With its ruling n. 32255 issued on December 13, 2018 (“Ruling 32255”), the Italian Supreme Court, Fifth Department (Tax) held that a dividend paid by an Italian subsidiary to a parent company established in a EU Member State is not eligible for the dividend withholding tax exemption granted under the provisions of Directive 90/435/EC (the “EU Parent Subsidiary Directive”, transposed into Italian domestic tax law by way of article 27-bis of Italy’s Presidential Decree n.…

In 2017, Italy introduced a special tax regime intended to attract Italian and foreign nationals who have been resident outside of Italy for at least nine of the previous ten years, to transfer their tax residence to Italy and pay a fixed amount of €100,000 in lieu of the Italian regular income tax on their foreign source income. Taxpayers qualifying for the special regime are taxed on their Italian source income at usual graduated rates.…

The preferential tax regime for the new resident workers, enacted by way of Article 16 of the Legislative Decree 147 of 9/14/2015, is now permanent and extended to non-EU citizens and independent consultants and service providers (while, originally, it was limited to EU citizens working in an employee capacity). Given its wider scope and increasing relevance, for foreign enterprises which plan to move personnel to Italy, or foreign consultants who consider the opportunity to relocate…

The Italian Supreme Court with its ruling n. 25264 of October 25, 2017 (Cassazione n. 25264 of 10-25-2017) held that actual payment of the corporate income tax in the parent company’s home jurisdiction is required for the parent company to benefit from the dividend withholding tax relief under the EU Parent Subsidiary Directive (the “EU Directive”) or Italy-The Netherlands Double Tax Treaty (the “Treaty)”. FACTS Under the facts of the case, an Italian…

With its ruling n. 975 issued on January 18, 2018 Italy’s Supreme Court held that the transfer of an asset (real estate property) to an irrevocable trust falls outside the scope of Italy’s registration, cadastral and mortgage taxes (transfer taxes), charged at the aggregate rate of 10 percent, on the theory that it is a transitory step before the final transfer of the property to the beneficiaries of the trust actually occurs, at which time…

With the Budget Law for 2018 (Law n. 205 of December 27, 2017), Italy amended the definition of the term “permanent establishment” set forth in article 162 of the Italian Tax Code. The term permanent establishment now covers situations in which a foreign enterprise does not have a physical nexus with Italy, but it has a regular and continuous economic presence in the country; engages in ancillary activities that are an essential component of its…

As a result of the significant reduction of U.S. corporate income tax rates pursuant to the tax reform of the TCJA enacted on December 22, 2017, the Unites States now has a lower corporate tax rate than many of its trading partners, meaning that, in many instances, the profits of foreign owned or controlled-U.S. subsidiaries shall be taxed more favorably than the profits of their foreign parent companies or affiliates in their home jurisdictions. That…