Italian Banks Ordered by Gov’t to Withhold 20% Tax on Inbound Wire Transfers

Jeff Berwick
Activist Post

The news is pouring in: after .1% growth in the fourth quarter of 2013, Italy’s recovery has begun. (That 2012 $600 billion dollar bailout clearly worked for Italy)

But this .1% growth might not be enough to put the minds of politicians at ease. Another less reported Italian based event has taken place in the shadows…

The European Union and its constituent nation-states are scrambling to get all of the pieces in place before collapse. Cyprus made headlines nearly one year ago when they enacted a bail-in against savers. I reported last week’s revelation of savings confiscation in Europe. One main point of each article was that this is not the end. This will only continue, and what’s likely is it is coming to your nation soon.

The most recent revelation of eurozone wealth confiscation: Italian banks have been ordered by the Italian government to withhold a 20% tax on all inbound wire transfers.

This is retroactive to February 1. Il Sole reports, “the deductions will be automatic (unless prior request for exclusion), and then it will be up to the taxpayer to prove that the money is not in the nature of compensation “income.'”

As Zero Hedge puts it, “all Italians are money launderers unless proven innocent.”

Some more details:

 … the collection is the result of the decision to consider any transfer from abroad and directed to an individual Italian, as a component of taxable income, subject to proof to the contrary, which must be date the taxpayer receives the sum on your account.

However, the first payments to the Treasury by intermediaries (mainly banks) will be performed July 16, so that the deemed payment accrued from February 1 until June 30 (and therefore set aside and with interest). Next, you will pay the withholding every 16th of the month following the effective perception of the sum. In fact, all taxpayers who receive a transfer from abroad on their personal account – and not professional or business – will be applied to the deduction, as an advance which will then be computed in the annual tax return.

But does any of this even matter? We see government after government imposing impossible taxation on its people. What is happening all over the world, including Italy, is that more and more people – in particular the wealthy ones – are moving their bank accounts into more friendly jurisdictions (Italian businesses are fleeing like refugees.), Eurozone or not. Some will cease accepting wire transfers, and others will accept payment in bitcoin and/or precious metals.

All that will happen is that the Italian government will over time receive less money because less money will flow into Italy. But it is essential that people look into offshoring their savings. You don’t want to be caught up in the government dragnet.

Italy’s main concern seems to be income payments in the form of bank transfers. Since the tax comes first, the Italians will face quite a battle explaining the origin of every inbound money transfer and if it is in accordance with the law. The Italian government is now viewing all money an individual receives from outside the country as income. As anyone with an iota of business experience knows, this is rarely the case.

Europe has chosen a financial nuclear bomb for its continent: the overt confiscation of savings. Debilitating taxes. A government induced depression. Other continents will follow. Are you going to be burned by the fallout? That decision, for now, is yours to make. But not for long.

Knowing full-well the trajectory on which the European Union finds itself, I started not only TDV Spain, but also TDV Germany. At these websites you can receive cutting edge information on The End Of The Monetary System As We Know It (TEOTMSAWKI) from european perspectives.  Also, in our coming subscription newsletter, we will include the inside perspective of someone who lived in Italian but saw the writing on the wall and moved to Acapulco.

Not only can these publications help you prepare, but so can TDV Offshore.

Time is running out. We’ve been brought to beyond the pale at the barrel of a gun.

If Europeans don’t get their assets into hard assets (and other alternative assets) and outside the eurozone in the next few months, they risk losing everything.

Anarcho-Capitalist.  Libertarian.  Freedom fighter against mankind’s two biggest enemies, the State and the Central Banks.  Jeff Berwick is the founder of The Dollar Vigilante, CEO of TDV Media & Services and host of the popular video podcast, Anarchast.  Jeff is a prominent speaker at many of the world’s freedom, investment and gold conferences as well as regularly in the media including CNBC, CNN and Fox Business.