How Italy taxes investments.

In every Italian portfolio there is a partner who never appears in the statements: the taxman. He draws on the fruits and on the differences, through two boxes that do not speak to each other; he changes weight according to the regime chosen — often by inertia — and the instrument used; and when the investment crosses the border he splits in two, withholding once at source and once at home. Whoever knows his rules turns him into a reasonable partner; whoever ignores them leaves him, every year, far more than is due.

This guide walks the subject with the method of the series: the rules of the game — the two boxes, the three regimes, the true mechanics of funds and ETFs, the cost of owning; tax across the border — the cascade on foreign dividends, the domicile of funds, the foreign broker, the succession of the instruments; and deliberate use — a complete case over twenty years, the loss backpack, the legitimate moves and the misunderstandings that cost the most.

It is an independent guide: it sells neither products nor regimes, and when a tax fashion does not stand up to arithmetic, it says so. It provides the foundations — the ones every investor should have before signing anything.