1938 Codice Fiscale... eventually!

We did not apply for our codice fiscales until we were out here and had decided where we were going to buy. They arrived very quickly and within weeks, the plastic cards,while we were still in rented accomodation. Not everything is slow out here, in fact we find it no worse than the Uk over a lot of different things!! So hopefully you will not find it as bad as you seem to think it will be!!!

We got ours at the time of personal application at the consulate in Eaton Square London.

Normally is possible to get codice ficale at the moment you ask for it.
All you need to do is to go to the local "uffico delle entrate" with a document (pasport is ok) and they give the number immediatly.
At least, this is what happen here in Macerata.

Hi Allan,
The longest we had to wait for anything was the Health Forms from the UK DHSS so we could enrol in the Italian Health Service. Don't know if this is relevent to you as you may not be re-locating permanently,which we did , but if you need them, I should start applying now...they really messed us around -talk about the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing !!
Once we got the forms ,enrolling here in Italy took about 1 hour !!!....Our agent actually got our Codice Fiscale for us over here...took a day !!!
Some things do seem to take a while but others happen much quicker.....not much difference really...but smiling and shrugging your shoulders is cool !!:cool:

[QUOTE=alex and lyn]The longest we had to wait for anything was the Health Forms from the UK DHSS so we could enrol in the Italian Health Service. Don't know if this is relevent to you as you may not be re-locating permanently,which we did , but if you need them, I should start applying now...[/QUOTE]

Thank you for that. I will certainly bear it in mind since, yes, I do plan on making a new home in Italy.

My closing comment was flippant and I can see how it led people to conclude that I've bought into the stereotype about absolutely everything in Italy being slow. In fact, I am very willing to accept that Italian bureaucracy, at it's best, can be much more efficient than British bureaucracy at it's worst. I work in the belly of that particular beast, so I have no illusions on that score.

I did understand that getting a Codice Fiscale in Italy is normally a quick and straightforward process (the state is usually obliging when it comes to helping people to pay taxes!). However, various problems mean I can't get to Italy (or the embassy in London) anytime soon and I just wanted to make some sort of positive step toward achieving my goal of resettling in Italy.

I don't know how they do it at the London embassy, but it's clear that the Edinburgh consulate doesn't actualy produce CF cards. The one I got had clearly been issued in Roma, sent to the Edinburgh consulate and then forwarded to me. Which is, I'm sure, the main reason it took so long for me to receive my first piece of official Italian plastic.

All this is a lot of verbiage about not much at all but, as I said at the top, I just thought my experience could possibly be of some interest to someone in future who searches the forum for info on getting a Codice Fiscale in the UK.

Al

Edit: A member just sent me a PM to ask if I had a property in Italy. It seems someone at the London Embassy told her that she needed to have an Italian address before she could get a Codice Fiscale. This is clearly wrong. I don't have an address in Italy. In fact, the form the Edinburgh consulate sent me has a blank labelled "Residenza estera" (foreign address), so it's clear that the system is set up to deal with people who don't live in Italy asking for a CF. Anyway, it would be pretty daft if you couldn't get a CF without an Italian address since you can't get an Italian address without a CF!

[QUOTE=AllanMason]I thought the following might possibly be of some interest to someone in future.

The next letter from the consulate was dated 12 September and had an attached a printout from an Italian government website giving my allocated Codice Fiscale number. The covering letter stated ominously that, "The plastic card bearing this number and your personal details will be forwarded [B]in due course[/B]." (My emphasis!)

Hi Allen
I done the same as you but to the Manchester Consulate got the print out August 8th still waiting for card!!
Live in hope

Dave

[QUOTE=DavieC]I done the same as you but to the Manchester Consulate got the print out August 8th still waiting for card!![/QUOTE]

Yikes!

Thing is, if it is the case -- as it certainly was for mine -- that the cards are actually produced in Roma, there's probably no point following-up with the consulate, is there?

Given what Poetica said, maybe a day-trip to London could be the best way forward for you? I assume if you took your printout, they would be able to punch the card for you.

But who knows.

