What practitioners should take away

Advising Italian families

For the Italian family the decisive change of the last decade is that the value of a Swiss relationship now lies in planning. The family's assets are declared, its accounts are reported to Rome and its succession will be scrutinized in both states. The adviser's first task is therefore to coordinate legal orders that remain different in their basic choices. Italian law protects the family through forced heirship and declares void, subject to the family pact, every agreement by which a person disposes of his future succession under Article 458 of the Codice civile.¹ Swiss law grants testators more freedom, and its revised rules of private international law on succession have applied since 1 January 2025.² An Italian national living in Ticino can choose Italian law for his succession, while a choice of Swiss law requires Swiss nationality. Where no choice is made, the place of habitual residence decides, and the documents must anticipate how both states will read it (Chapter E.V).

Residence is the second field. Since 2024 Article 2 of the Italian Consolidated Income Tax Act (Testo unico delle imposte sui redditi, TUIR) makes a person resident in Italy if his personal and family relations principally develop there or if he is present in Italy for the greater part of the tax period, counting fractions of a day.³ A Swiss permit and registration in the register of Italians abroad protect no one whose family or working days remain in Italy. The adviser who prepares a move to Ticino must therefore document the change of life from the first day and keep that documentation current. Trusts and foundations are the third field. They cannot defeat reserved shares, and Italy taxes distributions from foreign trusts under Articles 44 and 73 TUIR as explained in Circular No. 34/E of 20 October 2022.⁴ Legacy accounts and inherited assets, finally, require an analysis of Italian limitation periods, of the presumptions that Article 12 of Decree-Law No. 78 of 2009 attached to assets in former blacklisted states and of the penalties for omissions in the quadro RW (Chapter E.II).⁵

Advising trading houses

For the trading house the lesson of Part F is that substance is the condition of every advantage. Since TRAF and the Ticino reductions of 2020 and 2025, a Lugano trader pays an effective rate close to the international minimum, so that the tax saving is modest and the risk of losing it is real. The board must take its decisions in Lugano and document them, because Article 716a of the Code of Obligations assigns it nontransferable duties and Italian law tests the place of strategic and day-to-day management. The functions that justify the trader's margin under the OECD guidelines must be performed by people in Lugano. The house must also meet the due diligence duties for conflict minerals and child labour under Articles 964j to 964l CO where its size and products bring it within their scope.⁶

Sanctions compliance is the second condition. A Lugano trader is legally bound by Swiss law, but its Italian employees, its euro and dollar banks and its buyers in Lombardy bring the European and American regimes into its daily business. Chapter G.II recommended treating the strictest applicable standard as the working rule and documenting the lawfulness of any transaction that relies on a Swiss deviation. Access to trade finance is the third condition. After the frauds of 2020 the banks finance traders whose governance, counterparty screening and documentary discipline they trust, which favours houses that have invested in those functions (Chapter G.I).

Notes

1. Codice civile, Art. 458, text at Brocardi.it, https://www.brocardi.it/codice-civile/libro-secondo/titolo-i/capo-i/art458.html, as cited in Chapter E.V. ↩
2. Federal Act on Private International Law of 18 December 1987 (PILA), SR 291, Art. 86 ff., as revised by the amending act of 22 December 2023 with effect from 1 January 2025: Federal Council, press release "Internationales Erbrecht: Neue Regeln gelten ab dem 1. Januar 2025", 26 June 2024, https://www.admin.ch/gov/de/start/dokumentation/medienmitteilungen.msg-id-101602.html; PILA, Arts 90 and 91 as revised, https://lawbrary.ch/law/art/IPRG-v2025.01-en-art-90 and https://lawbrary.ch/law/art/IPRG-v2025.01-en-art-91, as cited in Chapter E.V. ↩
3. TUIR, Art. 2 para. 2, as amended by Art. 1 para. 1 of Legislative Decree No. 209 of 27 December 2023, text at Brocardi.it, https://brocardi.it/testo-unico-imposte-redditi/titolo-i/capo-i/art2.html, as cited in Chapter H.II. ↩
4. Agenzia delle Entrate, Circolare n. 34/E del 20 ottobre 2022, "Disciplina fiscale dei trust ai fini della imposizione diretta e indiretta", text at Dirittobancario.it, https://www.dirittobancario.it/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Circolare-Agenzia-delle-Entrate-20-ottobre-2022-n.-34-Trust.pdf, as cited in Chapter E.V. ↩
5. Art. 12 para. 2 DL 78/2009 as reproduced in Corte di Cassazione, order No. 2662 of 2 February 2018, summarized by Studio Cerbone, https://www.studiocerbone.com/?p=401961, as cited in Chapter E.II. ↩
6. Ordinance of 3 December 2021 on Due Diligence and Transparency in relation to Minerals and Metals from Conflict-Affected Areas and Child Labour (DDTrO), SR 221.433, at droit-bilingue.ch, https://www.droit-bilingue.ch/en-de/2/22/221.433-preamble-2.html. See Chapter F.II. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of August 2025.