There are several paths to applying for Italian citizenship, however, citizenship by descent remains one of the most popular ways that many Americans with Italian descent have pursued in recent years.

As a general rule, you can apply for citizenship by descent if your ancestor who was born in Italy was never naturalized or was naturalized after his/her child’s birth abroad, and if none of your ascendants in your direct line of descent ever formally renounced their right to Italian citizenship.

Nevertheless, please note that there are a number of exceptions to these rules. If you would like to learn more about these feel free to read more information here.

In order to apply for Italian citizenship, you will need your family’s vital records. These include birth, marriage, death, and divorce certificates (if applicable) and the ancestor’s naturalization records or proof that he/she was never naturalized.

Once all the vital records have been collected they will need to be authenticated with Apostilles and they will then need to be translated into Italian and submitted to the Italian consulate that covers the jurisdiction where you reside.

When the citizenship application is approved, you will be granted Italian citizenship, you will be registered with the AIRE (Registry of Italian Citizens Residing Abroad) and will then be issued an Italian passport.

Despite the process sounding quite daunting, there are several advantages to holding dual citizenship such as the ability to travel, study or work anywhere in the European Union without any time limitation.

Italian citizens can also benefit from high quality, low cost universal health care and higher education.

Finally, you can reside in Italy for an unlimited period of time and enjoy the country’s lifestyle, its fascinating culture, art and history.

There is no need to move abroad to find different cultures, nowadays almost all corporations have a global, mixed cultures environment.

There may be a situation where an American company is managed by American executives, but it is owned by a Japanese holding, engineering is directed by a German engineer and purchasing is coordinated by a Korean director (that’s the case of one of my biggest customers for example). It is important to understand the different business cultures of the people.

“An easily understood cheat sheet that helps anyone in need of an uncomplicated guide to international business practices in various cultures”.

As an Italian in USA, I had several experiences where I had to win the trust of the customers, hurt in the past by bad Italian habits. The most significant for me was in 1998.

The customer told me: “I had very bad and frustrating experiences with the Italians in the past, it is impossible to have answers on time, they show up asking for business and then they disappear. You visited us six times in about a year and a half, you always replied to our requests on a timely manner, quoted what we asked, and now you are planning to open a warehouse in US to better serve the market. This is showing reliability and commitment, now I trust you and I am ready to work with you”.

It is vital trying not to impose our own way of working, but adapt to the local mindsets in order to expand internationally. The real challenge is to understand, interpret, and translate between business cultures.

I wrote about adapting to different world cultures and the necessary steps to open and run a subsidiary overseas while doing business internationally in my book TRANSLATING BUSINESS (Amazon)

CLEVERTECH, a leading company in the industrial automation market,has recently opened a new North American location in beautiful Fort Myers, Florida. The 29,000 sq ft facility is to better serve our U.S. clients more efficiently and with a larger number of spare parts.

With offices in Europe and Asia, our global presence and network allow us to offer worldwide customer service and certified software and electrical technicians.

In addition to assembling machines for the North American market, our new facility allows us to run FAT (Factory Acceptance Test). In the near future, we hope to manufacture machines for the U.S. and design a showroom with mockup training.

In addition to fifty external technicians who cover the entire U.S., Canada, and South American, our office in Fort Myers has in-house professional managers and technicians and offers impeccable 24/7 customer service to meet any and all support requests, whether commercial or technical and can be at your location within 24 hours.

CLEVERTECH North America’s incredibly knowledgeable staff assists customers with machine sales, system design, design support, testing, installation, and commissioning of systems, after-sales, and spare parts support.

In addition, local technical support provided by American technicians allows the most complex and difficult customer requests to be met and the presence of a spare parts warehouse in North America ensures reduced delivery times for quick turnaround.

Contact us for more information at 239-301-4445 or info.us@clevertech-group.com.

SanificaAria, the company’s air sanitization system, is Beghelli’s response to COVID-19. Developed at the company’s headquarters in Bologna, Italy, SanificaAria consists of an axial fan intake system that draws contaminated air inside of the closed chamber containing the UV-C source, where the sanitization process takes place.

