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

New Zealand QROPS and why we don't advise them

The New Zealand based QROPS became a favourable option for some when it transpired that their regulatory framework for non NZ residents  gave you the option to 'bust' (as it was termed) your UK pension and enable you to access all the money in the pension as a lump sum.  

This clearly contravened the intentions of QROPS and in April 2012 HMRC in the UK closed that option down.

Why we are now in regola!

This blog has morphed into something much more profound than I ever intended and the subject of taxation has become one of its biggest topics, with no intention whatsoever.  However, I am acutely aware that the opinions expressed on this blog are my own, aside from the basic facts.  

It came to me that maybe I am not the best person to express this information and that my clients and people I meet would be better communicators of the dangers, opportunities and pitfalls to be aware of from an Italian resident/tax position.   I therefore asked a few of these people I know to write about their financial experiences of living in Italy. 

My first article is by a lady and her husband in Umbria, who were happy to share their experiences of the Guardia di Finanza, how they got caught,  and a little more.......

Residency in Italy

Residency is one of those topics which is regularly used to try to determine where an individual may or may not be located for tax purposes.  The fact of the matter is that it is actually a matter of fact and not a choice.

Here are the facts as determined by Section 2 of the Italian Income Tax Code:

Setting a business up in Italy.

Over the last few months I have been contacted by a number of people operating businesses in Italy in varying capacities.  In a few of these cases it has been common place that the individuals concerned have set up and are operating their company in another lower tax jurisdiction within Europe, namely Ireland or the UK.