European Union Tax Law

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The EU Directive n. 2015/849 (the “IV Directive”) on anti money laundering sets forth new provisions requiring financial institutions and professional individuals to verify their customers or clients by identifying the ultimate “beneficial owner” of an entity, legal arrangement or financial transaction; obtaining and conserving information about their customers and the ultimate beneficial owners, as…

Foreign trusts, with connections to Italy such as Italian located assets, beneficiaries or grantors, and aimed at producing legal and tax effects in Italy, will be subject to full disclosure in Italy including registration in the Italian public register of enterprises regardless of the fact that they are created and administered abroad and governed by foreign law. The disclosure obligation falls upon the trustee, even if residing abroad. Failure to disclose brings with it criminal and monetary penalties.

That is the result of the new transposition in to Italian law of the new EU anti money laundering directive.

The deadline for the implementation of the Directive in the law of the EU Member States is June 2017.

Foreign trustees of foreign trusts with connections to Italy must pay attention to the developments in this area of law.
Continue Reading Foreign Trusts Subject to Disclosure in Italy

The European Commission confirmed that Italian anti inversion rules treating foreign companies owned or controlled by Italian national and owning or controlling Italian companies as Italian resident companies subject to tax in Italy do not violate EC law to the extent that they are designed to combat tax evasion and provide taxpayers with a reasonable opportunity to rebut the tax residency presumption and treat the foreign company as foreign and outside Italian tax net…
Continue Reading European Commission Blesses Italy’s Anti-Inversion Rules

EU Council of Finance Ministers approved new draft legislation reinforcing exchange of tax information for contrasting tax evasion throughout the EU. The directive shall eliminate the banking secret and ultimately starting from 2015 the exchange of information will be automatic in several areas of tax law which fall within the scope of the directive.
Continue Reading EU Council of Finance Ministers Adopted New Draft Legislation on Exchange of Tax Information

On July 14, 2010 Marco Rossi presented a lecture on the European Union and EU tax law to candidates/students of Master of Science in Taxation at Fairfield University. We provided an overview of the European Union and its institutions, discussed the sources of EU law and the main developments in the area of EU statutory tax…

Italian tax administration rules that EU merger does qualify for tax free treatment under the EU merger directive if no permanent establishment in Italy exists after the merger…
Continue Reading EU Outbound Merger Not Eligible For Tax-Free Treatment if No Permanent Establishment in Italy After the Merger

The European Curt of Justice ruled that the parent subsidiary directive, which exempts from withholding tax dividends paid from a EU subsidiary to a EU parent, does not apply to dividends paid to the holder of a usufruct right on the shares.
Continue Reading EU Parent-Subsidiary Directive Does Not Apply to Dividends on Shares Held in Usufruct, ECJ Ruled

AG of ECJ issued his opinion in Aberdeen Property Fininvest Alpha, according to which no withholding tax should apply to dividends to a EU company (in the case, a Luxembourg investment fund SICAV) if no similar tax applies to a domestic dividend…
Continue Reading Withholding Tax on Outbound Dividends to a Luxemburg Investment SICAV Illegal, AG of the ECJ Says