About marchelive

Status:

Expatriate  

Gender:

Male

Currently Lives:

Citizen Of:

United States

Some Forum Posts:

Italy: Self-employed in Italy:

If you are an Italian citizen, self-employment is not nearly as bad as it sounds. In fact, there are programs in place to limit your taxes and help spur small business growth. Doing business as a sole proprietor is probably the easiest. This is exactly what my wife is doing. She has a tax id (partita iva), business name, and business bank account. While applying for her tax id, she learned of a small business program sponsored by the region. She registered for the program and was assigned a mentor. This person determined the feasibility of her business idea, offered suggestions, and helped her write a business plan. When it was ready, her mentor accompanied her to the bank where they both pitched the idea in hopes of getting a low interest business loan. The loan was approved for €25k. The program lasted about 3 months. During this time she was required to take classes that covered regulatory requirements, taxes, and accounting. Program participants were also encouraged to network and share ideas. Best of all, for the first 5 years, she only pays 5% tax on profits under €35k. And get this, she doesn't have to charge IVA (sales tax) to her clients for 5 years. That's an immediate savings to her clients. Finally, if you are not an Italian citizen, see if you can create a business entity in your home country that can do business in Italy. This is just and idea. I have no idea how that might work.

Italy: Clements Again Offering Auto Insurance:

I received an email from Clements saying they have a new underwriter in Italy. They are now offering requesting quotes with offers of 60% discount. Here is the link they provided: https://www.clements.com/portals/europe/motor/italy

Italy: School for kids and work for husband in Intaly:

Unless he's your stepson, he shouldn't need a permesso di soggiorno. As your son he can apply for citizenship. What's this about needing a work visa if you have Italian residency for family reasons? Really?! I had no idea that as an Italian resident I needed a visa to work. Are you certain?

Italy: Cons of living in Italy:

I guess the trash and animal issues must be a southern thing. I live in the province of Ancona and have yet to see a stray dog or any trash issues. whidden39, hunting is big business in Marche. It's popular with the young and old. Rabbits, pheasants, and wild boar are the favorite of hunters. Last the hunters from my small village bagged 150 cinghiale. That's some good eat'n!

Italy: Leaving my house in Italy by will:

Perhaps this is a bit off topic but just before our family made the permanent move to Italy, we met with a lawyer to draw up a will. We own property in Texas and Italy, and have investments that we want transferred to our son. As well as assign care for him if we passed while he was a minor. The attorney advised us to have the will drawn up in Italy to cover all assets. That "technically" our Texas will was only good if we remained Texas residents. It may or may not be recognized by another state or country. According to him, a will needs to be drawn where you have residency to ensure it be legally recognized. Maybe his interpretation was too literal. I wouldn't know.

Italy: Home security? Roma / Gypsy concerns.:

I'm using a US based company for video surveillance. It includes instant notification view email or it's proprietary app. The service is with www.foscamcloud.com I have three wireless IP cameras that connect to the internet via wifi. One indoor and two outdoor (front and back yard). My indoor camera can be remotely controlled to scan the room or listen and talk to people in the room. The outdoor cameras are fixed. All have night vision capability. I'm very happy with the service. It's nice to be able to check on the house in real-time when away on vacation.

Italy: Level/quality of health care in Italy:

Our family has been using public healthcare for over 3 yrs. At first I was a little worried. The bureaucracy of getting into the system didn't make me feel any better. Now that all our services are in place we are quite happy with the care we receive for both medical and dental (private dental office). We also use special care services for our 9 yr old son who was born with an orthopedic disability. Getting all services in place took a lot of footwork. Often times we felt like we were getting the run around but it all worked out. Compared to living in the US, our annual medical cost dropped 95%. Our son also qualifies for the Italian version of Social Security. Something we never qualified for in the US.

Italy: Converters (electrical):

I found this simple 45w converter on Amazon.it. I ordered it today to power a 30W audio soundbar. At only €13 I figured it's worth a try. http://www.amazon.it/dp/B001P47L9S

Italy: Broad band speed:

It depends where you live. I found that most home connections use ADSL. They have a download speed of 5Mb and a pathetic upload speed of 300k. 4g and Fiber are available in more populated areas and have extremely high speed. However many plans have a bandwidth limit. I was working remote for 9 months and found ADSL to be a huge problem. The upload speed made it difficult to use VOIP or send large email attachments. I changed to using my mobile phone as a wifi hotspot. That gave me around 6 Mb download and upload but I hit my 5Gb bandwidth limit and had to switch back to ADSL. I later added a KaSat dish which gave me a solid 6Mb upload and 15Mb download (85Gb mostly limit). The KaSat dish will function in any location that has clear visibility to the southern sky. It worked the best for my needs. Especially because I live in a rural community. I now use all three methods :) ADSL for software updates and online gaming. Mobile Wifi when I'm away from home. KaSat for everything else.

Italy: Applying for Citizenship in Italy:

I have a question about applying for Italian citizenship while already an Italian resident. I see I can apply online which is great. I've been living in Italy for 3 years and have been married by my native Italian wife since 2012. She and our son have dual citizenship. My question is about the criminal history. Do I request criminal history from the state where I last lived or at the federal level. The problem with the federal level is I must have fingerprints taken. I can't do that from Italy. I'm curious what others have submitted.

Date Joined:

11/27/2014

Total Posts:

60

Posts/Day:

0.07