Ram's activity

"Complaining about Italian politicians seems rather rich to me as well, no Italian PM has taken its soldiers into an illegal war in Iraq just to cosy up to the Americans and I don't  see Italian body bags being loaded into planes in Afghanistan"Actually Berlusconi did take Italy into Iraq, whether to cosy up to the Americans is a point of view,  and yes  there are Italian body bags from Afghanistan. 

Unless .... We don't earn much so we don't spend much here but at least I can chose to run a small car for £35 road tax and £250 insurance a year .In Italy no matter what car I ran it would cost 3 times that amount.  If you buy a classic car - like a Fiat 500 old style it would cost you 120 euros pa all in - tax, insurance and bollo - thats why fiat 500 cost so much nowadays! Liguria seems to have frightening prices!  Here at the moment toms are about 50 cents a kilo, melons - 15kg for 5 euros, spuds 12 kg for 5 euros,  peaches 80 cents a kilo.  Serge, I know - I lived in London for 20 years before I fled - but Im not a pensioner - so I was paying 50 quid a week for my travelcard, 60 a week on taxis as I worked antisocial hours,   1.50 for a cup of drinkable coffee, ( in Italy - why would anyone want Instant Nescafe?).  its true I could have eaten a Macdonalds, filled up on monosodium glutamate from a Chinese, but I ingested enough filth in London just by living there without adding to the payload.  Only the British Museum and the Tate save your soul living in London.   It's true, its a great place to visit, take in a show all of that - but living there day in and day out becomes too much a toll on mind and body!

 The same is true of anywhere - you would expect to may more in Tuscany with people cashing in on the tourist trap restaurants.  Eating in Piccadilly Cirucs is undoubtedly more expensive than eating in Deptford - it depends where you choose to eat.   I find it hard to agree that italy has become more expensive - prices have remained the same if not lower than last year - its the comparison that makes it seem more expensive.Here in Sicily, Taormina has prices which are totally out of kilter with the rest of the island - even though Sicily is an island and suffers from the archaic distribution system - most foods in shops are strictly local and consequently much cheaper - here an entire meal costs 12 euros, not just a primo- I agree with Sebastiano about the total inability to function  with the state burden on small businesses.  It is almost impossible to make money with a small business in Italy - you are penalised heavily not only in employee taxes and contracts, but in IVA, IRPEF/IRPEG imposte, even down to the comune giving you a hard time about your office sign.   However, the plus side for me is that being in Sicily, professional costs are much much lower  - my commericialista costs 900 euros pa and does everything bar make the tea.    Here, if you exclude the car, you can still live quite comfortably on 10.000 euros a year - eating out, and not lacking much - the idea of trying to get by on 10.000 euros a year in London would reduce me to a diet of rice.   

 These are very separate things.  The registering at the catasto has nothing to do with your agent - the registering of the act by the notaio should start the process, but occasinoally there are loopholes in the system.  If you have your act of provenance it requires only a simple 'segnalazione' to teh catasto, who will correct the error.  The important thing to remember here is that the catasto is not a legal proof of ownership - at least not in the vast majority of Italy.  There is no need for a geometra to handle this - the first port of call should be the notaio who handled the sale.   However, if you bought the property as a fabbricato rurale you will need a geometra to recatatasto the house as an ente urbano as the law now requires.   As regards registering you for ICI and other stuff - this is technically not legal work - I have helped clients with it in the past, but it is not part of an estate agents duties as defined by a compravendita, but services after the event.    As with nearly all things in Italy the onus is on the end user - you - to be registered for water, electricity, ICI and so on, there is no helpful reminder that comes through the post.  You have to know by osmosis how these things work.   My notaio alwasy tells clients at the moment of act that they should toddle off to the comune when they have a copy of the act to do these things.  It would have been helpful of the agent to explain but I would say it wasn't their duty to do so.  

Under european convention, if you transfer your Uk insurance without it being lapsed for more than 12 months you can trasnfer your no claims to Italy - it converts to the Italian classifications and will knock at least a few classes off your insurance.   

 As far as I know, you will not be qualified to work in italy as an electrical engineer - you will have to have the italian qualification to work legally - this means a course in Italian and exams in Italian.   A shortcut might be to apprentice yourself to an electrician, but it would undoubtedly be frustrating - I would suggest you get in touch with your Italian consulate in new Zealand and see if they can help you as to job requirements. 

 When you say your completed - do you mean you paid all your money or have you still to pay the final instalment? The company is undoutbedly in default - but yo uneed to check your small print very carefully - and join the forums!  

 It also depends where you buy.  Here (Sicily) the fields are brown in July and August, as soon as the rain starts they are green again - here they grow between 2 and 4 crops a year.   Snow covered fields?? no thanks! 

 Sounds like a Mail on Sunday 'the communists are coming' story.  And frankly, if you earn ANY interest in an Italian bank account i would be surprised.  Unless you have millions stashed away, you pay out more in taxes and charges that you could ever earn in interest! 

 It depends how you are going to teach.  If you are employed by the language school you dont have to worry as they will pay your INPS and other contributions and sort it out from your salary.  If you are merely working for the school you will need to get a partita IVA, and a commercialista who will sort out everything for you.  As soon as you are self employed and working or not you will have to start paying INPS at about 700 euros per quarter.  A partita IVA costs about 200 euros to set up, and you will have to give invoices for all your work, with a 'ritenuto di acconto' which I still dont understand but is easier to get your commercialista to do it or explain it. If you are a self employed teacher you can teach the European PON courses which pay much better than teaching for a language school but you must have a certificate - either a CELTA or a TEFL or you wont be accepted.  If you are planning just to teach without qualifications you are frankly better off being employed by the school as your wages will be much lower.