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.   

Italy enacted a new law that significantly amends its rules requiring Italian resident individual taxpayers to report their foreign financial investment and accounts and other assets capable of generating foreign source taxable income.

SCOPE OF REPORTING

The fist significant change reduces the scope of the reporting. it eliminates the duty to report intra year transfers

On January 17, 2013 the IRS issued final regulations providing rules on information reporting by foreign financial institutions (FFIs) and withholding on certain payments to FFIs and other foreign entities.

Under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2009 (FATCA), enacted as part of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act of 2010, P.L. 111-147

The new U.S. FATCA legislation and implementing inter governmental agreements granting reciprocal and automatic exchange of financial information between tax administrations will make international tax reporting and compliance mandatory and unavoidable, and will tax authorities with formidable tools for international audits and enforcement activities.

Italian resident taxpayers are required to report their foreign financial investments and assets which can generate foreign-source income subject to tax in Italy, by filling out a special part of their annual income tax return referred to as form RW. Foreign individuals who have (personal and business) interests and contacts with Italy that may trigger Italian tax residency under Italian residency or domicile tests would be subject to the same reporting obligations. Italy’s tax administration is stepping up its enforcement efforts in this area of law and penalties for failure to report are particular harsh and difficult to mitigate after the fact. We have prepared an overview of Italian international tax reporting rules with a general discussions of some of the relevant issues that arise in this area of law.

On January 9, 2011 the Internal Revenue Service reopened the offshore voluntary disclosure program to help people hiding offshore accounts get current with their taxes and announced the collection of more than $4.4 billion so far from the two previous international programs.

The IRS reopened the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) following continued strong interest from taxpayers and tax practitioners after the closure of the 2011 and 2009 programs. The third offshore program comes as the IRS continues working on a wide range of international tax issues and follows ongoing efforts with the Justice Department to pursue criminal prosecution of international tax evasion.  This program will be open for an indefinite period until otherwise announced.

“Our focus on offshore tax evasion continues to produce strong, substantial results for the nation’s taxpayers,” said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. “We have billions of dollars in hand from our previous efforts, and we have more people wanting to come in and get right with the government. This new program makes good sense for taxpayers still hiding assets overseas and for the nation’s tax system.”

The program is similar to the 2011 program in many ways, but with a few key differences. Unlike last year, there is no set deadline for people to apply.  However, the terms of the program could change at any time going forward.  For example, the IRS may increase penalties in the program for all or some taxpayers or defined classes of taxpayers – or decide to end the program entirely at any point.

“As we’ve said all along, people need to come in and get right with us before we find you,” Shulman said. “We are following more leads and the risk for people who do not come in continues to increase.”