ITALY Law and Practice Contributed by: Paolo Ludovici and Andrea Mirabella, Gatti, Pavesi, Bianchi, Ludovici
2.7 Transfer of Assets: Digital Assets Circular Letter No 30/E of 27 October 2023 confirmed that gratuitous transfers of crypto-assets are subject to Italian inheritance and gift tax. The taxable base is their market value at the date of the gift or death, determined by reference to the relevant exchange or a comparable trading platform. For territoriality purposes, crypto-assets held through Italian service providers or on storage devices located in Italy are treated as Italian-situs assets. Given the risk of loss of access to digital wallets, suc - cession planning should also address crypto-assets, for example, through a Will, a trust or professional custody arrangements. 3. Trusts, Foundations and Similar Entities 3.1 Types of Trusts, Foundations or Similar Entities Trusts The trust is a wealth planning vehicle that is being increasingly used in Italy, and recent clarifications by the Italian tax authorities (see 1.1 Tax Regimes ), pre - ceded by established case law, have provided greater certainty regarding the tax treatment. To date, there is no organic regulation of trusts in domestic law. Trusts may be distinguished according to their differ - ent uses and purposes, for example: • a “purpose trust”, established for the pursuit of a specific purpose identified by the settlor; • a “family trust”, established for asset protection and succession planning; • a “ Dopo di Noi trust ” (“After Us Trust”), established for the benefit of individuals with severe disabilities in compliance with the requirements of Law No 112 of 22 June 2016 (the “After Us Law”, Legge sul Dopo di Noi ); • a “guarantee trust”, established to protect the interest of one or more creditors of the settlor; and
In case of death of the insured person, the amount paid to the beneficiaries is collected out of inheritance rules and consequently is excluded from inheritance tax. Trusts Trusts are vehicles for preserving family assets for future generations. Italy is a trust-friendly jurisdiction both from a civil law perspective – recognising asset segregation (see 3.2 Recognition of Trusts ) – and from a tax perspective (see 1.1 Tax Regimes ). Trusts are recognised and enforced in Italy by virtue of the Convention of 1 July 1985 on the Law Applicable to Trusts and on their Recognition, ratified under Law No 364 of 16 October 1989, which came into force on 1 January 1992 (the “Hague Convention”, see section 3.2 Recognition of Trusts ). Transfers of Businesses and Corporate Shareholdings Through Family Pacts (Patti di Famiglia) A family pact ( patto di famiglia ) is an agreement whereby an entrepreneur or shareholder transfers, while alive, his/her enterprise/shareholdings to one or more of his/her heirs. The family pact shall be executed in the form of a pub - lic deed, by and among the entrepreneur/shareholder, his/her spouse (or civil union partner) and any other person that could be considered heir of intestacy in his/her respect, should the entrepreneur/shareholder have died at the time of the family pact’s execution. The parties to whom the enterprise/shareholding expressly devolves by means of the family pact shall pay to the other parties a sum equal to their com - pulsory portion, unless the other parties waive their right to such payment. The goods received by each party are imputed to the compulsory portion of the relevant party and are exempt from re-integration and/ or reduction. A transfer of enterprise or shareholdings may ben - efit from the exemption from inheritance and gift tax provided by Article 3, paragraph 4-ter, TUS (see 1.2 Exemptions ).
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