History
The Guardia di Finanza was founded on 5 October 1774, with the establishment of the "Light Troops Legion" by order of Victor Amadeus III, the King of Sardinia.
It is the first example of a special Corps in Italy for the monitoring of crossborder transactions and for military defence. In 1862, the "Customs Guards Corps" was set up to for customs monitoring and for the defence of Italian State during wartime. With the introduction of Law 141/1881, the Corps was given a new name "Royal Guardia di Finanza Corps" and took on the function of " ... preventing, suppressing and reporting contraband and any offences and any contravention and transgression to legal and financial regulations...", to safeguard the interests of the Financial Authority and to assist in the maintenance of public order and security.
The use of 5 point stars was granted to the Corps by virtue of Royal Decree 14/07/1907, although the Guardia di Finanza was not granted official military status by the Army until one year later, with the introduction of Law 12/07/1908. Having served with great valour in the two world wars and in the Italian Liberation, the Corps received eighteen decorations, which were pinned to the War Flag, granted in 1914 to mark its integration with the Italian Armed Forces (the Corps would subsequently take part in numerous rescue operations during the course of serious natural disasters and receive a further thirteen decorations for Civil Valour).
The reorganisation of the Police Forces in 1919 also included the Royal Guardia di Finanza. The Investigative Tax Police was founded in 1923 as a special branch of the Royal Guardia di Finanza Corps. Its naval fleet, vehicle pool and the organisation of its telecommunications were radically transformed over the course of just a few years; the Statistics Service, with a data processing centre, was set up alongside the Air Service and Dog-handling Service.
The general Corps installation was set up in the same period and would later be codified by the law of 1959.
Law 189/59 sets out the institutional duties of the Corps, which would be subsequently amended by sector provisions, assigning specific responsibilities. In addition to the reform of its organisational structure, set out by Presidential
Decree 34/99, the amendment of institutional duties was completed. In confirmation of the Corps' military status, Legislative Decree 68/2001 enhanced its role as a Police Force, granting it powers to enforce economic and financial law for the safeguarding of the public budget and that of the Italian regions, Local Authorities and the European Union.
A collection of early Corps items is on display at the Guardia di Finanza History Museum, a financially autonomous Non-Profit Organisation, which, in collaboration with the General Headquarters, oversees the conservation of museum exhibits and promotes historical research.