Voluntary disclosure: Italy, I’m coming back

Italy is preparing to launch the voluntary disclosure-bis, which will have the green light in the budget law, as confirmed by the deputy minister of Finance Luigi Casero on the sidelines of the Tax Forum in Milan on Tuesday; the structure remains rather uncertain.

According to rumors reported by italian agency press AGI, the sanctions will remain the same but there will be more an annuity in case of failure to declare. The Ministry of Finance aims for the voluntary return of funds held by Italians abroad, about €2 billion, which could also go up in the event that included cash, gold and precious.

"The voluntary disclosure, or 'voluntary collaboration'" – writes the Italian news agency – allows taxpayers who hold assets abroad illegally to regularize their position spontaneously, denouncing to Italian Agency Revenue, the tax violation.

The novelty compared to last year is that it extends the time frame also including 2015 (the previous window would stop at 30 September 2014) without charge in terms of penalties and interest. In case of non-declaration or submitted, the period is extended to six years, while in the case of misrepresentation remains of five years (in this case, starting from 2011).

The other important issue to address is to decide who will have to "certify" the situation. The hypotheses on the table are two: a track "light", in which the intermediaries – banks, trust companies, for example, should certify the origin only "tax" of deposits; and a track rather more "strong" in which the "income verification", excluding recycling, would be entrusted to the Guardia di Finanza, italian Police Force concerned with fiscal matters.