Revenue Agency Puts Italian Funds Abroad At EUR300bn

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

01 October 2009

At a meeting organised by the Italian Revenue Agency, it was estimated that the total of undeclared assets held by Italians abroad amounted to almost EUR300bn (USD435bn).

Of that amount of undeclared assets outside of Italy, however, it was disclosed that some EUR125bn and EUR86bn could be found in Switzerland and Luxembourg, respectively. It was said that EUR2bn of Italian funds were currently deposited in San Marino.

The Agency also made it clear that the current tax amnesty provided the last opportunity for Italians to put those funds in order domestically, and it re-emphasised that all financial intermediaries were also now legally-bound to report all external operations. The detailed version of the tax amnesty’s regulations would be available shortly, with the final date for using its terms fixed at 15 December 2009.

Attilio Befera, General Manager of the Revenue Agency, said that Italians with undeclared assets abroad were beginning to realize that there was now no secure and confidential foreign hiding-places for any such funds. The representatives of other institutions at the meeting, particularly those from financial and accounting bodies, also made it clear that the working together of all of the interested parties was rendering the current action in Italy against tax evasion especially efficacious.

At the same meeting, it was disclosed by the Guardia di Finanza (Financial Police) that they currently had 1,000 active cases concerned with international tax avoidance (and unconnected with the tax amnesty). Those cases involved the bogus transfer of residency abroad, both of individuals and companies; the presence in Italy of subsidiaries of foreign multinational companies, undeclared to the Italian tax authorities; and examples of transfer pricing to transfer profits from Italy to other countries with more favourable tax regimes.

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