Italy - Cross Border Ruling (c.d. C.B.R.) | Tax Connect Flash

On December 29th, 2015 the Italian Revenue Agency (Note n. 165827) established a desk dedicated to private VAT ruling requests relating to cross-border situations (“C.B.R.”).

Established within the framework of the EU VAT Forum, C.B.R. allows those planning cross-border transactions between two or more participating Member States to request a ruling with regard to the transactions they envisage.

The application of C.B.R. is not compulsory for each Member State. At present, the following Member States participate in this initiative: Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, France, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Hungary, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The initiative - which aims to promote a consistent application and interpretation of VAT regulations within the EU system - started in June 2013 and will be in force until September 2018 as a pilot project.

Requirements and procedures:

C.B.R. can be requested for complex transactions between two or more Member States.

The request concerns only the correct interpretation of the VAT treatment applicable to the transactions envisaged and should be written clearly and accurately. It must describe the specific case and the issues concerning the application of the VAT regime, as well as the alleged misalignment between the two or more participating Member States.

Requests concerning specific circumstances (for example, to prove the existence of a permanent establishment for VAT purposes) are not permitted.

Taxable persons planning cross-border transactions should present their request for a cross-border ruling in the participating Member State where they are registered for VAT purposes. If two or more companies are involved, the request should only be introduced by one of them, who will be understood to act on behalf of the others.

Such request should be written in Italian or English and should be accompanied by a translation into the official language of the other Member State(s) concerned.

The list of C.B.R. published so far is available on line, at the following link.

Cross-border requests to the Italian Revenue Agency are to be filed by e-mail to the following address: CBR@agenziaentrate.it

Taxable persons must accept that the data provided can be shared with the Tax authorities of the Member State(s) concerned.

Consultations between the competent authorities of the Member States do not guarantee that a C.B.R. can be delivered.