EU & Italian International Tax Law Blog : International Tax Lawyer & Attorney : Marco Rossi Law Firm : Italy, New York, European Union, EU

In connection with the enactment and operation of its (third) tax shield (a special program of voluntary disclosure of foreign investments and earnings), due to elapse on April 30, 2010, Italy is reinforcing its rules on reporting foreign assets on Italian tax returns.

With Circular n. 43/E of October 10, 2009, Italy's tax administration adopted a new guideline according to which all foreign assets must be reported on the special R-W section of the Italian tax return, including those assets which currently do not generate any foreign source earnings taxable in Italy, but are potentially able to generate such earnings in the future.

On February 1, the Italian tax administration approved the new income tax return forms for 2010 (for individuals and unincorporated business) and issued instructions for the preparation of the return that confirm the above guideline.

As a result, from tax year 2010 all assets held abroad must be declared on the Italian tax return, including personal assets which do not produce any income such as foreign vacation homes, yachts, jewelery, art collectibles. Previously, only foreign assets which actually generated foreign source income taxable in Italy (such as foreign bank accounts and financial instruments) had to be reported.

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Italian parliament passed a new law which extends the statute of limitation for assessment of taxes due on income arising from foreign investments and controlled foreign companies.

The general statute of limitation period is five years from the year in which the return is filed. The special statute of limitation for income from foreign assets and controlled foreign companies is extended to nine years.

The new measure is part of the package of measures which includes and extension of deadlines for the tax amnesty and voluntary disclosure of undeclared foreign assets to February 28, 2010 (with tax of six percent) and April 30, 2010 (with the tax increased to seven percent).

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On December 17, 2009 the Italian Government passed a decree which extends the deadlines for the Italian voluntary disclosure program.

The new deadlines are February 28, 2010 and April 30, 2010. Taxpayers who repatriate or regularize their undeclared foreign assets within February 28, 2010 pay a 6 percent flat tax on the fair market value of the repatriated or regularized assets. Taxpayers who repatriate or regularize their undeclared foreign assets within March 31, 2010 pay a flat 7 percent tax.

According to the latest statistics, foreign assets in excess of E 100 billion have been declared pursuant to the current voluntary disclosure program enacted in September this year.

In connection with the unreported foreign assets disclosure program, new penalties have been enacted for failure to report foreign investments. The new penalties are equal to minimum of 200 to a maximum of 400 percent of the unpaid tax on unreported foreign investments and 50 percent of the fair market value of the unreported foreign assets.

Also, any foreign asset which has not be reported is deemed to be unreported income subject to tax.

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In connection with the enactment of its own tax amnesty (which permits the repatriation or regularization of undeclared foreign investments with the payment of a very generous 5% flat tax on the fair market value of the undeclared assets), Italy is cracking down on tax havens, especially those across the border such as Switzerland, Liechtenstein and San Marino. Current estimates of the Italian tax administration suggest that more than 35 percent of Italian investments in Switzerland are being repatriated under the amnesty, and more are expected to come and sit permanently in Italy after the repatriation procedure (for which the deadline is set at December 15).

Recently, it has been reported that Italian tax agents under cover visited several Swiss banks taking pictures of clients coming in and out the banks, and have increased the controls at the border for Italians moving in and out of Switzerland.

As a result of Italy's strong action, Switzerland is now working on a revised proposal to the EU for the enactment of a new back withholding in exchange for Swiss banks customers privacy. Under the new proposal, Switzerland would negotiate with each EU member state a new back up withholding tax, that could be as high as 30 percent and would apply on savings from Swiss accounts of residents of other EU Member States. The proceeds from the withholding tax would go to the resident state of the Swiss bank account holder. In exchange for the back-up withholding, Swiss banks would not be forced to give up the bank secrecy and reveal the names of their customers.

Italy's reaction to the proposal has been rather skeptical so far. The approach of the Italian government is that first the tax amnesty procedure is completed, and then the due consideration will be given to any possible solution to the problem of those Italian individual investors who have decided to keep their undeclared funds offshore. A new provision in the Italian tax code now presumes that any money kept offshore comes from undeclared income for which Italian taxes are due, and the penalty has been increased to up to 400 percent of the amount of unpaid taxes.

Liechtenstein, on the other side, is negotiating a new exchange of tax information treaty with Italy, after several other similar treaties have been signed with a number of other EU Member States.  

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The new tax amnesty recently enacted by the Italian parliament took effect on Sept. 15. Taxpayers have time until April 15, 2010 to apply.

The amnesty applies to individuals and pass through entities which held undeclared foreign accounts and investments outside of Italy as of December 31, 2008.

Taxpayers can declare (and leave abroad) or repatriate the foreign accounts and investments and avoid any applicable tax and civil penalties by paying a tax at a flat rate of 5% on the amount of the reported foreign accounts or investments.

To apply for the amnesty, taxpayers shall file a form with a bank or other Italian qualified financial intermediary, on which they will report the assets that they want to declare or repatriate. The bank or financial intermediary, in turn, will file the form with the payment of the tax with the tax administration. The form does not contain any personal information on the filing taxpayer. Therefore, the amnesty is completely anonymous. 

Any future audits on the amounts that are reported on the form is not allowed and administrative penalties for the violation of the rules on reporting cross-border transfer of assets and foreign investments are permanently forgiven.   

Similar amnesties enacted in 2001 and 2003 generated a repatriation of 59.8 and 14.9 billion euros, with a tax revenue of 1,4 and 0.6 billion euro (at 2.5 and 4% tax rate), with 56 and 51% of the declared money coming from Switzerland. The estimated amount of declared or repatriated foreign assets that is expected from the new amnesty is 60-90 billion euro with a tax revenue of 3-45 billion euros.           

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The Italian government is working at a bill which would enact a new tax amnesty. The bill should be introduced to the Parliament as early as next week.

Based on certain anticipations on the contents of the new bill, undeclared foreign earnings that are reported and repatriated would be subject to 10% flat tax. Unreported foreign earnings that are reported but reinvested or kept abroad would be subject to a higher tax. In either case, the tax would apply in lieu of any other taxes due on the undeclared earnings and would definitely settle the taxpayer's position.

A similar amnesty was enacted in 2001-2022, together with tougher rules on failure to report foreign bank accounts and other foreign investments that can generate foreign income taxable in Italy. That tax amnesty had a limited success and in general foreign earnings remained significantly unreported.

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On December 4, 2008 Italy's tax administration issued resolution n. 471/E of December 4, 2008, in which it ruled on the change of tax residency of individuals during a tax year.

According to the ruling, if a foreign individual who is resident in Italy for tax purposes returns to his or her home country and terminates his or her residency in Italy during the second half of a year, his or her Italian tax residency continues through the end of that year and he or she continues to be taxable in Italy as resident on his or her worldwide income until the end of that year.

The ruling clarifies that the potential double taxation that arises in the above circumstances cannot be resolved under the tie breaker rules of a tax treaty between Italy and the taxpayer's home country, pursuant to which the tax residency of the taxpayer for that year is allocated between Italy and the taxpayer's home country and taxpayer is treated as partly resident in Italy and partly non resident in Italy (for the second part of the year, in which he left Italy and moved back to his or her home country) unless that tax treaty contains specific provisions that provide for the part time residency.

As a consequence, the only remedy to double taxation might be to claim the foreign tax credit granted in Italy for the taxes charges in the home country on income from sources within that country.

Ruling 471/E highlights the need of a careful planning before moving away from Italy to a foreign country during a tax year, in order to avoid a potential extended exposure to Italian taxation. 

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