio-news-page.news.2026.02.lavoratori-dipendenti-limite-minimo-di-retribuzione-giornaliera-2026.html
Italy contributions — Regione Lazio — Addizionale regionale all’IRPEF 2026 (L.R. 20/2025): 1.73% on taxable income up to €15,000 and 3.33% above it, with a €60 deduction for income between €28,001 and €30,000. Read 2026-09-11. https://www.regione.lazio.it/sites/default/files/2026-01/Addizionale-regionale-2026.pdf
Italy contributions — Roma Capitale — Addizionale comunale all’IRPEF: the rate has been 0.9% since 2011, the maximum the capital is permitted, against a 0.8% ceiling for other municipalities. Read 2026-09-11. https://www.comune.roma.it/web/it/scheda-servizi.page?contentId=INF41403
The Singaporean figures:
Singapore contributions — Central Provident Fund Board — CPF contribution rates from 1 January 2026: employee share of 20% for employees aged 55 and below, on an Ordinary Wage ceiling of S$8,000 a month and a total wage ceiling of S$102,000 a year. Read 2026-09-11. https://www.cpf.gov.sg/content/dam/web/employer/employer-obligations/documents/CPFcontributionratesfrom1Jan2026.pdf
Singapore contributions — IRAS — CPF Relief for employees: compulsory employee CPF contributions reduce assessable income; Earned Income Relief of S$1,000 applies automatically below age 55. Read 2026-09-11. https://www.iras.gov.sg/taxes/individual-income-tax/basics-of-individual-income-tax/tax-reliefs-rebates-and-deductions/tax-reliefs/central-provident-fund(cpf)-relief-for-employees
And what is still not modelled on either side, stated rather than left to be discovered:
— Italy: The regional and municipal surcharges are those of Lazio and Roma Capitale. Every Italian region and comune sets its own, and the page says which are used.
— Italy: The €60 Lazio deduction for taxable income between €28,001 and €30,000, and the Roma Capitale exemption band for low incomes, are not applied.
— Italy: The surcharges are settled in the year after the income is earned, so in a first year of work they are not yet withheld.
— Italy: Article 11 of the TUIR is repealed from 1 January 2027, and the rates for 2027 onwards are set by the new consolidated text.
— Singapore: CPF contribution rates step down with age from 55 onwards, and the figures here are those for an employee aged 55 or below.
— Singapore: A foreigner on a work pass does not contribute to the CPF at all, so their take-home on the same salary is materially higher than shown and their tax the same.
— Singapore: Reliefs beyond CPF and earned income — spouse and child relief, CPF cash top-ups, course fees — are not modelled, so the tax shown is an upper bound.
The price figures are the 2025 release and are not extrapolated to the current year.
Where to go next
Questions
- Is it better to earn in Italy or Singapore?
- On what you keep, Singapore: $17,408 a year more in spending power on the same real income of $100,000. On whether you are better off, that is a different question — the two countries do not buy the same things with the tax they collect, and this page says what it can measure and what it cannot.
- How much do I need to earn in Singapore to match Italy?
- $78,031 of real income, which is $79,889 at Singaporean prices — 22.0% less than you earn now. It is solved by inverting the calculation, because brackets and contribution ceilings break any simple proportion.
- Why not just compare the tax rates?
- Because the income tax rate is routinely the smaller of the two deductions. On this pair, compulsory social contributions are €8,242 in Italy and $19,200 in Singapore, on top of income tax of €17,344 and $3,601. A comparison of headline rates misses all of that, and in several countries it misses more than half of what comes off the payslip.
- Why international dollars instead of euros or dollars?
- Because an exchange rate measures what money is worth if you carry it abroad, not what it buys where you earn it. The conversion used here is the World Bank's purchasing power parity factor for household consumption, which prices a comparable basket in each country. $100,000 of real income is €64,482 in Italy and $102,381 in Singapore — two very different numbers that buy the same thing.
- Does this include what the tax pays for?
- No, and that is the honest limit of the comparison. In one country the tax includes healthcare, education and a pension; in another the household buys those itself. No international dataset measures the value of what a tax system returns, so this page does not pretend to. The one piece that is measured is out-of-pocket health spending per person: $1,114 in Italy against $1,665 in Singapore.
- If I move from Italy to Singapore, which country taxes me that year?
- That is decided by tax residence rules, and they are not modelled here. Most countries tax you as a resident from the day you arrive or from a day-count threshold, and a double tax treaty decides which one wins where both claim you. In the year of a move it is common to file in both. The figures on this page describe a full year settled in one country, not the year you cross between them — and the difference in that one year can be larger than the annual gap shown above.
- Do these figures assume a single person?
- Yes: one earner, no children, the main regional scale where a country has more than one, and no deductions beyond the standard ones. Italy and Singapore both treat households differently from single filers, and in some countries — joint assessment, family quotients, child credits — the difference is large enough to reverse the comparison. The single-filer case is the one that can be stated identically in all 27 countries, which is why it is the one used.
- Which country takes the largest share of a salary?
- Of the 27 here, Italy leaves the least of a $100,000 real income — $60,321 — and Thailand the most, $90,352. Italy leaves $60,321 and Singapore $77,729.