Under new anti money laundering legislation due to become effective in Italy in 2017, all foreign trusts with tax effects in Italy shall have to be filed and registered on the Italian Register of Enterprises. They include trusts with Italian settlor, Italian beneficiaries, Italian assets, Italian source income or treated as Italian resident trust under Italian tax law.

The tax effects of a trust in Italy and the consequent obligation to disclose it on the Italian Register of Enterprises is determined under Italian tax laws.  The way in which a trust, its income or its beneficiaries are treated under foreign tax law is not determinative for that purpose.   

Trustees of trusts subject to the new disclosure and filing rules shall have to collect, conserve and disclose adequate information about trust’s ultimate beneficial owners, which are meant to include the settlor, the trustee, the guardian, the beneficiaries, and any other person having any type of control or authority over the trust.

The scope of the new disclosure and reporting rules for trusts is very wide. All trusts with any apparent or potential point of contact with Italy should be revised to determine whether they fall within the application of the new rules.   Continue Reading Italy Institutes New Register for Trusts

On February 23, 2017 the Italian Government approved the final draft of the legislative decree (the "Decree") that is going to implement the provisions of the Directive (EU) 2015/49 of May 20, 2015 (the so called "IV Anti Money Laundering Directive"). The decree was sent to the Parliament for its review and with the consent of the Parliament

The Italian Supreme Court, with its ruling n. 8196 of April 22, 2015 held that a NY corporation, wholly owned by an Italian company, and effectively managed and controlled by its Italian shareholders and directors in Italy, had to be treated as an Italian resident company for Italian tax purposes, and was subject to corporate

Italy reinforces its anti abuse rules by requiring separate monthly or quarterly disclosure of transaction with foreign enterprises organized in black listed jurisdictions. Deduction of costs and expenses arising from those transactions is denied unless taxpayer proves legitimate business purpose beyond tax saving.
Continue Reading New Law Requires Additional Disclosure of Abusive Transactions

A decree presented to the Italian Council of Ministers today will introduce new provisions on contemporaneous documentation for transfer pricing purposes and a new black list with a duty to disclose any transaction carried out in or with any black listed countries to the tax administration. Also, the minimum threshold for the duty to report cross border transfers of money will be reduced to euro 5,000.
Continue Reading Italy’s Government to Approve New Rules on Transfer Pricing Documentation, Anti Tax Abuse