Italy Targets Luxury Car Owners

On Jan. 28, Milan’s high and mighty felt the heavy hand of the state. Police halted more than 350 high-end vehicles, mostly expensive SUVs and Porsches. At checkpoints, including one adjacent to the fashionable Corso Como, police got driver’s licenses and registrations, which they passed on to the national tax agency. The tax authorities will use the data to determine whether the cars’ owners had declared enough income (and paid the right amount of income taxes) to justify their lifestyles.

It was at least the fifth raid targeting wealthy Italians since a Dec. 30 sweep at the posh Cortina d’Ampezzo ski resort, where 251 cars were stopped. Rome, Portofino on the Italian Riviera, and Florence have also been targeted. “I’ve been stopped three times in the last few weeks by authorities because I’m driving a luxury SUV,” says Andrea, a Range Rover owner and entrepreneur in Italy’s wealthy northeast. “It seems like the McCarthy era in America. You’re guilty by suspicion.” The 43-year-old, who declined to give his last name for fear of attracting the attention of Italy’s tax agency, now plans to sell the SUV he bought last May. He expects to get at most €40,000 ($52,400) for a car that cost him more than €100,000. “Dealers are full of luxury cars. No one wants to buy them now,” the businessman says.