A special purpose vehicle established on the basis of the characteristics provided for by “Section 110” of the Irish Taxes Consolidation Act (“TCA”) of 1997 has proposed to the competent Italian Revenue Agency (Agenzia delle Entrate) a ruling about subjects resident abroad and treatment of their capital losses and capital gains in Italy (see Risp. AE November 9, 2022, n. 556).

The Agency has included in the Italian exemption regime also foreign subjects without tax liability established in States and territories that allow an adequate exchange of information, and that carry out the activity of institutional investor.

The Agency recalled that the substitute tax exemption regime generally can include, from a subjective point of view, persons resident in States and territories that allow an adequate exchange of information indicated in the so-called white list, namely natural persons, companies, partnerships and any other entity that is considered a taxable person for tax purposes.

With reference to the notion of “investitori istituzionali esteri, ancorché privi di soggettività tributaria” (i.e. “foreign institutional investors, even if they do not have tax subjectivity”), it identifies entities that, regardless of their legal status and the tax treatment to which the related income is subject in the country in which they are incorporated, have as their object the execution and management of investments for their own account or for third parties.

Institutional investors who are not directly subject to income tax in the State in which they are incorporated are considered to be investors. That condition of non-taxation could be determined by various circumstances, such as, for example, exemptions granted by domestic law, taxation for transparency on the part of the participants in the entity or organisation, exclusion from taxation.

The definition of “Investitori istituzionali esteri” (i.e. “foreign institutional investors”) includes, by way of example, insurance companies, mutual funds, SICAVs, pension funds, asset management companies, specifically included among the “qualified” investors.

Moreover, since the applicant company is a Designated Activity Company (“DAC”) which, pursuant to Section 110 of the TCA, can only carry out securitisation transactions and is subject to tax liability in Ireland, it is sufficient to admit it to the exemption regime provided for in art. 6.