It’s so rare to find something positive to talk about these days, we have to make the most of it. A new “social card” is being experimented in the major Italian cities. The card is given to the very poorest families with a credit which they can use to buy groceries and pay utility bills.

For those of you who don’t know, RW is the section of the Italian tax return which requires you to declare all assets held overseas, both property and investments. The penalties for failing to declare are extremely punitive, resulting in extreme cases to confiscation of the property itself.

Attentive readers will recall that as of January this year, the property tax ICI was replaced by a new tax, IMU. One difference is that the reduced rate of IMU (basically that for the prima casa) will apply “to only one property unit”.