Hi all

Here are the facts:

- My father, an italian citizen, is 57 and is looking at retiring in italy.
- He has the intention of moving their within the next year, 2 years tops.
- He owns his house in Australia & owns 100K in Australian shares.
- The rest of the monies are in his superannuation fucnd.
- He has never worked in Italy, but was born there and has been many times since he immigrated to Australia when he 14
- He is finishing up from work in OCtober 2008 and plans on takin some time off until he heads over ther


[u]My questions to you all are as follows:[/u]

1. Does he qualify for social pension?

2. If so , roughly what is the amount?

3. At what age does he start receiving it , if any?

4. What are the restrictions (ie. is he only aloud to have a certain amount of cash or assets)

5. Is there a another site I can gather the info required? Or is there someone I can speak to that anyone could recommend, that will enable me to ascertain my fathers position?

thanks in advance for your help

My understanding is you must pay in to take out.

Ok, this may sound blunt, but why should a State give the Italian taxpayer’s money to somebody who turned his back on that very country?
“You don’t like it here? Ok, fair enough. Your home is Australia now. But don’t come knocking at my door”.
I'd rather spend my money for welcoming immigrants from poorer countries. After all, they CHOSE to come here, so we must have a way of giving them a fair chance.

And this should apply to all those who moved away a while ago and are now looking for some cunning way to sneak back in. Or their offspring, for that matter.

Too cocky of me?

I would not go so far as to assume that the OP's father "turned his back" on Italy, but I do agree that it is ridiculous to assume that you can use money from a tax system you NEVER paid into for retirement. I HOPE people by virtue of holding an Italian passport cannot collect retirement in Italy (I also think there are enough elderly in Italy to take care of and not enough new taxpayers to cover all the expenses as it is! See the last edition of "Internazionale")

I would have thought that you would receive a pension from the country you paid your contributions in. My OH has an Italian passport but is resident and pays taxes in the UK. When he retires to Italy he will have his pension paid from the UK since he has been contributing National Insurance and Taxes there for most of his working life. Your father should really speak to someone in Australia who could inform him of what he will receive when he retires. The UK version of this would be Department of Work and Pensions, don't know what Australia's version would be called. Either way, as said before, you only get out what you put in and what he has put in has been in Australia so they provide the pension, not Italy.

I know it sounds kind of crazy but I believe that in some cases Migliarino may have a point. This would probably not apply specifically to suo babbo but it was my understanding that an Italian citizen who has lived abroad and then returns to Italy with no/little funds is indeed eligible for a minimum sustenance payment each month. I do not have the reference for this.

quote:

Originally posted by Stefanaccio:
it was my understanding that an Italian citizen who has lived abroad and then returns to Italy with no/little funds is indeed eligible for a minimum sustenance payment each month. I do not have the reference for this.

I found this from 2006 on Expats main site:

quote:

A social pension (pensione sociale) is for people who have never made any social security contributions and are without any means of income; benefit is currently around €360 per month.

I think Migliarino's father will have a tough time proving he's "without any means of income" given-

quote:

He owns his house in Australia & owns 100K in Australian shares.
- The rest of the monies are in his superannuation fucnd.

With the assets and pension 'income' that Migliarino's father has, he will be taxed on that when he presents his first '730 Rendita Annuale' (Annual income and assets return). If his Australian pension is sent to him in Italy he will most likely be taxed quite highly on that - unless there is the same agreement with Australia that exists within the EU.

That is that you cannot be taxed in two countries in the EU on the same income/pension. But to enable this to be implemented a full declaration of TOTAL assets and income must be declared in duplicate on a form provided by the 'old home' country tax office and presented to the Agenzia D'Entrate here for completion and registering. Without that he will likely get a high tax bill every year...

And it is worth noting that not all INPS offices are aware of this ruling on tax on pensions for 'stranieri', and are likely to try and back date taxes on any 'home' pension sent to you here.... so BEWARE!