Italien fashion group, Dolce & Gabbana s.r.l. (hereinafter DG s.r.l.), the licensee of the Dolce&Gabbana trademark, entered into a sub-licensing agreement with its subsidiary Dolce&Gabbana Industria (hereinafter DG Industria or Industria) whereby the former granted to the latter the right to produce, distribute and sell products bearing the well-known trademark throughout the world and undertook to carry out promotion and marketing activities in return for royalties. DG s.r.l., in order to carry out promotion and marketing activities in the U.S.A., made use of the company Dolce&Gabbana Usa Inc. (hereinafter DG Usa) with contracts in force since 2002; in particular, on March 16, 2005, it entered into a service agreement whereby DG Usa undertook to provide the aforesaid services in return for an annual fee payable by DG s.r.l.; this consideration is determined on the basis of the costs analytically attributable to the provision of the agreed services in addition to a mark up, i.e. a mark-up, determined in a variable ... Read more

In the case of Argentina vs Alfred C. Toepfer International S.A,  the “sixth method” had been applied to intra-group transfers of commodities. Click here for Translation Argentina vs Alfred C Toepfer International SA TF 27-014-I ... Read more

Spedition Gmbh entered a written agreement – at year-end – to pay management fees to its Dutch parent for services received during the year. The legal question was the relationship between arm’s-length principle as included in double tax treaties and the norms for income assessments in German tax law. The assessment of the tax office claiming a hidden distribution of profits because of the “retrospective” effect of the written agreement, was rejected by the Court. According to the Court the double tax treaty provisions bases the arm’s length standard on amount, rather than on the reason for, or documentation, of a transaction. Click here for English translation Click here for other translation Germany-vs-Corp-October-2012-BUNDESFINANZHOF-Urteil-IR-75-11- ... Read more