BS, not exactly like that in Germany, France, Spain, Italy etc.
Plenty of guys i know got letters of compliance for half that, usually they paid those (as they evaded way more 😛, nothing more followed). They all got them after some time, e.g. 2-3 years.
I call that half bulls**t.
A friend I know, Italian lawyer, told me it's true you don't︀ have to declare the donations in your tax return, but you still have to pay︁ a tax on the donations.
If it's between blood relatives there are low fees and︂ a tax-free exemption of like 1mln eur.
If it's not, then there's no exemption and︃ there's a fee to pay, like 6% of the amount 😵.
To call it a︄ donation it has to be declared as such by notary act.
If you give them︅ money by cash or wire transfer without declaring it, you will get in troubles for︆ this after a while.
e.g. he told me about wedding donations in cash/wires, that happens︇ frequently in Italy. The guests didn't declare them as donations and after years the married︈ couple got a letter from the tax authority for those undeclared amounts... they treated them︉ as if they were income... and had to pay taxes on that as they were︊ not registered as donation. 😱
Also the lawyer told me that the italian law doesn't say︋ the exact amount (donation between non-related people) over which taxes are due, but it says︌ something like "any valuable amount".
So it's a minefield even for lawyers. As sometimes 1k︍ is valuable enough, sometime is more.
long story short, they'll try to shaft you in︎ every way. it's more hellhole than you think.
