On December 18, 2017 the European Commission announced that it opened a has opened an in-depth investigation into the Dutch tax treatment of Inter IKEA. On March 27, 2018 the non-confidential/public version of this decision was made available in the State Aid Register on the European Commission's competition website.

the European Commission is going to investigate whether the transfer prices agreed upon reflect economic reality (in line with arrangements that take place under comparable conditions between independent companies). Therefore the European Commission is going to investigate two tax rulings that Inter IKEA Systems concluded with the Dutch tax authorities. On ruling stems from 2006, the second one from 2011.

On March 22, 2018 the OECD released a report providing additional guidance on the attribution of profits to permanent establishments (BEPS Action 7).

The report contains additional guidance on the attribution of profits to permanent establishments resulting from the changes in the Report on BEPS Action 7 to Article 5 of the OECD Model Tax Convention. The additional guidance sets out high-level general principles for the attribution of profits to permanent establishments arising under Article 5, Paragraph 5, in accordance with applicable treaty provisions. It also includes additional guidance related to permanent establishments created as a result of the changes to Article 5, Paragraph 4.

On March 22, 2018 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) judged in joined Cases C‑327/16 (Marc Jacob versus Ministre des Finances et des Comptes publics) and C‑421/16 (Ministre des Finances et des Comptes publics versus Marc Lassus) (ECLI:EU:C:2018:210).

These requests for a preliminary ruling concern the interpretation of Article 8 of Council Directive 90/434/EEC of 23 July 1990 on the common system of taxation applicable to mergers, divisions, transfers of assets and exchanges of shares concerning companies of different Member States (OJ 1990 L 225, p. 1), as amended by the Act concerning the conditions of accession of the Kingdom of Norway, the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Finland and the Kingdom of Sweden (OJ 1994 C 241, p. 21), as adjusted by Decision 95/1/EC, Euratom, ECSC of the Council of the European Union of 1 January 1995 (OJ 1995 L 1, p. 1) (‘the Merger Directive’), and Article 49 TFEU. 

The requests have been made in the course of proceedings between, in the first case, Mr Marc Jacob and the ministre des Finances et des Comptes publics (Minister for Finance and Public Accounts, France) (‘the tax authorities’) and, in the second case, the tax authorities and Mr Marc Lassus, in relation to the tax authorities’ decisions to tax the capital gains resulting from an exchange of securities upon the subsequent transfer of the securities received.

On March 22, 2018 Slovenia deposited its instrument of ratification. Earlier the Republic of Austria, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Poland already deposited their instruments of ratification. Therefore Slovenia is the fifth jurisdiction to deposit its instrument of ratification. Based on Article 34 of the MLI, the MLI will therefore enter into force on July 1, 2018.

On March 22, 2018 on the website of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) the opinion of Advocate General Wahl in the Case C-648/16, Fortunata Silvia Fontana versus Agenzia delle Entrate - Direzione provinciale di Reggio Calabria (ECLI:EU:C:2018:213) was published.

From introductory remarks made by the Advocate General

Do the provisions of Council Directive 2006/112/EC of 28 November 2006 on the common system of value added tax and the principles governing the VAT system preclude national legislation that allows the authorities to assess the tax due by a taxpayer presumed to have underdeclared VAT through an inductive method based on sectoral studies which estimate the likely revenues of certain categories of taxpayer?

 

That is, in a nutshell, the question raised by the present proceedings referred by the Commissione tributaria provinciale di Reggio Calabria (Reggio Calabria Provincial Tax Court, Italy).

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