Menfi Industria s.p.a. is a manufacturer of household goods – appliances, crockery, stainless steel items. Following an audit the tax authorities served Menfi Industria a notice of assessment for FY 2008. According to the tax authorities the company had sold products to another group company, at a price lower than the normal value. The adjustment was determined using the TNMM method. Other non-transfer pricing adjustments were also made in the assessment. An appeal was filed by Menfi Industria, which the court of first instance found to be well-founded in regards of leasing fees, depreciations etc., but in regards of the transfer pricing adjustment the appeal was dismissed. Subsequently, the Lombardy Court of Appeal confirmed the decision of the first instance court. Menfi Industria then appealed to the Supreme Court. In its appeal Menfi Industris pointed out that, with regard to the issue of the sale of intra-group assets at a price lower than the normal price, the court of appeal ruled in an apodictic and tautological manner, essentially confining itself to affirming the legitimacy of the recovery only by stating that the methodology applied, i.e. the TNMM, was correct, without offering any specific argument as to the legitimacy. Menfi Industria further argued, that the judgment was contradictory in that, after stating that the arm’s length price was determined by the CUP method, the court in ist conclution stated that the methodology applied was correct, even though it was based on the TNMM. Judgement of the Supreme Court The Supreme Court set aside the judgement of the Court of Appeal and refered the case back to the court, in a different composition. Excerpts (…) “The appeal court, after pointing out, in its reasoning passage, that ‘normal value is determined by the method of comparing the average price or consideration charged’, arrives at the final consideration that the TNMM method applied is lawful, without this being logically supported by the main premise. This Court, (Cass. civ, No. 15668/2022), with specific reference to the Transactional Net Margin Method or TNMM, in referring to Section B of Part III of Chapter II of the OECD Guidelines of 2010 that regulates it, as, similarly, the subsequent edition of 2017, has had occasion to affirm the principle, which must be given further continuity here, according to which “on the subject of determining business income, the rules set forth in Presidential Decree No. 917 of 1986 Art. 110, paragraph 7, aimed at repressing the economic phenomenon of “transfer pricing”, i.e., the shifting of taxable income following transactions between companies belonging to the same group and subject to different national regulations, requires the determination of weighted transfer prices for similar transactions carried out by companies competing on the market, for which purpose it is possible to use the method developed by the OECD that is based on the determination of the net margin of the transaction (so-called “TNM”), which is the basis for the determination of the net margin of the transaction. “TNMM”), provided that the period of investigation is selected, the comparable companies are identified, the appropriate accounting adjustments are made to the financial statements of the tested party, due account is taken of the differences between the tested party and the comparable companies in terms of risks assumed or functions performed, and a reliable indicator of the level of profitability is assumed”. The judgment under review, as seen, reasoned, in the abstract, with regard to the application prerequisite set forth in Article 110, paragraph 7, cited above, but then deemed legitimate the TNMM method which, on the other hand, is not based on the comparison of the price charged for goods of the same or similar kind at the same state of marketing, but on the basis of the net margin of the transaction, thus showing a substantial contradiction in the motivational path. On the other hand, as has been said, the assessment of the correctness of the TNMM method applied required a verification of the assumptions legitimising its application, but the judgment under appeal totally failed to carry out, in its decisional reasoning, the necessary factual verifications in the identification of the transfer pricing method most appropriate to the case in hand, since it could not give relevance to the generic and abstract motivational passage according to which: ‘in the first analysis, the functions performed by the appellant company and the risks assumed by it were assessed’, since that passage of reasoning, devoid of specific factual elements of reference, cannot identify the necessary argumentative premise for the final conclusion to be correct. The second ground of appeal criticises the judgment, pursuant to Article 360(1)(3) of the Code of Civil Procedure, for breach and misapplication of Article 110(7) and (9) of Presidential Decree No 917/1986, for having held the TNMM method to be lawful, despite the fact that the aforementioned regulatory provisions require the application of the various traditional transactional methods as a matter of priority.” (…) “With reference to the present case, the appeal court held that the company had provided proof of the intra-Group supplies but then, again in part of its reasoning, stated that it rejected the company’s appeal. There is no possibility, on the basis of the content of the decision, of being able to hold that the expression ‘Evidence that has been provided by the company Menfi’, contains a mere material error, in the sense that, indeed, the court would have wanted to state that the evidence had not been provided: the expression finds its completeness in itself, there being no further motivational passage that would allow the second interpretative option to be preferred, resulting, in this case, in a judgment contrary to that expressly stated by the appeal court. In that regard, the present ground of appeal correctly states the intrinsic and unremediable inconsistency between the finding of fact made by the court and the subsequent ruling rejecting the company’s appeal.” Click here for English translation Click here for other translation Italy vs Fallimento Menfi Industria spa April 2023 Case