Överenskommelse den 29 april 1997 om administrativ assistans mellan Sverige och Italien

1. Automatic exchange

The Competent Authorities of the two States shall exchange automatically all information available in the framework of the regular administrative procedure, and which is necessary for the taxation of their respective taxpayers, insofar as this information is related to the following categories of income:

1. salaries, wages, fees, pensions and annuities as defined in Articles 15, 18 and 19 of the Convention paid by residents in one of the Contracting States to residents in the other State;

2. income from immovable property as defined in Article 6 of the Convention;

3. business profits as defined in Article 7 of the Convention;

4. dividends as defined in Article 10 of the Convention;

5. interest as defined in Article 11 of the Convention;

6. royalties as defined in Article 12 of the Convention;

7. capital gains as defined in Article 13 of the Convention;

8. payments, commissions and other remunerations for independent personal services as defined in Article 14 of the Convention;

9. director’s fees and other similar payments as defined in Article 16 of the Convention;

10. remunerations paid to artists and athletes as defined in Article 17 of the Convention.

2. Spontaneous exchange

The Competent Authority of each State shall supply, without any specific request, the Competent Authority of the other State with information – being available during examinations or controls of its taxpayers and concerning residents of that other Country – which would be of interest for the correct assessment of taxes on income of said residents.

3. Common provisions

The Competent Authorities agree that reciprocity is a fundamental aspect of the mutual assistance and decide to maintain continually an atmosphere of co-operation in the exchange of information subject to the provisions of the Convention and of the Directive, in order to ensure an implementation keeping with the principle of reciprocity.

The Competent Authorities also agree that use of information exchanged is possible within the limits and on the terms provided for by Article 27 of the Sweden-Italy Convention, and by Article 7, with specific reference to paragraph 3, and Article 8 of the aforesaid Directive. To prevent unauthorized disclosure, the Competent Authorities will note on all information exchanged that its use and disclosure must be governed in accordance with the terms of the above-mentioned Convention and EC Directive.

For the purposes of this Agreement the competent Authorities are:

In Sweden:

National Tax Board

International Department

S – 171 94 SOLNA

In Italy:

Ministero delle Finanze, Segretariato Generale,

Ufficio per gli Studi di Diritto Tributario

Comparato e per le Relazioni Internazionali,

viale dell’Aeronautica 122 – 00144 ROMA-EUR (Italia).

4. Entry into force

This Working Agreement shall enter into force from 1 st January, 1998.

This Working Agreement may be modified at any time by understanding between the Competent Authorities.

I – Definition and legal basis

For the purpose of the Agreement the expression ”simultaneous tax examination” means an examination undertaken by virtue of arrangement between the two Contracting States to examine simultaneously and independently, each on its own territory, the tax affairs of (a) taxpayer(s) in which they have a common or related interest, with a view to exchanging any relevant information which they so obtain.

The simultaneous tax examination shall be conducted under the Exchange of Information Article 27 of the Swedish-Italian Convention of 6th March, 1980, for the avoidance of double taxation, with reference to the EC Council Directive 77/799 of 19 December 1977, as far as the taxes covered by Article 1, paragraphs 3 and 4 of the said Directive are concerned.

The exchange of information used by virtue of the Agreement must be performed within the scope and under the provisions of above-mentioned Article 27, as well as under Article 7, with specific reference to paragraph 3,and Article 8 of said Directive.

Any exchange of information which follows from such examinations either on request or spontaneous will be made through the competent authorities.

II – Objectives

The main purpose of simultaneous tax examinations is ”inter alia”:

1. To determine a taxpayer’s correct liability in cases where:

   • costs are shared or charged and profits are allocated between taxpayers in different taxing jurisdictions or more generally transfer pricing issues are involved;

   • apparent tax avoidance or evasion techniques or patterns involving substance versus form transactions, controlled financing schemes, price manipulations, cost allocations or tax shelters are identified;

   • unreported income, money laundering, kickbacks, bribes, illegal payments, etc. are identified;

   • transactions with tax havens and tax avoidance or evasion schemes involving tax havens are identified.

2. To facilitate an exchange information on:

   • multinational business practices, complex transactions, fiscal examination issues and fiscal non-compliance trends that may be particular to an industry or group of industries;

   • cost sharing arrangements;

   • on profit allocation methods in special fields such as global trading and new financial instruments.

A simultaneous tax examination is not intended to be a substitute for the Mutual Agreement Procedure provided for under Article 26 of the Tax Convention.

III Case selection and examination procedure

1. The Competent Authority of each State will identify independently taxpayers it intends to propose for a simultaneous examination.

