Blackrock calls for longer Term Investment

Asset management giant BlackRock today unveiled a high-profile campaign designed to engender a longer-term global investment culture.

“Investing for a New World”, which was launched with a four-page insert in global newspapers including the Financial Times, seeks to encourage investors to build “more dynamic and diverse” portfolios, with the aim of overcoming low yields and volatile markets.

Tax efficient investments for Expats in Italy

After living in Italy for many years, I have started to understand a few of the more Italian ways of life.  There is no need to write about food, drink, beach, mountains when it can be written about so beautifully by others.  However, my personal favorite ( surprise surprise), is the Italian pastime of avoiding taxes.  I am sure that you are aware that there is a fine line between tax evasion and tax avoidance and therefore I don't think I need to state the difference between the two.

Well fortunately, for we expats, who never quite get to grips with the fancy tax avoidance schemes for the Italians,  we are fortunate enough to have access to an English language Italian compliant tax efficient scheme all of our own.  The International Life Assurance Investment Bond.

Property abroad comes under the tax spotlight

The Italian Government have now taken steps to tax Italian residents on the property that they own abroad.  

Spectrum IFA Group open for business in Italy

At the start of 2012 an article was written in the International Adviser magazine, a professional press publication, on the expansion of the Spectrum IFA group into Italy.    I was interviewed by the journalist for comments on how and why the Italian Expat market had remained so difficult  to reach out to in the past and what we are doing to increase our visibility amongst the International community in Italy.


If you are interested in reading the article then click the link below:

The Spectrum IFA Group launch in Italy

Tax Evaders - Look Out !

The Italian tax authorities have just come to an agreement with the government that Comuni will have the power to report suspected tax evaders and receive a hefty portion of any amounts that are recovered as a result.

The Comuni already have this power, but little incentive to use it as the amount recoverable is only 30%. In fact, to date, only the Comune di Genova has taken advantage. This percentage will be raised to 100% for the next three years – as an additional incentive, especially at a time when local coffers are being diminished due to central government cuts.  The tax take will subsequently fall back, from 2015 onwards, to 50%.

Some encouraging news for US Expats in Italy

US authorities have agreed to pursue an intergovernmental framework with a number of European countries for the implementation of tax rules that is expected to lighten the regulatory burden for fund managers, experts say. The US, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK has published a joint statement that sets out a common approach to combat tax evasion, where firms would report information on foreign taxpayers to their local authorities rather than directly to the US authorities.  The Foreign Account Tax Compliant Act (Fatca) originally required foreign funds to enter into an agreement with the IRS or otherwise face hefty tax penalties. Under the new proposals, firms in Fatca-partnering countries will not have to enter into a detailed agreement with the IRS, but only "register" with the tax authority.

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act,  (FATCA) a US law passed in 2010 that targets tax dodgers using foreign accounts, had originally required overseas financial institutions to provide information directly to the IRS, potentially in breach of their home countries' privacy laws. Those that did not comply faced, among other penalties, a 30% withholding tax on payments received from the US.


This might open up the road for European companies to start doing business with US citizens resident in foreign countries, once again.

UK Quantitative Easing and Inflation

The Bank of England is expected to launch the sixth round of quantitative easing this week. This is likely to take the total of its money-creation programme to a minimum of £325billion, the equivalent of more than 22% of GDP. This figure means that for every £1 in £5 that the nation earns, the Bank has conjured £1 out of thin air. 


As the old saying goes, 'for every reaction there is an equal and opposite reaction'.  Hold onto your purses, inflation is coming and it is not going to be pretty.  For those who lived through the 70's double digit inflation, the future might not look too dis-similar. 


Inflation is just another tax dressed up as something different. 

The Spanish tax man

You might be thinking, what on earth could the Spanish tax man have to do with the Italian tax man and the relevance to you.

Well, very simply it is a fact that 300,000 letters were recently sent by the Spanish tax authorities ( The Hacienda), to expats living in Spain.  Each expat was listed with the land registry as having a permanent residence in Spain.  The only issue is that the Hacienda could not find any record of a tax declaration of income.