Attentione! International Employment – US Employees In Italy

This Freeman Law Insights blog regards considerations, challenges, and opportunities for a domestic U.S. employer looking to or engaged in the employ a U.S. citizen who resides in the country of Italy. This is not legal advice; just legal information, unless you paid for it. However, the legge information here should be useful for those U.S. employers interested in expanding the now ubiquitous U.S. employee remote work regime into the country of Italy.

Employer of Record. The U.S. employer should first evaluate and consider engaging an employer of record who is active in such services in the country where the U.S. citizen will perform the work. An employer of record is, essentially, a third-party service that operates as an employer on a hiring U.S. company’s behalf. This allows the hiring company to avoid having to establish an entity in the foreign country. The employer of record usually handles the legal requirements for complying with the foreign laws for payroll, contracts, and benefits.

Military Considerations. If the employee is a dependent of a member of the U.S. military, the employee should be aware that the rules of Status of Forces Privileges (SOFA) may or may not jeopardy certain military privileges by virtue of the employee’s employ while stationed overseas. See, for example, SOFA information on work in Italy here. https://home.army.mil/italy/my-garrison-Italy/pcsguidevic/living-vicenza/spouse-employement. However, the SOFA privilege matters were recently (August 30, 2023) modified to mitigate the adverse consequences to those U.S. citizen dependents on military bases in, for example, Italy and who work for a U.S. employer, provided that the U.S. citizen has a missione visa. See Telework to US Employers. And, U.S. employees who qualify for the approved telework as such likely fall under U.S. and not Italian employment laws.

Worker Tax Matters. The wages paid to the U.S. citizen living in Italy and working for a U.S. employer are subject to U.S. federal income tax withholding. Limited exceptions apply. A U.S. citizen living and working in Italy is required to file a U.S. tax return and a similar return in Italy, reporting wages from the U.S. employer-issued Form W2. The employee should be advised to engage independent tax counsel because the confluence of U.S. and Italy personal tax laws is or can be complicated.
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Tax Treaties and Exempt Income

Most United States tax treaties provide an exemption for certain categories of employees, including teachers, students, and researchers.[1]

Nonresident alien teachers, students, and trainees who are entitled to treaty exemptions from U.S. tax on part or all of their salary for working in the United States are generally required to file Form 8233 in order to claim the exemption.[2]

A teacher or trainee is an individual, other than a student, who is temporarily in the United States under a “J” or “Q” visa and substantially complies with the requirements of that visa.  A person is considered to have substantially complied with the visa requirements if they have not engaged in activities that are prohibited by U.S. immigration laws and could result in the loss of their visa status.

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Marco Rossi, Tax Advisor

With its Ruling n. 4091 of June 12, 2017, the Eighth Department of Tax Commission (District Tax Court) of Milan, Italy ruled that upon the cancellation of an inter company loan from a Dutch parent company to its Italian subsidiary, the interest accrued on the loan and deducted by the Italian subsidiary on an accrual basis, during the course of the loan, is deemed “constructively received” by the foreign parent, and is potentially subject to the Italian interest withholding tax (at the rate of 20 percent, pursuant to article 26, paragraph 5 of Presidential Decree n. 600 of 1973, recently increased to 26 percent).

However, the Tax Court also ruled that the Dutch parent company qualified as “beneficial owner” of the interest, and was eligible for the withholding tax exemption granted under article 26-quater of Presidential Decree n. 600 of 1973, which implemented the EU Directive n. 2003/49/CE (so called interest and royalties directive).

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Marco Rossi, Tax Advisor

With the Legislative Decree n. 90 of May 25, 2017, published on June 19, 2017 Italy finally adopted and transposed into its own legal system the EU Directive 2015/849, usually referred to as the “IV Anti Money Laundering Directive”.

One area that attracts particular attention concerns the new reporting rules applicable to trusts.

Article 21, paragraph 3 of Decree n. 90 provides that “trusts producing juridical effects relevant for tax purposes, in accordance with article 73 of the Presidential Decree n. 917 of January 22, 1986, shall be registered with a special section of the Register of Enterprises”.

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Marco Rossi, Italy, Tax

With Circular 17/E of May 23, 2017, Italy’s Tax Agency provided administrative guidance on the interpretation and application of the provisions on the elective preferential tax regime for Italian new-tax resident individuals.

New article 24-bis of Italy’s Unified Income Tax Code, enacted with Law n. 232 of December 2016, provides that foreign-resident individuals who establish their tax residency in Italy, after having been resident in a foreign country for at least nine of the previous ten tax years, may elect to pay a fixed-amount tax of euro 100,000 on all of their foreign source income, in lieu of the ordinary Italian personal income tax. Domestic source income would remain subject to the ordinary personal income tax, charged at graduated rates on income tax brackets. Read More

The Italian Government designed a new flat tax, under the new Article 24 bis of TUIR (consolidated law on income tax) introduced by the new Italian Budget Law 2017. The aim of this law is to revive the economic fortunes of Italy by making the country competitive with countries such as England and Spain, which have faired better in terms of cost savings and tax benefits. The Flat Tax law is designed to attract foreign persons and wealthy taxpayers that have never resided in Italy to invest in the country by not only giving incentives by way of tax rebates, but also with the splendour of Italian culture and food. Read More

Marco Rossi

With the Budget Law for fiscal year 2017, Italy enacted a new flat tax for Italian first-time residents. The flat tax amounts to euro 100,000 regardless of the amount of taxable income. Foreign source income is completely exempt from tax, while domestic source income is taxed under the normal rules (graduated tax rates on income brackets generally applying to all resident taxpayers).

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Marco Rossi

With its ruling n. 27113/2016 issued on December 28, 2016, the Italian Supreme Court interpreted and applied the beneficial ownership provision of article 10 of the tax treaty between Italy and France, for the purpose of determining whether a French holding company, wholly owned by a U.S. corporation, was entitled to the imputed credit granted under that treaty in respect of dividends received from an Italian subsidiary.

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Marco Rossi,

Under new anti-money laundering legislation due to become effective in Italy in 2017, all foreign trusts with tax effects in Italy shall have to be filed and registered on the Italian Register of Enterprises. They include trusts with Italian settlor, Italian beneficiaries, Italian assets, Italian source income or treated as Italian resident trust under Italian tax law.

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Marco Rossi

In its ruling n. 21614 of October 26, 2016 Italy’s Supreme Court considered the issue of the application of the gift tax upon the transfer of property to a trust. The issue arises under the provisions of Law n. 262 of October 3, 2006, which reinstated the gift tax. Article 2 of Law 262, at paragraph 45 and 49, while providing on the scope of the newly reinstated gift tax, refers to “legal arrangements having the effect of creating constraints or limitation on the use, enjoyment and disposition of property”, for the final benefit of a person of for a specified purpose.

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