Are you one of the 30,000?

You will be aware that since January 2016 the Common Reporting Standard has now been in effect. 

This is an OECD agreed standard for most nations around the world to automatically report tax and financial information of individuals, to one another, on a regular basis. This circumvents the historical need for the individual to accurately report their financial information on a tax return to ensure that the relevant level of tax revenue is collected. Now, this information is reported directly to the tax authorities and the information declared in your tax return needs to 'tally' with that which the authorities, theoretically, already know. 

  

So, were you one of the 30,000 at the start of 2018?  I was!

You may wonder what this relates to?  In January 2018 it is reported that the Agenzia delle Entrate sent out up to 30,000 letters to people whom they knew had money held overseas, to ask them to report accurately the money they held outside Italy and to ensure a ' dichiarazione integrativa' was completed before the next tax filing date in order to correct any discrepancies.  I was the lucky recipient of one of those letters.  

In regola

Thankfully my overseas financial affairs have always been 'in regola' with the Italian authorities. However, the letter prompted me to take a closer look to ensure I had not missed anything. Indeed, it turned out that I had missed a grand total of £500 from my last Italian tax return.  

However, this does beg the question whether the Agenzia delle Entrate knew about this or whether it just sent a generic letter (all the letters were the same and generic in nature) to put the cat amongst the pigeons, to coin a phrase. I am of the mind that it is the latter, but am I willing to take the risk?  Absolutely not.

Are you paying more than you need to be?

My experience over the years has been, that in most cases, you may be paying more than you need to. There are a number of financial planning opportunities, to protect, reduce, and avoid certain taxes in Italy, that few take advantage of unless you undertake a closer look at your full financial affairs whilst living in Italy. If you have any questions about the content in this blog or others, then you can contact me on gareth.horsfall@spectrum-ifa.com or on cell: +39 333 649 2356

---------------------------------------------

BRAIN TEASERS

How did you get on with the brain teasers in my recent blog?  Well here are the answers if you are still pondering over the solutions:

   

1. A man stands on one side of a river, his dog on the other. The man calls his dog, who immediately crosses the river without getting wet and without using a bridge or a boat. How did the dog do it?

THE RIVER WAS FROZEN

2. A sundial has the fewest moving parts of any timepiece. Which has the most?

AN HOURGLASS WITH THOUSANDS OF GRAINS OF SAND

3. What is unusual about the following words: revive, banana, grammar, voodoo, assess, potato, dresser, uneven?

TAKE THE FIRST LETTER OF EACH WORD AND PLACE IT AT THE END AND IT SPELLS THE SAME WORD BACKWARDS. 

4. What makes this number unique -- 8,549,176,320?

IT CONTAINS EACH NUMBER, ZERO THROUGH TO 9 IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER.

5. Put a coin into an empty bottle and insert a cork into the neck. How can you remove the coin without removing the cork or breaking the bottle?

PUSH THE CORK INTO THE BOTTLE AND GET THE COIN OUT.

6. Two boxers are in a match scheduled for 12 rounds. (Pure boxing only - no kicking, UFC takedowns, or anything else). One of the boxers gets knocked out after only six rounds, yet no man throws a punch. How is this possible?

BOTH BOXERS ARE FEMALE.

7. In 1990, a person is 15 years old. In 1995, that same person is 10 years old. How can this be?

THE PERSON WAS BORN IN 2005 BC

8. A man takes his car to a hotel. Upon reaching the hotel, he is immediately declared bankrupt. Why?

THE MAN IS PLAYING MONOPOLY. HE LANDS ON A PROPERTY WITH A HOTEL AND DOESN'T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO PAY THE RENT. 

9. What do these words have in common: polish, job, herb?

ALL THREE WORDS ARE PRONOUNCED DIFFERENTLY WHEN THE FIRST LETTER IS CAPITALISED. 

10. You’re standing in a hallway with three light switches on the wall, each of which turns on a different lamp inside a closed room. You can’t see inside the room, and you can’t open the door except to enter the room. You can enter the room only once, and when you do, all the lamps must be turned off. How can you tell which switch turns on which lamp?

TURN ON THE RIGHT SWITCH AND LEAVE IT ON FOR 2 MINUTES.  AFTER 2 MINS TURN ON THE MIDDLE SWITCH AND LEAVE IT ON FOR ONE MINUTE. WHEN THAT MINUTE IS UP TURN OFF BOTH SWITCHES AND ENTER THE ROOM.  ONE LIGHT BULB WILL BE HOT (1ST SWITCH) AND ONE WILL BE WARM (2ND SWITCH).  THE COLD BULB WILL CORRESPOND TO THE SWITCH YOU DIDN'T TURN ON.