The topic of the intervention of the fixed establishment for VAT purposes has interpretative profiles of remarkable complexity and the recent statements of the Revenue Agency on the matter do not help to remove doubts.
A few months after Ruling No. 57/2023 concerning a branch involved in intra-Community supplies of goods, in its recent Ruling No. 336/2023 the Revenue Agency was asked to give its opinion on an Italian branch of a Luxembourg company engaged in the activity of individual portfolio management.
Contrary to the interpretative solution put forward by the taxpayer, the Revenue Agency concluded that, in the case examined, the fixed establishment intervenes in the transactions carried out with Italian clients, playing an active and qualifying role that is prodromal to the subsequent individual portfolio management activity carried out by the head office.
It is nonetheless understood that the involvement of the fixed establishment must be assessed on a case-by-case basis, and it is therefore necessary to properly analyse both the individual transactions carried out with Italian clients and the degree of involvement of the human and technical means with which the branch is equipped.