Argentino

Hi Everyone,

I've been living in northern Italy for about twenty years as a language trainer and translator and I also go back to the UK to teach at a University for 6 weeks every summer.

With the implementation of the CRS, I am obliged by the Italian tax authority to declare all financial interests that I hold in my UK bank...so far only for 2016/7. My accountant (mandatory for almost all freelancers, even though I don't earn that much!) wants me to provide bank info going back even to 2012!

Does anyone know if this is necessary/obligatory? Does anyone have any experience of this at all...?

Thanks very much

modicasa

Yes, you should have been declaring it since Monti introduced it.

Geordieborn

Do a search for "ivie italy" to get English information on it (IVIE; “Imposta sul Valore Immobili Esteri“).

modicasa

It isnt IVIE, but if you havbea foreign bank account you have to pay the tax on having a bank account in Italy - not much , 30 odd euros a year, plus tax on any interest earned.

Geordieborn

Of course Modicasa is right! I should have read the OP properly. We’ve not paid such on our online account here in Italy since 2010, so it seems a bit off they want to charge you on a UK account. Last time we paid it, it was €32 plus. No doubt they will want interest as well.

Argentino

...and of course I have to pay tax in Italy on any earnings that go into my UK bank account - for which I pay no tax in the UK because it's under £11,500...right?

Geordieborn

I'm still not convinced Italy had no allowance, but can't find anything to confirm this one way or another. I'm sure I recall Modicasa saying they don't, so I would go with that, therefore yes at 23% last time I looked!

GeorgeYoung

Geordie - there's a provision for "prestazioni occasionali" which allows for up to EUR5,000 per year I think. However, if you earn more than this then you pay tax on all of it, or at least that's my very non-expert understanding.

Otherwise, I believe you pretty much pay tax from the first euro.

Argentino

Thanks guys. Much appreciated

Donna Noble

Did your accountant ask you about your UK bank accounts and earnings in previous years? They should all have been put on your end of year tax return that used to be called the "730" form - now changed names to I "Unico" (or something similar) from about 2010 (I can't remember when exactly the law kicked in). You should have been declaring all that stuff. Your tax residency is in Italy from what I can make out. This is very possibly something your accountant overlooked. It happens. In fact, it happened to me! We had to do 5 years worth of "ravvedimenti operosi" and pay fines on what we didn't declare.

philat98

Being fined for being 6 months late was bad enough. I don't like the sound of ravvedimenti operosi. Something for Equitalia to get their teeth into.

Donna Noble

To be honest I've blanked the whole experience. Although it's on here somewhere, I remember we had to pay an accountant a lot of money to redo five years worth of tax returns, plus the back-tax we had to pay, plus the fines. It was all about €5-7k in the end. Money that we had allocated elsewhere, so it was a bit of a shock to the system at the time.