Cornish Knocker

I am officially self employed in Italy, but my work always goes quiet around May/June until mid September, which is not a bad thing as I can enjoy the summer months. However, having spent quite a bit of my (hard) earned cash updating my house in Italy I now need a bit of a cash injection to get myself through until September, not a lot, perhaps a few thousand.

I have money in the UK, which I have started withdrawing from cash machines, although the exchange rates are good, it costs around £25 for every £1000 I withdraw, so not too cheap. I could just do a bank transfer from my UK bank to my Italian bank, but I have some concerns.

Once I do this, the Italian authorities will have my UK bank details, and I'm worried in case in the future they may tax me on my on my savings. Should I be worried about this, or will they already know all my details, bearing in mind I bought my house via a now closed Italian bank account? Hope that all makes sense.

Thanks.

C. K.

Scratcher

I have used a company called UKForex to transfer Stirling to Italy in Euros for a house purchase. The rates were better than the banks and the transfer process takes around 48hours. Also your bank in Italy will receive the Euros from the UKForex bank account in London, not your private account.

I do not work for UKForex, they were recommended by other forum users - see Foreign Exchange section of the forum.

Scratcher

Cornish Knocker

Thanks for the reply and the tip. I just wonder though, even if a money broker is used there will still be a paper trail. I don't plan to do anything underhand, just keep my hands on my money.

C. K.

ononno

Mivb
Might be difficult. As of tomorrow morning all our accounts become an open book to the Gestapo di Finanza.
:-(

Sancho

Would it be worth your while just flying over to the UK, getting a few thousand out of the bank, and flying back with it to Italy ? (Best withdrawn in euros. You may have to give the bank a few days' notice.)

Or could you transfer a few thousand to someone else's account (a brother's, say), then get it transferred from there to your a/c in Italy ?

Or perhaps you could arrange for someone else to bring it over for you. A long-distance lorry driver, say. You'd have to arrange to meet somewhere for the handover.

Garbatellamike

Sancho,

I have to confess I am getting a little bit worried about your prediliction for meeting long distance lorry drivers in toilet cubicles

LivingHere

This is worrying, what can the guardia di finanzia do? As far as I know, we have done everything above board. Paid tax where we are supposed to, moved money back to the UK in a transparent and traceable way etc. BUT at the moment we in the final stages of buying a house in the UK and have cash in a UK bank until the solicitor requests it. Bearing in mind, WE HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING INTENTIONALLY WRONG, can they have our accounts frozen anyway?

nicktonight

I think Cornish Knocker you are getting a bit over-worried about this IVIE tax which is after all only 0.16 % of savings outside Italy per year at the moment so the sensible thing is to pay it. Even if you make a late declaration now it won't cost much. The only reason to be worried is if you are a tax resident in Italy and avoid paying tax here by having you earnings credited to an account outside the country. Every year you have to declare how much money there is in the account so I suppose, in the worst case scenario, you may have to justify any large changes from year to year.

Cornish Knocker

Thanks all for your advice and tips, much appreciated.

In hindsight I should have just asked my Commercialista, which I will next week when I see her.

But Nick2............to get this right in my head, all foreign bank accounts are subject to 0.16% tax (as things stand at the mo)? If this is the case then to transfer a few funds from the Uk won't be a problem.

I want to do everything legit, but don't want my savings, some of which has been given to me tax free to be heavily taxed, but 0.16% I can cope with.

Feel a bit better now, but need to keep on top of this IVIE tax.

C. K
(The Best Real Ale in the SW)

Capo Boi

It's actually 0.76% not 0.16%

nicktonight

Hi C.k. The IVIE tax is only on property and is 0.76%. Here you mean the new Imposta sul valore delle attività finanziarie detenute all’estero (IVAFE) on savings held outside Italy which is 0.1% for 2012 and 0.15% (not 0.16%) for this year. The best thing to do to stay within this law would be to give your commercialista a list of all your accounts held outside Italy (including life insurance) with the amount you had in them on 31 December 2011 and 2012. Provided you can justify the origin of any credit you have received after becoming an Italian resident I don't see why you then can't transfer anything you want too and fro. Incidentally I'm not really sure how the Italian authorities can find out about English accounts but I think they have recently voted a European law about exchanging information.