Guardia di Finanza, are you on the radar?

For those of you who were not made aware, or those of you who had the unfortunate shock to learn that on last year’s tax return you would have to declare all average daily account balances on foreign current/savings accounts, foreign current account transactions between foreign/Italian banks and foreign/foreign accounts, and also the movements of money between investment accounts and investment/bank accounts on balances over 5000 EUR, you will be pleased to hear that in line with an EU Law this has now been overturned and you no longer have to supply the information about the movements of your capital on your annual RW.

Yippee, I hear you shout! 

But hang on for a second.  What the Guardia di Finanza gives with one hand they take with the other. 

As of 6^th August 2013, fiscal monitoring of transactions into and out of Italy, BUT also financial transactions taking place from one foreign account to another foreign account for Italian tax residents, will be raised to a whole new level. 

The cleverness of the approach is one that Monti used when he was in power.  That is, he took the responsibility away from the individual to report the financial transactions each year and instead placed the responsibility on organizations who are engaged in the financial services industry to report the information. This means that banks, asset management companies, trustees, stockbrokers and currency conversion companies (and any other firm involved in financial transactions including lawyers, commercialisti, notaries, casinos etc) will all have to, not just collect information, but actually submit it to the Guardia di Finanza on transactions greater than or equal to (even if split) 15000 EUR per annum.  Failure to do so could land them with a penalty of 10 – 25% of the amount, not reported.

All this information will be collated and recorded on a special database / ‘index’ which will be monitored by the newly formed and newly empowered branch of the Guardia di Finanza (Ucifi) which has been set up exclusively to monitor financial transactions in and out of Italy, and also financial transactions that are taking place abroad.

Big brother is watching.  The worst part of it is you really have no idea exactly what they are watching.  Never a better time to start looking at how to streamline your tax affairs and reduce tax liabilities in Italy. 

If you would like to discuss this or any other financial matter then you can contact me on 3336492356 or email me on gareth.horsfallpectrum-ifa.com

Also do not forget that Le Tour de Finance will be passing through Bagni di Lucca and Umbertide on the 26^th and 27^th September respectively this year, where this and many other topics will be discussed.  Contact us to reserve a place at this FREE event, NOW.   For more information see my blog post here