With the tax ruling reply no. 57/2023, published on January 17, 2023, the Italian tax authorities provided clarifications regarding the role assumed by an Italian permanent establishment (hereinafter also the “applicant”) in relation to an intra-community supply concluded by the German head office.
More precisely, the case concerns a sale of goods carried out by the foreign head office for which the Italian permanent establishment would take care of the negotiation and conclusion of the agreements as well as pre- and post-sale activities. The goods would be shipped directly from the head office in Germany to the final customer in Italy and the transport would be carry out by the Italian customer directly from the warehouse of the German head office or directly by the latter, without any passage through the warehouse of the Italian permanent establishment.
Source PwC
See also: Fixed Establishments: unexpected potential VAT liabilities from Intra-Community transactions