Property abroad: Italian tax declaration or not?
Lately we received
information that colleagues who have consulted a local tax adviser (commercialista)
regarding the obligation to make an Italian tax declaration possibly received
the wrong advice. In the cases we are aware of the tax adviser told these
colleagues that he or she had to declare to the Italian authorities all
properties in their possession in countries other than Italy. We believe this
advice is only valid if the colleague has his or her domicile for tax purposes
in Italy, but it is wrong in case the domicile for tax purposes is not in
Italy.
According to Article 13 (ex Article
14) of the PROTOCOL
(No 7) ON THE PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION for Statutory
staff their domicile for tax purposes is the country of domicile for tax
purposes at the time of entering the service of the Union (in practice it is
typically the country of your last tax declaration before entering the service
- if in doubt it is clearly indicated in the personal file in Sysper).
Furthermore, both the country of your actual residence and the country of
domicile for tax purposes must consider that you have maintained your domicile
in the latter country (provided that it is a member of the Union) - therefore,
if you have your domicile for tax purposes in an EU country other than Italy
you should do your tax declaration there and not in Italy.
To add insult to injury, not only has the
incorrect advice been given - leading to possible issues with the Italian
authorities - our unfortunate colleagues have also been billed for the advice
and the work. We therefore take the opportunity to remind our colleagues that
not all local tax advisers will have the necessary experience or knowledge to
deal with special situations such as these, so always be careful and seek help
from well-informed sources.
A very useful
document containing advice on many taxation matters related to EU personnel,
"EUROPEAN UNION OFFICIALS AND TAXATION, IMPACT OF THE PROTOCOL ON
PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES ON THEIR TAX STATUS", may be found in Myintracomm.
A EU Tribunal ruling that affects promotions and careers of all AST and AD grades?
In
the Anagnostu Case (F-72/11) the Tribunal stipulated that the Commission
has incorrectly applied the rules concerning the
promotions rates imposed by the Staff Regulations. Indeed, DG HR has for
years applied arbitrary promotion rates, which have been systematically and
unlawfully imposed on
the Joint Promotion Committee since 2004. R&D members decisively contributed to the collective action,
which follows exactly the position R&D has been advocating for years in the Joint Promotion
Committee as well as through communications to the staff and letters to both the Commission and the Administration (see Promotion
exercise and quotas). R&D remains
convinced that this is serious problem that affects considerably the staff
of ALL
grades and categories and will continue to act in close collaboration with other Trade Unions
and the Central Staff Committee in order to undertake all collective, necessary and urgent actions to bring the issue yet again to the awareness of the College.
JRC Ispra and "Dieselgate"
Read the full article (Nature)
On the same topic:
Article from the Italian press (Corriere della Sera)
Article from VareseNews
Article from El Mundo
In our opinion this underlines once again the importance of the independence of our laboratories at the JRC.
R&D analysis of the FP7 ex-post evaluation
The DG of the JRC Mr Sucha has invited staff representatives
and Trade Unions to comment on the findings of the “Ex-post evaluation of
the direct actions of the Joint Research Centre under the seventh
framework programme 2007-2013” (Cunningham
Report).
Despite an extremely tight deadline (four working days..)
R&D has analysed the report and formulated a series of 10 Priority Actions,
which had been proposed to the Management in occasion of today’s Directoire
Meeting.
Although we are
aware such a work would require a larger and longer consultation, we accepted
the challenge launched by the DG. Thanks to the work already anticipated by the
thematic R&D groups, and thanks to the joint effort of the R&D
committee, we believe that the analysis made and the action proposed are in
line with our hearts and brains.
Times are difficult and courage and leadership are
scarce and limited resources in the JRC.
R&D embraces its societal responsibility as trade
union carrying the Renewal and Development in its name. Based on these two
principles, we proactively promote a culture open to change and
innovation, while protecting at the same time staff individual rights in
all relevant areas.
Please participate in this process and make your
voices heard!
Hearsay regarding transfer of activities
Announcements in a chatroom cannot substitute real dialogue in the light of major changes dramatically affecting many of our colleagues!
******
Mr Sucha's reply of 17th September.
******
NEW!!!!!!
Our new letter of 24th September on the subject.
Visit of VP Georgieva to Ispra
As staff representatives we explained to the VP
that, following the outcome of the Staff Satisfaction Survey, particular
attention should be given to “career” and “well-being”.
Specifically, the LSC delegation put forward several concrete ideas to the VP. As the JRC is a very complex DG spread over six sites, having staff naturally predisposed towards innovation, it may provide an ideal environment to become a social and organisational test-bed for the whole Commission to promote innovative and creative solutions in favour of improved well-being and productivity. The LSC delegation advanced two proposals: the “Mobility Market” (i.e., easier staff mobility as a normal practice by means of new rules and tools) and the provision of tools such as cloud storage or Connected to be made available and accessible to all staff anytime/everywhere. The LSC President stressed that too often (cyber)security, safety and data protection are used as insurmountable excuses to block otherwise desirable initiatives: flexibility requires an assumption of responsibility, and sometimes it's much more convenient to simply apply rules in a very restrictive way. This overly strict interpretation of rules often brings to inadequate implementation of IT tools causing inaccessibility - or difficult/limited access - from locations other than a desktop Commission PC.
In addition, the LSC President advanced the
request to support – under the umbrella of the Fit@work programme the VP
launched earlier in May – the construction of a new multipurpose Sports Hall to
replace the current very inadequate and obsolete tensostructure.
It was also
mentioned that, following an explicit request of our Director General, the LSC
is collecting ideas to increase the Ispra site attractiveness - feel
free to send us your own ideas: our staff representatives will bring them
to the attention of the LSC!
Overall, also thanks to the very constructive
dialogue of your staff representatives, we believe that the VP left Ispra with
a good impression of the JRC, its staff, and its activities.
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