Italy's Tax Amnesty Brings in $114 Billion

MILAN -- Requests by individuals to repatriate funds under a tax-amnesty plan launched in October totaled about €80 billion (about $114 billion) as of Dec. 15, a top government official said Tuesday.

Last week Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti said the government extended the tax amnesty plan to April 2010, in a move to collect more assets currently deposited out of the country, but increased the fee to be paid to 7% of the total value of the assets. Investors that repatriate assets by Feb. 28 will pay a 6% fee, the ministry said.

The Italian government in October launched the tax-amnesty plan, the third in the past eight years, which allowed Italians to repatriate funds deposited in tax havens out of Italy through Dec. 15. As part of the plan, people would have to pay a 5% fine on the total amount of assets repatriated and wouldn't have to declare how they earned the money. In November, Mr. Tremonti estimated windfall tax revenue for the government at up to €4 billion.

Small domestic asset managers as well as private-banking boutiques have benefited most from the flood of new funds, as Italy's two largest domestic retail banks -- Intesa Sanpaolo SpA and UniCredit SpA -- weren't able to attract large sums of assets deposited offshore, according to several people involved in the tax-amnesty plan.