The Italian Government has extended the deadline for its offshore tax amnesty, the Scudo Fiscale, to April and introduced a sliding scale for penalties based on when disclosures are made.
It had been planned that the amnesty would close in mid December but as the deadline came last month the government announced an extra four months would be given to tax evaders to disclose money held outside Italy.
The original amnesty imposed an ‘extraordinary’ tax of 5% on Italian taxpayers’ assets held abroad as at 31st December 2008 provided that they were repatriated or regularised by 15th December 2009.
Taxpayers caught holding undeclared assets after this date risked a penalty tax of up to 250%.
Sliding scale
Under the extended version, the penalties are 6% for assets declared between 1st January and the end of February 2010, increasing to 7% for assets declared between 1st March and 30th April 2010.
The Italian authorities reportedly netted as much as €110bn in penalties ahead of the initial December deadline and are believed to confident of receiving further significant sums in the run up to the new, April, deadline.
Some companies have taken advantage of the amnesty to offer products catering for Italians with offshore assets, among them Luxembourg-based Lombard International Assurance.
The company said it would be continuing to offer its “unique solution” to Italian tax payers following the extension.
