Having just got back from UK...

...after spending Christmas with family I have to say I have not missed the English weather nor restaurant and bar prices.
Admittedly we did not come for the weather but having experienced more or less eight unbroken cold and rainy days we arrived back here and just woken up to 16 degrees with cloudless blue sky albeit the forecast for the next several days is unseasonably warm and dry.
Restaurant prices were a bit 'eye watering' too especially for drinks.

No wonder everyone is striking for pay rises!
Anyway happy New Year to you all and let's hope for a better 2023.

 

Where are you? Gotta say that same thing (sat happily in Bali)

 

The weather is the weather, but the high prices are down to the people who voted to leave the EU. No names, no pack drill.

 

Hope you have an earthquake free year

 

We went to our local Indian restaurant last night. The price increases were incredible. OK as a one-off for New Year’s Eve, but probably not a regular occurrence.

 

That's the thing that I noticed more than anything the first time I came back after Covid in summer 2021 - the price of eating out had literally doubled. I'm all for supporting local businesses but when you struggle to find a basic main course in most middle of the road places for under a tenner, you start to wonder if your coin could be better spent elsewhere. And I love eating out.

 

It's grim up north.

 

Hmmm! No one can argue that the whole Brexit thing has turned into a clusterf**k, but 'shoe-horning' moans about it in every post that some 'remain' voters seem to do is a bit tedious. This is especially tedious when blaming Brexit alone for the current price hikes and financial woes being experienced not only in the UK but throughout the EU, US, Canada (as our housesitters who live in Quebec and rely on electricity to heat their home can confirm) and many other countries Worldwide.
On the subject of Brexit, since you brought it up, another common myth pedalled is that Brexit has destroyed any hope of people from UK retiring abroad . This usually comes from people who have never even considered, and probably never would consider retiring abroad. With little or no regard for the facts, they also seem to believe that pre Brexit you could simply turn up and take up residence in any EU country. That was never the case and there were, and are, quite a few substantial hurdles to overcome (as I am sure Abruzzo Red will confirm) before you can take up permanent residence. Emigrating is not for the faint hearted! Nevertheless, important things like the individual tax treaties with different countries remain unaffected by Brexit.
Whilst one cannot deny it is harder to gain employment in Europe post Brexit with visas etc now required, many of the current obstacles are due to the economic downturn in the European powerhouses- France, Germany- rather than Brexit itself. Fewer vacancies abroad mean less opportunities for the locals never mind overseas workforce. After all there are plenty of retirees in the EU from third countries like Australia USA Canada etc.UK is particularly bad in as much as many people are not prepared to work in certain vital jobs due to the low wages and poor working conditions which again have arisen over more than a decade and long before Brexit. People who moan about low wages are often the same people who complain that Brexit discouraged migrants from coming here to fill those badly paid jobs, which is, I have to say, rather contradictory.

 

I can confirm it was a struggle to get residency in Italy sorted. The main obstacle was trying to get the Italian Consulate to understand that employed people in the UK pay taxes at source, and are not require to submit tax returns through an accountant, even our lawyer in Milan did not understand this and thought we all had accountants and submitted tax returns. I can only assume that this is down to leaving the EU and that the whole UK tax process was never an issue prior to leaving the EU and that the Consulate/Comune never had to understand the UK tax process: @Tekkytyke perhaps you may know if this was the case.

The best Christmas present for us was knowing that an agreement to swap our UK driving licenses for an Italian one without having to take a test and theory in Italian. My Italian is improving but no where near enough for understanding the Italian theory test. This agreement also means that we can now purchase a car of our choice and not be treated as a new driver in Italy and all that entails, ie limited horsepower for a car during the first year and an absolute zero alcohol tolerance for 3 years, whilst I would never drive under the influence, I like to have a glass of wine or a beer with my meal when out.

 

We abandoned our migration to Spain project 8 months ago after three years of owning a house there. With all the travel nausea combined with Third Country restrictions it just became impossible to think about moving there. I managed to live close to one year out of the three in the property but the stays were never more than extended holidays.

I suppose the biggest hurdle for most people is the financial rule that you must have a certain level of income before you even start the Residencia process. I don’t know the current requirement but it was way beyond most retired people’s income - nearly 30k per year. There are other hoops to jump through as well but, in the end, we sold up like many other UK ex-pats have done.

It was nice while it lasted but no one should ever be taken in by programs like A Place in the Sun. There’s a lot more to it than simply picking a property and away you go. You need to approach one of the coastal resorts by sea, in a small boat, if you want an uncomplicated entry.

