9404 New rules 30 April 2008 Cheques and cash

There are some new rules about payments in Italy, effective from April 30th. The new rules are supposed to fight tax evasion and above all money recycling.

- Payments in cash should not exceed eur 5000 (former limit was eur 12500). If a bank suspects that a payment exceeding eur 5000 was done by summing up several instalments they must report it (usually banks control your movements over 7 working days - drawing 3000 euros on Monday and 3000 euros on Thursday from your account could be considered as suspect).

As far as I understand, transfer in cash for more than eur 5000 will still be possible if a bank or post office is notified and checks the identities of the parties concerned (a new procedure, still to be tried, I believe).

- Cheques above eur 5000 must be marked as "non trasferibile" (not transferable, ie. payable only to the name written on the cheque). In future, all cheques will be printed by default as not transferable. If for some reason??? you want a cheque book with transferable cheques you will have to ask for a special book, and each cheque will have a 1.5 eur tax on it; it will be not possible to use transferable cheques for amounts exceeding eur 5000.

When a transferable cheque is redeemed, the codice fiscale of the redeemer has to be written on the back, together with the endorsement signature.

Cheque books preceding Apr. 30th are still valid, as long as you remember to mark "non trasferibile" for anything over eur 5000.

I the event that you want to issue a cheque to yourself ("me medesimo") you have to cash it yourself - you cannot sign a self-addressed cheque and transfer it to another person. (This was an old and trusted way to pay undocumented money, used especially for small building works). Do not accept such a cheque as payment, as you will not be able to cash it.

As for money transfer services, I believe they will have a limit of eur 2000. (You paying euros to someone else or someone paying you). That could possibly effect those doing holiday house rentals in euros????

Cheques are as you know, disliked here. After April 30th an "irregular" cheque may be impossible to cash or could involve you in a fine (up to 40% of the irregular amount).

There are new rules also on passbooks but I have no info on that so if you have a PO bank account suggest you check.

Category
General chat about Italy

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 04/24/2008 - 09:09

[quote=Noble;88216]
As for money transfer services, I believe they will have a limit of eur 2000. (You paying euros to someone else or someone paying you). That could possibly effect those doing holiday house rentals in euros????
[/quote]

many thanks, that was an excellent post, full of good info. Are you able to clarify the above quote though? Is this just "internal" transfers (sent betweeen two italian accounts) or do you mean that I can no longer order my FX company to transfer say €10K to my Italian account? I can't believe the latter is true as my FX broker would presumably know about it and have advised me?

Are you sayng that future transfers from a UK account to an italian one of over €2000 would need to be brought to italy as cash or a bank draft and paid into the account manually?

Surely not ... I'm hopefully just missing something obvious!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 04/24/2008 - 09:09

[quote=Noble;88216]As for money transfer services, I believe they will have a limit of eur 2000. (You paying euros to someone else or someone paying you). That could possibly effect those doing holiday house rentals in euros????
[/quote]How would this affect transferring money from the UK to our Italian bank account, using a money transfer company? How would one be able to transfer the money for the purchase of house for example, or in our case our Private Pensions are paid annually, so we would want to transfer a great deal of that money into Italy?:no:

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 04/24/2008 - 15:40

This rules apply in Norway and has done so in a long time. The rules does NOT affect normal money transfers to and from bank accounts. But it is compulsory for the bank to report money transfers and cash withdrawal and deposits if the bank suspects foul play regarding tax and crime. Anyone who receives cash in excess over € 5000 has to report the transaction to the economic police, if they suspect foul play.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 04/24/2008 - 15:50

As for money transfer services, I believe they will have a limit of eur 2000. (You paying euros to someone else or someone paying you). That could possibly effect those doing holiday house rentals in euros????

I am happy even delighted, to be corrected, but what I think this means is that it applies to only Italian bank transactions. Eg. if you have to transfer euros from your Italian bank to someone elses Italian bank then the limit is 2000 euros. For example we booked a holiday rental in Italy and had to transfer euros from our bank to the renter's bank account. I could not get any more info. sorry but will keep trying. I have no evidence that it applies to our transfering money from UK to our Italian banks and cannot believe this is the meaning.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 04/24/2008 - 16:12

This seems to be the answer and phew it is unlikely to effect most of us ...
The 2000 euro limit actually seems to apply to wiring someone cash:
"Nel caso il trasferimento di contante avvenga tramite soggetti che svolgono attività di incasso e trasferimento fondi (i cosiddetti "money transfer") sono previsti limiti più stringenti: il limite massimo è, di regola, di 2.000 euro"

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 04/24/2008 - 16:45

I haven't looked into this stuff, but I think everybody is getting worried about nothing on the international transfer stuff. That counts as a bonifico bancario (equivalent to a non transferable cheque) - no limits on the amount. Stop fretting.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 04/24/2008 - 18:05

wasn't fretting, merely seeking clarity. 100% sure that if the reg's had changed, the brokers with whom I deal would have been beeating a path to my door ...