Italians' foreign assets? Over 225 billion

The fascination with houses and wealth deposited in foreign accounts does not stop. Taxpayers declaring them are growing. The total value grows. The taxes paid also grow: Ivie on real estate and Ivafe on financial assets. The 2025 declarations confirm the long wave of a trend to increase investments across borders. Investments that are then reported to the tax authorities via the declaration model. The summed amount of the value of houses and accounts abroad exceeded 225.4 billion (+6.7% compared to the 2023 tax period).

There are two possible effects affecting this dynamic. On the one hand, the strong push for emersion came with the latest voluntary disclosure, which provided the assist to bring out (with a series of tax and other benefits) wealth outside Italian borders that was completely unknown to the financial administration.

On the other hand, the world for cheapskates and scoundrels across borders has become 'smaller' thanks to international agreements. The exchange of information and tax cooperation between countries makes it possible to build a network for identifying and charging those with concealed assets. The possibility of cross-referencing available information has also enabled the Italian tax authorities to launch and strengthen over time a specific strand of compliance letters, whereby the taxpayers concerned could explain the correctness of their behaviour or run for cover through voluntary tax amends. The progressive broadening of the information exchanged could also have a deterrent effect from keeping wealth hidden abroad. Added to this is a consideration of how forms of wealth have changed, with an increasing shift towards the digital economy, in today's world, making it easier to cross traditional boundaries to make forms of investment.

More specifically, with regard to real estate abroad, there was a slight increase in the number of taxpayers declaring their property, while the total value increased by 2.7%. The tax (the Ivie), on the other hand, rose to just under 150 million, an increase of 56.5% over the previous year. This growth was produced by the increase in the rate, which was raised from 0.76 per cent to 1.06 per cent for the tax year 2024.

While for financial products (with the exclusion of foreign shareholdings) the VAT rate is 0.2 per cent, which becomes 0.4 per cent for assets in blacklisted countries. On this side, the total declared value rises to 191.4 billion, an increase of 7.5 per cent. The number of taxpayers also rose to just over 368 thousand (+10.4 per cent) and the result is an increase in the tax declared to just under 104 million (+21.2 per cent).