Al

Just to add what you all have said regarding cf, we went to eaton square london to italian consulate, my husband who is half italian was registered as a child in aprilia,even though he has only lived in uk,the family have a home in Riverbella, Rimini, so when we both applied for cf, they told my husband they would send his cf to our england address, and mine to the italian address in Rimini, they did give us the printout with our cf nos there and then, my husband recieved his plastic card a good few weeks later, however i did not recieve mine at all, when i phoned them ,they said it did not matter, the printout with the cf number was all i needed, and that the plastic card was purely so that you could keep it clean !!!!!!!!!!!!! and put it in your wallet:)

From my experience, the document issued by the Italian Inland Revenue with the codice fiscale n° rarely gets checked by notaries overseen the sale of a houses. Most of their assistants placing absolute faith in code provided by the buyer sometimes cross checking it using the calculating tools on line. There is a very remote possibility of duplication error (two people born abroad with the same name, middle name, surname, and date of birth).

David
[url]www.ourtoscana.com[/url]

[QUOTE=David]From my experience, the document issued by the Italian Inland Revenue with the codice fiscale n° rarely gets checked by notaries overseen the sale of a houses. Most of their assistants placing absolute faith in code provided by the buyer sometimes cross checking it using the calculating tools on line. There is a very remote possibility of duplication error (two people born abroad with the same name, middle name, surname, and date of birth).

David
[url]www.ourtoscana.com[/url][/QUOTE]

our notary wanted copies of the codice fiscale (paper) when we completed on the purchase of our houses.

[QUOTE=Technically Blonde]our notary wanted copies of the codice fiscale (paper) when we completed on the purchase of our houses.[/QUOTE]

So did mine

I got my codice fiscale very quickly, ( 2 years ago) but never did receive the plastic card. In order that I remember my code I have put it into my mobile phone, as everyone seems to request this number.

It is extremely easy to get a tax code from a tax office in Italy, however they do usually insist on an Italian address. Although in theory it is not essential to have an Italian address, the staff who work in these offices do not know the rules and it is impossible to convince them that this is the case. The address does not need to be of a house you own, it can be a friends address for example. WARNING: It is possible to see what your tax code is on the internet or from a post office, however do not imagine that obtaining your code in this way means that you are properly registered for tax purposes. You can only register properly at a tax office in Italy or through the consulate. Also, always use the name that appears on your passport and don't give your birth name if this is different (this is particularly important for women who may use their husbands name). Phil

Hi Phil, fancy seeing you on this forum! The only problem/confusion we had initially when applying for our codice fiscale was the fact that we both had the same surname. Italian women use their maiden names much more don't they?

I believe I'm right in saying that Italian women have to use their maiden name on legal documents, passport, house purchase etc. It's quite interesting to see some of the faces at UK check-in when some of the documents have my partners married name which she uses in the UK.
The married name is also printed in small letters under cognome on a different page in the passport.

Hi Linda,

Yes, Italians keep the name they are born with for life and cannot conceive of people changing name during the course of their lives. This has advantages for example, when women divorce they don't need to change all their documentation. At the tax office the form asks for your birth name, but from our experience of taking many couples to get their tax codes, if an English woman puts her birth name on the form and it doesn't then correspond to the passport, the tax office staff have a fit. This is why it is necessary to put the same name on the form as there is on the passport. I think the Viterbo office are under the impression that a lot of British brothers and sisters are buying homes together! Phil

Just to add another version (sorry, not sure how useful this might be as we all seem to have slightly different experiences). We got a print out of our codice fiscale from the bank when we opened our accounts. We never got cards and only ONCE have I had to show the printed form (when we registered with ASL or USL or SSN or whatever the health dept is called/is calling itself). Other than that I have always just given the number or written it on forms myself.
PS we didn't need anything from UK DHSS to sign up with sanitaria ... or DID we???? :confused:

Selva, I am sure this means that the bank just accessed the computer programme that gives the tax codes (the code is simply made up of certain letters from your name, your date of birth, sex, country of birth etc.) and that you are not actually registered at any tax office, that is why you have never received the card. It is a common mistake to think that being given a number means that you are registered. The numer has to be printed on a form from the tax office or on their plastic cards to mean that you are really registered. Phil

My partner also got a CF when opening a bank account, she was told this was a temp. number to open the account and would still have to apply for the offical Codice Fiscale.
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