VAT Deduction on Transaction Costs in Merger Leveraged Buyout Operations

The Italian Supreme Court issued two sentences supporting VAT deductibility on transactions costs related to merger leveraged buyout (MLBO) operations. The European Commission supported this position and pushed the Italian tax authorities to change their position. In this article, the author retraces the sequence of events leading to this important change and explains how and to what extent this change enables the concerned taxable persons to recover deductible VAT retroactively.