BEPS Action 15: Release of Multilateral Instrument

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Published in: Journal - Intertax (Issue 45.3)

The release of the Multilateral Instrument constitutes an important step towards the most significant re-write of international tax rules in a century. It is the multilateral convention enabling the simultaneous amendment of more than 3,000 existing bilateral conventions for the avoidance of double taxation. It aims at eliminating loopholes and mismatches among them, which are susceptible to allow aggressive tax planning.
In thirty-nine articles, it implements measures indicated in Actions 2, 6, 7 and 14 of the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project, regarding hybrid mismatches, treaty abuse, artificial avoidance of permanent establishment status and dispute resolution of international tax disputes.

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Tax Intermediaries Disincentives: Discrimination on the Basis of Profession?

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On 16 February 2017 the Public Consultation on the proposed introduction of rules at EU level to disincentivize promotion of aggressive tax planning schemes was closed.
The rules under consideration focus on a Mandatory Disclosure Regime (MDR) – referred to also as a Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes (DOTAS) regime. Under such rules, tax advisers and tax intermediaries would be required to notify tax authorities on tax structures which could be considered aggressive or abusive, howsoever such terms may be defined.

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Automatic Information Exchange Comes to Italy

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Published in: TP Week

In December 2016, the Italian Council of Ministers presented to Parliament the Draft Legislative Decree for the implementation of Directive 2015/2376/EU.
The decree sets out automatic exchange of information in the field of taxation, in particular with respect to advance cross-border rulings and advance pricing agreements (APAs).

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BEPS and Emerging Economies. How Global Is the BEPS Project?

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Published in: IAFEI Quarterly 35th Issue

The international tax system is undergoing complete renovation. Base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) is the evil that must be curbed, reduced, most desirably totally eradicated on a worldwide scale.
To this end, the OECD and the G20 crafted the BEPS Project, launched in 2013 with the OECD’s report “Addressing Base Erosion and Profit Shifting”. It targets identified deficiencies in national and international tax rules leaving room for loopholes and mismatches.
These are exploited through aggressive tax planning by taxpayers wishing to minimize their tax burden with the (obvious) consequence that countries’ taxable bases are minimized as well.

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Tax Rulings and Advance Pricing Agreements in Italy

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Published in: Tax Notes Int'l, Jan 30 2017

Tax rulings and advance pricing agreements are making headlines. The European Commission is undertaking unprecedented investigations into member states’ APAs with multinationals and has recently invalidated several of them based on fiscal state aid law. The directive on mandatory automatic exchange of information (AEOI) in the field of taxation has recently been extended to advance cross-border rulings and APAs.

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Changing the Italian Tax System

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Italy has embarked upon the challenging task of redesigning its tax system. The Act of late November 2016 (hereinafter, “Act”) constitutes a best-practices example, or at least for our Country.
The above Act illustrates the national fiscal policy for the coming 3-year period, i.e., for 2017 – 2019, specifying the primary objectives and the guidelines for their pursuit. 

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Suitable TP Documents Could Prevent Penalties in Italy: But What Is “Suitable”?

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Published in: TP Week

Multinationals with activities in Italy can get rid of penalties for tax avoidance if they opt to supply the Italian revenue authorities with comprehensive transfer pricing TP documents supporting their group’s TP policies.
Antonella Della Rovere and Federico Vincenti of Valente Associati GEB Partners explain how this works in practice.

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Fair and Efficient Taxation in the EU. Convergence is Needed

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A global silver alert for fair and efficient tax systems is active already for a couple of years.

The heated debate sparked all over the world has engaged national governments, NGOs, international organizations as well as each and every taxpayer – or tax evader.
The EU has been driving the discussions and – most importantly – the actions to remedy the deficiencies of the current international tax system.
One of its most recent and valuable contributions is the substantiation of fairness and efficiency in taxation through the survey “Tax Policies in the European Union” published in November 2016.

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Transfer Pricing and Business Restructuring

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L’OCSE in data 4 luglio 2016 ha pubblicato un documento for public review “Conforming Amendments to Chapter IX of the Transfer Pricing Guidelines” con il quale si richiede alle parti interessate di rivedere le proposte di consolidamento delle misure BEPS nell’ambito del Cap. 9 delle Transfer Pricing Guidelines, concernente le business restructuring, al fine di eliminare eventuali incoerenze o duplicazioni nelle disposizioni previste.

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Tax Risk Management - The Italian Approach

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Published in: Tax Notes International (October 24)

Tax risk management has been at the center of a growing number of heated debates worldwide not only in the boardrooms of multinationals, but also among government officials, tax authorities, international organizations, taxpayers, and society in general.
These deliberations are not surprising, considering the pressing need for fairer taxation, improved compliance, better evidence of compliance, increased transparency, and more accurate disclosures.

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Residence of Individuals Under Italian, International and EU Laws

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Under Italian legislation, the tax residence of individuals is regulated by Article 2 of the TUIR (i.e., Italian Income Tax Code, hereinafter "TUIR"), which refers, in particular, to two key aspects:
1. A basis for acknowledgment of tax residence in Italy (Article 2, paragraph 2 of the TUIR);
2. A presumption of residence in Italy for individuals having transferred their residence in so-called "tax havens" (Article 2, paragraph 2-bis of the TUIR).

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