Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Tax evader's collection confiscated

Together with the politicians Roger

...and the wunch of bankers Graham!

Got one of those from the Italian tax office about a month ago. They effectively said I did not have enough income or assets to afford to buy the Morgan (all declared and VAT paid in Italy). My accountant said to ignore it but Alis was not convinced and did some research.

Turns out that the law had changed and, as an Italian resident, I had to declare, and pay tax on, my Australian assets and bank accounts. This is offset by any similar tax that I may have paid in Australia. My Italian accountant was not aware of the change of law. Fortunately we got onto it with only one day to bring my declaration in line to avoid a fine. Big Brother now knows more about me than I know myself.

You do question where they obtained the information in order to nudge you. What invasion of your computer privacy at a bank or how they could know this ? Or am I looking for a conspiracy that is not there.

The Italian tax office is examining the purchase of any luxury vehicle (though a Plus 4 is not really a luxury vehicle) to see if you have a declared income that would allow such a purchase. This is fairly easy for them as they were able to use information they already had. They have the record of IVA (VAT) which was paid on the purchase of the vehicle, and with that they have your tax number. Probably a simple program runs a cross reference. Since I actually had no source of income declared in Italy and they knew I had paid tax and insurance, and did not have finance, an automatic letter was probably generated.

In the end I had to pay a little over €1,000 euro because, under international tax agreements you can't be double taxed for the same thing. In fact I have since realised that there is another tax that I pay in Australia that could be offset against the Italian tax. This would reduce my Italian tax liability to a very small sum. It is a system that is reasonably fair but incredibly complex.

They still manage to collect quite a bit of tax from me. IVA (VAT) is 22% and levied on almost everything.

PS. I should mention that the overall tax burden in Italy is very high. I think it is something like the 6th for individuals and the 2nd highest in Europe for companies. Hard to know if this is to compensate for the massive tax evasion or causes it. It is probably a circular argument. High evasion, a top heavy bureaucracy, and corruption at all levels place the real burden on the honest tax payer and the wage earners who have little opportunity to avoid tax.

Isn't it the same all over the world.

When this was brought in, a swiss banker who owns a ski flat in the same residence as us in the mountains told me that Italian car dealers were awash with cancelled orders for high end cars, and that huge discounts were available, of which he and many of his compatriots were taking advantage. He'd just taken delivery of a new BMW 6 series X drive convertible for far less than list price.

There are now international agreements in place which result in disclosure of information - a good example being overseas and off-shore accounts. If you receive a nudge letter it won't be a shot in the dark, it will be based on evidence held.

Seems a bit daft to me when very wealthy people like Berlusconi go to extreme measures to avoid tax when they already have far more money they can possibly spend in their lifetime.

It's normally because of greedy so called tax specialists and accountants that promise their clients they can legitimately save them millions and command huge fees or a percentage of what they have saved them