Tax Alert February 2015
For further information, please contact: Gabriele Giardina - Milan gabriele.giardina@rsm-plg.it
Roberto Panero - Turin roberto.panero@rsm-plg.it
Giorgio Lombardi - Rome giorgio.lombardi@rsm-plg.it
On 15 December 2014 the Italian Parliament definitively approved the so called “voluntary disclosure” procedure (Law n. 186/2014). The relevance of the new procedure relies on many elements, among which we underline: the mutated international scenario, which will lead to automatic exchange of tax information among all the industrialized countries; the imminent sign of a new tax agreement between Italy and Switzerland on exchange of information, that will determine the end of the Swiss bank secrecy in connection to Italian resident individuals; the introduction in the Italian criminal law of the crime of self-laundering (new article 648-ter.1, criminal code). According to this new piece of legislation, effective 1° January 2015, individuals fiscally resident in Italy (irrespective of their nationality), who have been holding assets or income abroad without reporting them in the annual tax return, violating in this way domestic disclosure rules set by Law Decree n. 167/1990, have the chance to regularize such violations during the course of 2015. We underline that the violation of ordinary disclosure rules of foreign assets directly or indirectly held abroad exposes the tax payer to heavy annual penalties (varying from 3% up to 30% of the overall values of those assets). The voluntary disclosure procedure requires a comprehensive disclosure by the Italian resident taxpayer of all assets held abroad and for all the assessable tax years, must be initiated by filing a specific request within 30 September 2015, and guarantees: protection from most of the criminal charges imposed by Legislative Decree no. 74/2000 for the following violations: o incorrect returns o fraudulent returns (including the charge of using non-existent invoices/transactions, and/or other means) o missed return filings o unpaid withholding taxes o unpaid VAT o money laundering o self-laundering reduction of administrative penalties on unpaid Italian taxes; reduction of administrative penalties set for violation of domestic disclosure rule. The Italian direct and indirect taxes unpaid must be paid without any reduction, unless the overall value of foreign assets is lower than 2 mln euros in which case the tax payer may opt for a simplified procedure that determines an annual taxable base equal to 5% of the asset value, subject to 27% substitutive tax. Due to its complexity and structuring, the procedure requires the assistance of qualified tax advisors. For any information or clarification in this respect, do not hesitate to contact: Gabriele Giardina (Milan) Roberto Panero (Turin) Giorgio Lombardi (Rome)
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