The tax treatment of "transactions" between a company and its establishment in another Member State may raise problematic issues in the field of both direct and indirect taxation (VAT). The key question is whether or not fixed establishments abroad have "VAT personality". If they do, and services exchanged between the head office and its fixed establishment are subject to VAT, it may be practically difficult to recover the corresponding input tax. In this article, the authors describe how the VAT treatment of fixed establishments has evolved in Italy in recent years, and how the Italian Supreme Court has contributed to that evolution