Exor, the holding company of the Agnelli family, has learned the hard way that moving house can be expensive and traumatic.
The company has paid 746 million euros ($847.5 million) to settle a dispute with Italy’s tax authorities over transferring its legal headquarters to the Netherlands in 2016, according to a Reuters report Saturday.
Giovanni Agnelli B.V., the controlling company of Exor, will also pay 203 million euros in the dispute, the report said.
Exit Tax Dispute
Exor SPA had applied participation exemption regulations in 2016, when it merged with its Dutch subsidiary Exor Holding N.V., which would have excluded nearly all capital gains from taxable income in calculating the exit tax, the report said.
But the tax authority in Italy ruled the participation exemption should not apply in this case, Reuters reported.
Exor noted that the authorities did not levy penalties over the claim, adding the settlement shouldn’t be interpreted as acceptance of the tax authorities’ interpretation, the report said. Separately, Giovanni Agnelli B.V. said it did not violate any rules, and it settled to avoid the time and cost of a major tax dispute.
Luxury Brand Owner
Exor’s holdings include owning essentially all of reinsurer PartnerRe, as well as luxury brand investments in carmaker Ferrari, football team Juventus, luxury goods maker Shang Xia and shoemaker Christian Louboutin.
Giovanni Agnelli B.V., a Netherlands-based private company controlling more than 50 percent of Exor, is the holding company for the Agnelli family, which is one of Europe’s richest dynasties. Giovanni Agnelli was the founder of Italian carmaker Fiat.
