Italy’s tax administration published its report on Italian international tax ruling showing 52 applications and 19 agreements signed in the first five years of the program, half of which by foreign multinational enterprises.…

Italy’s tax administration issued a guideline according to which all foreign assets must be reported in Italy, including personal assets (such as vacation homes, yachts, jewelery) that do not generate any foreign income taxable in Italy. The new guideline is part of a general reinforcement of foreign assets reporting rules adopted in connection with the enactment of the new tax shield, which enables taxpayers to declare unreported foreign assets and income and pay a reduced tax (4 percent, increased to 5 percent for disclosure returns filed by February 28 and 6 percent for disclosure returns filed by April 30).…

The OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs has released as a discussion draft a Report on “The Granting of Treaty Benefits with respect to the Income of Collective Investment Vehicles”(PDF) which contains proposed changes to the Commentary on the OECD Model Tax Convention dealing with the question of the extent to which either collective investment vehicles (CIVs) or their investors are entitled to treaty benefits on income received by the CIVs.  The Report is a modified version of the Report “Granting of Treaty Benefits with respect to the Income of Collective Investment Vehicles” (PDF) of the Informal Consultative Group on the Taxation of Collective Investment Vehicles and Procedures for Tax Relief for Cross-Border Investors (“ICG”) which was released on 12 January 2009. In that original Report, the ICG addressed the legal and policy issues specific to CIVs and formulated a comprehensive set of recommendations addressing the issues presented by CIVs in the cross-border context.

Participation exemption rules do not apply to gains from sale of stock of passive intellectual property holding companies. For the exemption to applies, the company must be engaged in an active licensing business, which includes the active management and development of the intangibles and active licensing to third parties.…