In a television interview, the General Manager of Italy’s Revenue Agency, Attilio Befera, disclosed that there were 170,000 cases singled out within the Agency’s investigation of undeclared funds held abroad by Italians.
In particular, he mentioned that the Agency has obtained 500 foreign bank account holder names from a Swiss lawyer recently arrested in Milan.
Above all, he said, the Agency is cross-checking the data that financial intermediaries have to give of capital flows to and from Italy, with the tax declarations of Italian citizens who should provide details of capital held abroad. It is from that check that the 170,000 cases of special interest have been identified.
Befera further confirmed that the Agency was not pursuing only billionaires. He said that it had been decided to intensify activity against all those with undeclared assets abroad, and that the Agency's operations have thereby been extended widely.
The Agency’s actions have been strengthened enormously, Befera said, since the announcement of the government’s anti-crisis decree in June. There has been a sharp change of gear brought about not only by the change in assumption that all funds held abroad are now, a priori, the result of undeclared income, but also by the doubling in penalties from 200% to 400%.
As a separate matter, it has been disclosed that the Agency has begun an investigation into an allegation that undeclared funds amounting to EUR2bn are held in Switzerland by the Agnelli family. These funds are alleged to have formed part of the personal inheritance of Giovanni Agnelli, the division of which has been the subject of a two-year legal battle. The funds' possible existence was brought to light by an accusation that not all of the estate’s assets were included in the original division.
It has been noted that, if undeclared Agnelli funds are found abroad, the family will now be unable to take advantage of the government’s present tax amnesty. The amnesty is only available for capital which is declared before any investigation is launched by the authorities.
A comprehensive report in our Intelligence Report series, examining in depth the situation of offshore transparency and secrecy in a number of the most prominent jurisdictions, is available in the Lowtax Library at http://www.lowtaxlibrary.com/asp/subs_reports.asp and a description of the report can be seen at http://www.lowtaxlibrary.com/asp/description_report2.aspTags: Italy
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