Fiduciary Mandates

In cases where assets are placed under fiduciary mandate, the formal registration of the assets is the name of the fiduciary company. This results in a higher degree of confidentiality against third parties that are not authorized to access information regarding the beneficial ownership of the administered assets.

In the case of administered assets deposited or located outside of Italy, such as:

• bankable assets deposited with non-Italian banks
• managed accounts with non-Italian banks
• real estate located outside of Italy
• shareholdings in non-Italian joint-stock companies
• non-Italian insurance policies, etc.

the Client is exempt from reporting the administered assets in the ‘RW section’ of their tax return. Such reporting is ordinarily required by the regulations on ‘tax monitoring’ which apply to natural persons, non-commercial entities, simple partnerships and similar entities for investments directly held outside of Italy and non-Italian financial assets.

When required, the fiduciary company processes withholding taxes or substitute taxes as mandated by tax regulations on income derived from the administered assets.
For example, in administering non-Italian bank accounts -or Italian bank accounts the tax obligations of which are delegated to the fiduciary company- the fiduciary company pays the withholding taxes on capital income and/or miscellaneous income generated by the administered financial portfolios to the Italian Treasury.

As part of its tax agent activity, the fiduciary company offsets capital gains with any previous capital losses realized.

Unlike the tax substitution carried out by individual Italian banks – which process income taxation only on accounts opened with them – the fiduciary company has the notable advantage of being able to offset capital gains and losses under the mandate of the same Client, even when these gains and losses are realized with different intermediaries, whether Italian or non-Italian.

Unione Fiduciaria, with its accurate and timely accounting of capital loss balances, can be of great help in achieving significant tax optimizations, especially in the case of multi-custodian fiduciary mandates.

It is also useful to know that the optimization can be extended to capital gains from the sale of shareholdings (whether qualifying or non-qualifying) in unlisted joint-stock companies. In this case, as a withholding tax agent in the ‘administered savings regime’, the fiduciary company can offset the capital gains realized from sales of company shares it administers with any capital losses previously realized (or accounted for) under a fiduciary mandate.

In case of specific technical needs, Unione Fiduciaria may assume the role of an independent third party and custodian (or escrow agent).
In such instances, liquidity and/or other assets are placed under a fiduciary guarantee mandate. As part of this role, the fiduciary company is responsible for delivering these assets only to predetermined parties and/or releasing them upon the fulfillment of certain conditions.
This use of fiduciary mandates is often considered a more efficient alternative to pledging and is applied in a variety of contexts, such as the sale and purchase of company shares, holding deposits pending the resolution of disputes, guarantees on loans, guarantees on rent payments, guarantees on commercial contract payments, and more.

The Client has the right at any time to contact Unione Fiduciaria and provide written instructions regarding transactions to be executed on their administered assets.
In the case of the fiduciary administration of bankable assets, and where the contracts with the involved intermediaries allow, Unione Fiduciaria permits the use of an ‘administrative power of attorney.’ This power of attorney enables the Client to place buy and sell orders for financial instruments directly with the custodian bank, offering significant advantages in terms of agility and operational speed.
At any time, the Client also has the right to reclaim the administered assets.