Work is an individual’s primary financial resource, be they an employee, a professional or an entrepreneur: three different ways of ensuring a constant influx of money.
Clearly, if that same individual is a debtor who does not meet the deadlines agreed with a creditor, said creditor can take any legal action to collect the debt, and information about the debtor’s work status or workplace can be an important means to that end.
In addition to providing information on the work carried out by a debtor and an estimate of their gross annual salary, tracking a debtor’s workplace also provides legal information concerning their employer, in order to obtain a clear and complete picture of their employment position. This service also includes searches in the Registers of Companies of Chambers of Commerce in order to identify further elements such as corporate shareholdings and active Chamber of Commerce statuses.
The ultimate goal of a creditor is to track all sources of income or assets for court-ordered debt collection purposes, i.e. current accounts, real estate, motor vehicles and, of course, work revenues, so as to initiate legal proceedings to seize one fifth of the salary or pension. This situation has been recently revised by Italian Legislative Decree No. 83 of 27/6/2015, which has raised the maximum figure regarding seizure of one fifth of salaries and pensions alike.
By raising the threshold relating to the use of cash to €3,000, Italian Law 208/2015 (known as the 2016 Stability Law) allows private employees to be paid in cash up to an amount below that threshold, thus reducing the traceability of bank transactions. In this case, tracking a debtor’s workplace is fundamental for seizing third-party assets. This option does not apply to public employees, who must always be paid through a bank.
Lawyers also track people’s workplaces in cases of family law, in the event of a request to adjust maintenance allowance.