Warning to UK Rental property owners!

It appears evident from the number of people contacting me recently that HMRC in the UK have shared information with the Italian tax authorities regarding anyone who has a UK rental property and is declaring it in the UK for income tax purposes, but failing to declare it in Italy

QROPS Drawdown update

The UK Government have just announced (in the draft paper) to increase the current drawdown rate from UK pensions from 100% to 120% of the GAD tables.

This should have a knock on effect for all those QROPS providers who not currently offering 120% GAD, as they can now fall in line with the UK ruling.


It is expected to take effect from March 26th 2013 round the time of the Budget.

Good news for all those people who are due to review their annual drawdown limits or those who are looking at their QROPS options at the moment.

More taxes for Italian rental property owners

If you are renting a property in Italy and using the flat rate deduction system, you will be aware that you don't need to register for the purposes of IVA, and as a result you get a flat rate deduction in lieu of all expenses at 15%.

This has just been changed.  The flat rate deduction is now only 5%

If you are renting property in Italy, then you might consider opening a Partita IVA, otherwise the process could start to become quite pricey. 

New Year tip to save money

It is that time of the year again when the New Years Resolutions are being implemented and we are all starting to counting the pennies and assess the damage from the Christmas period.  

With this in mind I thought I would write a quick refresher for those of you who are looking to save some money in 2013.

Why finding a good commercialista is vital to life in Italy

Living in Italy is never easy.  But living in Italy with a bad commercialista is disastrous as one couple found out, to their horror.  Their real life tale is told below.

Patrimoniale - Daylight Robbery

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the operations of the Italian Government, you will not be pleased to hear that they are prone to dipping into peoples savings to fund their own activities.  This is commonly known as The Patrimoniale.

My own description is Daylight Robbery.  Which in turn reminds me of one of my favourite songs from a band called Morcheeba, called......Daylight Robbery.  If you have never heard it and wish to, then just click on the link below.  The lyrics are telling!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXjaQfSDcac