What does INAS do?

Australia has a tax treaty with Italy to prevent double taxation. As part of the agreement, an Italian resident in Australia who receives income from Italy, can request the Italian taxation authorities to reduce their tax deduction or to exempt them completely from paying tax. They can do this by lodging a tax relief form or a certificate of residence to INPS (form called EP-I/1). With patronato INAS who can assist the pensioner to check that their Italian pension is tax exempt or assist them to obtain a certificate of residence in order to apply for the the exemption.

Issues concerning the Australian taxing of certain Italian pensions received by Australian residents are clarified under taxation ruling IT2554.

For the purpose of establishing if part of the pension received should be excluded from the pensioner’s taxable income, INAS is recognised to be a foreign pension fund. Therefore a component of such payment is to be excluded from the taxable income (undeducted purchase price).

It is acknowledged that some Italian pension recipients who have retired in Australia may have difficulty in establishing with complete accuracy the total amount of the contributions which they made in Italy in past years and which constitute the “undeducted purchase price” of their pension.

In recognition of the difficulties experienced by pensioners in obtaining information relating to their contributions paid to INPS, it has been decided to accept the portion of the pension identified by INPS as being derived from the contributions made by the pensioner (reduced by 10% to reflect the interest in that component of the pension) as annual exclusion amount, this is the amount which may be excluded from the pensioner’s assessable income in any given year of income.

In order to calculate the component of taxable income, it’s necessary to be in possession of the article 10 form  which INPS sends out yearly. If this form has not been received you may contact INAS who is able to issue a copy.

You can lodge a request directly to the Australian Tax Office to calculate the deductible amount UPP using the form that can be downloaded from the following link.

Further in depth information:

Treaty Australia-Italy to avoid double taxation – Fiscal residence certificate – CUD (Certificazione Unica Dipendente) – Articolo 10 and esclusion of specific Italian payments – Taxation ruling IT2554

By law INPS is responsible to verify the annual income of pensioners which could influence the entitlement or the rate of pension, including income earned overseas, hence the obligation of lodging the RED/EST statement.

Red Est: when I am due to lodge?

Lodgement of form RED/EST is due when one of the following is received::

• minimum pension supplement
• invalid pension
• social services allowances and increases
• base pension amount and increases
• family allowances
• pension to survivors, both indirect and reversible
• increases to the pension or to the invalid pension paid to civilian invalids, blind or deaf under 65 years of age;
• additional amount in excess of 154.94 euro;
• services paid to civilian handicapped before turning 65 years of age;
• 14th pension payment.

Red Est: combined pension with income

The pension to survivors, (paid in the case in which holder  was already a pensioner at date of death) or indirect (paid when holder was still working),  requires the forwarding of form RED/EST, because, according to law, it is possible to combine the pension paid to survivors or indirect with other income of beneficiary, only until the following thresholds::

• if the pensioner’s income is 3 times higher than the minimum annual entitlement of the dependents workers’pension fund (Fpld), the percentage of the combined survivors payment is equal to 75%, in simple words, the survivor’s payment is reduced by 25% if the holder’s income exceeds 19,573.71euro (equal to 3 times the minimum payment of 2016 multiplied by 13 monthly payments);
• if the pensioner’s income is higher than 4 times the minimum annual payment Fpld, the combined percentage of survivors payment is equal to 60%: in actual fact the survivor’s payment is reduced by 40% if the pensioner’s income exceeds 26,098.28euro;
• if the pensioner’s income is higher than 5 timesthe minimum annual paymentil Fpld, the combined percentage of payment is equal to 50%: in actual fact the survivor’s payment is halved if the pensioner’s income exceeds 32,622.85

The 2020 Proof of Life campaign will commence on October 2020 and will end on February 2021. CitiBank will then send Proof of Life forms to pensioners domicile.

We encourage you to contact your local Patronato in order to have your completed Proof of Life form submitted electronically

Through CITI’s Agent Portal which INAS has access to, you no longer need to mail it to the designated P.O. Box in UK. Giving you immediate comfort and assurance that the Proof of Life information or certificate has been received and is being processed.

Who can authenticate my Life Certificate Form?

The Life Certificate Form may be authenticated by an official from the Italian Consulate/Italian Embassy, or alternatively by a public official recognised by the legislation of your country of residence.

What supporting documentation do I need to include?

CITI also asks that you provide ONE of the following documents:

a photocopy of a valid photo-identity document such as a passport, identity card or drivers licence (documents will not be returned).

Number for contacting CITI for assistence from Australia 1800 016798

Patronato INAS does not handle consular matters nor is it qualified to do so. However it offers an information and assistant service for applications to be lodged with concular offices, such as applications for Italian tax file numbers, variations to AIRE (Change of addness) and booking appointments.
Our diplomatic-consular offices have the tasks of ensuring that Italian interests outside the national boundaries are protected and offer multiple services which are furnished according to guidelines of art.97 of the Italian constitution which forsee impartiality, efficiency and transparency.
The consular network in Australia is comprised of the embassy in Canberra, two Consulates General in Melbourne and Sydney and three Consulates in Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth with staff from Italy. Each Consulate has a network of honorary consulates, which have many limited powers, Generally connected with the registration of births, marriages, deaths and the issue of passports.

All Italian citizens wishing to transfer their residence abroad for more than 12 months must register with the AIRE. This registration is necessary to access all the services provided by the Italian Consulate, vote for the elections in Italy, and avoid unnecessary taxes.

INAS does not handle directly this matter but you can register with AIRE online, through the Fast-it portal.

For more information, we recommend contacting the Italian Consulate of reference.

The repatriation unemployment subsidy is an economic benefit whose amount is calculated on the basis of the conventional salaries established by annual ministerial decrees. It is up to Italian citizens who have worked abroad (both in non-affiliated states and in EU states or conventions based on bilateral agreements and conventions) who have remained unemployed due to dismissal or failure to renew the seasonal work contract by the employer work abroad (foreign or Italian, working or residing abroad).

To access the subsidy, the Italian worker who has remained unemployed must meet the following requirements:

-be repatriated within 180 days from the date of termination of the employment relationship;

-have made the declaration of immediate availability to work within 30 days from the date of repatriation.

The application can be submitted at our offices in Italy by filling in the IT-AUS4 form

For those new to Australia, we recommend consulting the Nomit association page for information on how to get started.

If you plan to stay in Australia for more than 12 months, we recommend that you register with the A.I.R.E .. For more information, see our information sheet.

If you intend to return to Italy, we recommend that you contact us for more information about the repatriation unemployment subsidy.