Money in an Italian account — is it considered income?

Visas to Italy
1

Anyone know - is everything deposited into an Italian account (student permit) considered income? Do you have to pay taxes on it?

2

It depends on how many days a year you spend in Italy. If it’s 180+ days, you become a tax resident, and then it doesn’t matter where the income was earned — in Italy or elsewhere — everything must be declared. The obligation to declare accounts arises from the first year you become a resident.

3

So if I haven’t registered as a resident yet and only have a permit, does that mean I’m not considered a tax resident yet?

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4

Permesso (residence permit) и residenza (residence registration) — это разные вещи, тут важно не путать. Мне консультант объясняла, что налоги в Италии надо платить, если выполнено хотя бы одно из трёх условий: 180 дней в стране, оформлена residenza в comune (municipality), или центр жизненных интересов здесь. Причём residenza сразу делает налоговым резидентом — неважно, сколько дней фактически в стране. Так что если только permesso, а в comune не регистрировалась — формально пока не резидент, но как только прописку оформите (register your residence / get your residenza) — уже да.

5

If you open a P.IVA (Partita IVA) — the residenza (residency registration) is separately important. I’ve heard that accountants specifically wait for the ricevuta (receipt/acknowledgement) from the comune (municipality) showing that the residency application has been taken into processing — precisely to qualify for the 5% rate under the forfettario (flat-rate tax regime). Without that document they may not grant the preferential regime, even if you’ve actually been living in the country for more than a year.

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6

One more important point about renewing the permesso: the questura won’t accept a Russian salary deposited into an Italian account as proof of income. You need either a tax return (dichiarazione dei redditi) or a busta paga from an Italian employer (payslip). So the money can physically sit in an Italian bank, but that doesn’t help for the renewal.

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7

There’s another nuance: if we’re talking about self-employment or P.IVA (Partita IVA) — for the tax return the source of income is less important than the fact that you declared it. I dealt with this for lavoro autonomo (self-employment) — you can receive payments into an account in another country; the main thing is the statement and declaring it in Italy. But when renewing the permesso di soggiorno (residence permit) the questura (police headquarters) looks specifically at the Italian bank account — so those are two different requirements; don’t mix them up.

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