Italian regulations on capital gain taxes

All financial income received by an Italian resident individual investor will be subject to a tax rate of 26% (decreto legge 66/2014 and coordinated conversion law 89/2014). This general rule does not apply to financial income from investments in Italian Government securities (bonds and other securities pursuant to art. 31 DPR 601/1973) and equivalent products resulting from Government securities of foreign states belonging to the White List. These products shall continue to be subject to a reduced tax rate of 12.5%.

Italian tax laws impose the withholding at source on ETFs that are collective investment schemes (UCITS). This designation is applicable to the ETFs currently listed on the Italian Stock Exchange Market ETFPlus.

  •  Withholding rate of 26% for ETFs listed on the Italian Stock exchange market (IBKR market symbol: BVME.ETF) is taxed at source.

Tax on capital gains for stocks is applied as follows:

  • Customers with Italy as their country of residence (or as country of incorporation in case of entity accounts) who are trading in stocks are subject to capital gain tax. As IBKR applies the Regime Dichiarativo only, IBKR is not required to withhold capital gain taxes from customer accounts directly. Customers would be responsible to discuss with their tax advisor on their individual reporting requirements in accordance with Italian laws. 

Available IBKR exchanges for Italian markets:

  • BVME: Available to all IBKR customers for Italian stocks.
  • BVME.ETF: ETFs that are collective investment schemes (UCITS) listed on the ETFPlus market are not available to Italian residents to trade.