Proven to kill 99.9% of viruses and bacteria, including COVID-19, SanificaAria can be used in any indoor enclosed environment. The sanitization system comes in two sizes; SanificaAria 30 is perfect for small, personal spaces, while the SanificaAria 200 is a better solutionfor larger, industrial spaces like hospitals, schools and restaurants. The systems are quiet, produce no ozone, can be used in the presence of people and are the perfect step towards providing a healthier personal environment.

*As an added bonus, Beghelli would like to offer 15% off any SanificaAria purchase with code Italy15.

For more information on SanificaAria, visit sanificaaria.net.

The Italian WAM GROUP, worldwide leader in designing and manufacturing equipment and plant components for bulk solids handling and processing, has been represented in the United States by its own subsidiary since 1985.

WAM USA Inc. is responsible for distribution of the WAM GROUP product range in the U.S. and Canada.

WAM USA Inc. moved in its Georgia Division in 1998 in a fast-developing industrial estate in Lawrenceville near Atlanta, with a large production and warehouse area.

The Georgia plant produces WAM standard screw conveyors and dust collectors in large quantities adapted to the requirements of the U.S. market.

In 2002 WAM USA Inc. opened its Texas Division in Fort Worth.

This facility was selected as a central location to better serve the Southwest, Midwest and West Coast customer base.

In 2021 we couldn’t be more proud to announce the 40,000 sq ft expansion of our Georgia facility, we will be doubling the footprint from its existing approximate 50,000 sq. ft. to approximately 90,000 sq. ft. 

The expansion will include increased space for offices to accommodate the growing workforce, a show room, a new training room and a cafeteria.

The expected completion date is March 31^st, 2022.

The IRS treats Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as “property”. Therefore, they are treated like capital gains treatment similar to traditional assets like stocks and bonds.

In some cases, anyway, they are treated as income, so they are subject to income tax.

Some examples:

if cryptocurrency is received through a marketing promotion it is considered: taxable income;

if it’s received as payment for goods or services, it is considered taxable income;

if it’s sold to realize an investment gain, taxes are owed on the gain, as it happens with stocks.

Also, if one cryptocurrency is converted into another, taxes are owed on any gains on the transactions. Taxes are owed only if you realize a profit.

For example, if you buy 100$ in cryptocurrency and sell it at 150$, you have a gain of 150$ and that would be the taxable gain for IRS. If you buy $100 and sell it for $80 you don’t have to pay taxes. You could even utilize the loss to compensate for other investment gains.

The amount of taxes on capital gains also depends on how long you’ve held the cryptocurrency.

If it’s less than one year, the profits are considered short-term capital gains. They would be taxed at the normal income tax rate.

If it’s more than one year, the profits would be considered long-term capital gains, and they would be taxed at another rate, lower, which depends on the annual income you have.

Our offices are at your disposal for more information:

info@italiancpa.com

www.italiancpafirms.com

The new Biden administration was sworn on January 20, 2021 and quickly began implementing its agenda of measures intended to contrast the health and economic fallout caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is possible that, when the COVID-19 emergency has settled, the Biden administration may turn its attention to making changes to some key tax provisions. Some of these possible changes as they were announced are summarized below.

Individual Income Tax

The current top rate for individuals’ federal income tax is 37%. The Biden camp has proposed to raise such rate to 39.6% for taxpayers whose income exceeds $400,000. Also, long term capital gains which currently enjoy a favorable reduced rate of 20% would be taxed at the applicable ordinary income tax rate.

Corporate Income Tax

One of the TCJA’s most publicized changes was the introduction of a flat 21% rate for corporations’ income. During his campaign, President Biden proposed to raise such rate to 28%. Also, income derived abroad by U.S. corporations will continue being subject to the minimum tax regime established under the GILTI provisions of the TCJA. The GILTI minimum rate would increase from 10.5% to 21% under a proposal of the Biden camp.

Estate Tax

The estate tax has been one of the areas in which the two candidates’ differences became more apparent. The TCJA had introduced a historically high exemption for the estate tax, currently standing at $11.7 million for U.S. domiciliaries, which thanks to a portability provision can be effectively doubled for spouses. The Biden camp proposed to reduce the estate tax exemption to $3.5 million and to increase the top estate tax rate to 45%. Another proposal suggested that there would no longer be a free “step-up” in the basis of capital assets held at death or that there would be automatic income realization at death. There has been no mention of changes to the very low ($60,000) exemption currently applicable to non-U.S. domiciliaries.