2. The Competent Authority of each State will inform its counterpart in the other State of its respective choice of potential cases for simultaneous examinations using the selection criteria described below. It will explain, as far as possible, why it has chosen these cases and provide the information leading to its proposals, together with any other relevant information, as well as its statute of limitation applicable to the cases proposed for simultaneous examinations.

3. Each State will determine if it wishes to participate in a simultaneous examination.

4. The Competent Authority requested to participate in a simultaneous examination will consider the information in conjunction with information from its own sources and will confirm in writing to its counterpart its agreement or refusal to undertake a specific simultaneous tax examination (mentioning the taxpayers, taxes and tax years involved). Before making its confirmation the Competent Authority will seek to obtain any information that it requires in order to reach a decision, either under its domestic laws or under the provisions of the appropriate Exchange of Information Article 27 of the Tax Convention, as well as under the provisions of the EC Directive 77/799.

   The same Competent Authority will indicate a designated representative who will have functional responsibility for directing and coordinating the examination. The proposing Competent Authority will also indicate in writing a designated representative.

   The Competent Authorities may then present to each other requests for exchange of information or provide each other with information spontaneously under and in conformity with the provisions of the Tax Convention and of the EC Directive 77/799.

5. The designated representatives of the competent authorities will take care of the practical aspects of the simultaneous examination (timetable, mode and periods to examine).

6. The prerequisite and therefore essential condition of selection is that the tax years will be open for examination in the two States interested in having a simultaneous examination.

IV – Criteria for case selection

Any case selected for a simultaneous examination will generally involve a taxpayer or taxpayers having operations either through associated enterprises or through permanent establishments in the two Contracting States. The criteria taken into consideration in determining whether a case is selected for simultaneous tax examination may include, inter alia:

1. the scale of its worldwide operations;

2. the extent of intragroup transactions;

3. available indications of:

   • tax avoidance and evasion;

   • substantial non-compliance of tax law in the Contracting States;

   • manipulation of transfer prices to the potential detriment of the Contracting States;

   • other forms of international tax planning which, if countered successfully, may generate additional tax yield in the Contracting States;

   • economic performance of a taxpayer or related taxpayers, over a period of time, which is significantly worse than it might be expected, for instance:

   • the economic performance does not reflect appropriate profits when measured against sales, total assets, etc.;

   • cases where the taxpayer consistently shows losses, especially long-term losses;

   • cases where the taxpayer, regardless of profitability, paid little or no tax over the relevant period;

   • transactions involving tax havens;

   • situations where the Competent Authorities consider it is in the interest of the tax administrations concerned in order to promote international tax compliance.

V – Personnel

1. Examinations will be conducted separately within the framework of national law and practice solely by tax administration officials of each State using the available exchanges of information provisions. No interchange of personnel will be made between the two countries.

2. It is understood that the term ”Tax Administration Officials” used in this arrangement shall also include, in the case of Italy, the members of the Italian ”Corpo della Guardia di Finanza”.

3. The designated representatives of the two administrations will communicate with each other only through the competent authorities.

4. The competent authorities can settle that the representatives be allowed to act as a delegate of the Competent Authority of their country. The delegation will allow them to communicate with each other directly either by telephone or by direct consultation. Notwithstanding this, the written communication shall always be done by the intermediary of each Competent Authority.

VI – Planning the simultaneous tax examination

Before the start of the tax examination the tax officials in charge of the case will consider with their counterparts from the other State, the examination plans of each State, possible issues to be developed and target dates. It may be appropriate to hold coordination meetings to plan and follow closely the performance of the simultaneus examination. However, no exchange of formal examination plans will be made between the two States.

VII – Conducting the simultaneous tax examination

A simultaneous tax examination requires the co-operation of Tax Administration Officials located in each State who will simultaneously but independently examine the taxpayer(s) within their jurisdiction. They will try as far as possible to synchronise their work schedules.

VIII – Discontinuing the simultaneous tax examination

If either State concludes that it is no longer beneficial to continue the simultaneous examination of a case, it may withdraw by notifying the other State.

IX – Concluding the simultaneous tax examination

1. The simultaneous tax examination will be concluded after co-ordination and consultation between the Competent Authorities of each State. Issues pertaining to double taxation raised by the examination are reserved to the Mutual Agreement Procedure.

2. The outcome of the examinations gained by the audit services in the two States shall be jointly coordinated by the representatives of the two administrations. The representatives shall report to their Competent Authorities every question that cannot be settled at representatives level and could involve a double taxation, either juridical or economic, or could produce the effects of a double non-taxation. The Competent Authorities shall endeavour to solve these problems by means of a mutual agreement procedure under Article 26 of the Tax Convention.

X – Miscellaneous provisions

1. This Agreement shall be operative beginning on lst January, 1998.

2. This Agreement may be modified at any time by agreement between the Competent Authorities.