 

Brexit in the U.K. is the driver for high prices so it’s not exactly shoehorning it in.

Living abroad now is a very distant pipe dream for anyone not wealthy. It’s doable and sone friends who live abroad managed it but it was a seemingly very painful process despite them being relatively well off

As an island we have destroyed our economic relationship with Europe and this is preventing growth and making everything more expensive and everyone poorer.

 

They sound like very sensible laws for new drivers. Can't we have them here?

 

Let me get this right

You came here from the EU and was shocked at how high our prices are compared to where you live in the EU. Someone pointed out this was due to Brexit and your reply was no it isn't, prices are high in the EU too.

Erm

 

Prices are relative. Italy like much of Europe has seen huge hikes in prices of many things. Inflation is at a similar rate to UK. How the respective Govt have handled energy cost increases for domestic users is a different matter though.

 

You need an accountant to handle your annual tax returns. For 2022 (run from Jan to Dec) these need completing by around June this year for the accountant to submit to the Agenzia Entrata. State pension is taxed in Italy and must be declared . You can submit UK bank statements highlighting the payments into you account. Public pensions are not taxed in Italy (forces teachers NHS police etc) and taxed in UK. Share dividends private pensions etc are taxed in Italy and must be declared. Property owned in UK or elsewhere must be declared and you pay an annual property tax. We pay 300 euros per year in total for both our tax returns but it is worth it since getting it wrong results in heavy fines.

 

Our issue was that the consulate didn’t understand the UK tax system. They were under the impression that we should be submitting tax returns in the UK on our military pay but as we were employed the tax is deducted at source and the annual P60 that we received from the MOD
was effectively our tax return.

We have an accountant in Italy for our tax issues and we are content with that, it was the UK tax thy was the issue.

 

GST (VAT) has just gone from 7%-8% yesterday and will go to 9% Jan 1st next year here in Singapore.
Prices here are rocketing up for everything here.
The Govt has shelled out Billions subsidising the tax increases.
Oddly they have the tag line "The GST increase is to help the poor" which is interesting as its counter to all the Economics I studied which had GST/VAT as a regressive tax which has the poorer folk paying a larger percentage of their income out in tax.
On the flip side , demand for housing and cars remains solid and prices at the highest ever.
Yet when you look around many businesses are closing and companies reducing headcount.

 

The P60 is sufficient for all income taxed in UK. State Pension copies of UK bank statements is fine assuming you have it paid into one and then transfer to Italy when FX rate is favourable)
It is not just the consulate that does not understand the UK taxation system. Most commercialistas in Italy don't either. We had a long ..ahem...discussion with ours (who 'moonlights' as a commercialista agency in his wife's name) whilst being the comune's accountant and financial official and knows the Italian taxation system inside out. However he kept insisting that the State Pension was not taxable in Italy but the UK and it took quite a while to convince him otherwise. We became aware that quite a few commercialistas were spouting the same nonsense and that their UK clients were not declaring it on their annual returns. Many got way with it for a number of years but the UK revenue and Italian authorities now share information and during the Pandemic, Italy conducted random audits of UK migrants accounts going back 10 2014. I suspect a number of Brits may have fallen foul of the error and the fines are quite substantial for incorrect returns or failure to declare. My wife was audited and they tried, on a separate issue to claim monies from a savings we encashed as undeclared income and and imposed capital gains tax on the whole amount plus a large fine. Our accountant challenged them and demonstrated that the financial return of the amount paid in over 40 years could not be calculated due to inflation etc. and they ultimately relented. The concept of Worldwide income applies so there is a 0.06% property tax on the value of any overseas property regardless of whether or or not you rent it out. You would also have to pay Italian tax on the income from that rental, hence why we sold up in the UK and made a clean break. Share dividends and savings pots also have a annual tax imposed.
It is also interesting to note that Agenzia Entrata officials work under a bonus scheme - the more 'fines' they can generate the bigger the bonus!. Our accountant tells us to never contact them direct on any matter ... "they are cunning" he said . The advantage you do have is that you both benefit from UK tax allowance on your public pension and State Pension liablity in Italy is relatively low so most of it will qualify for the tax free zone allowance that applies to low income returns in Italy. Of course the Tx bill will include local and regional taxes on top which vary from Region to region. Whilst all that sound horrendous, ultimately a decent accountant will save you money even if you have to pay 300-500 euros a year to sort it and your tax bills will not be that high. On a gross income of around £36k (pounds) between 2 people with tax liabilities divided between 2 countries annual tax should be a ball park figure of around 2000-2300 euros.

 

So the problem was always our own government. Who’d have thunk that! We’ve really taken back control eh.