Listed real estate investment companies (SIIC): 60% ownership cap, 20% levy on certain distributions and regime for sales of hotel-café-restaurant premises

Article 138 of the 2006 amending Finance Act amends the regime of listed real estate investment companies (Article 208 C of the General Tax Code). The capital or voting rights of a SIIC must not be held at 60% or more by a single shareholder or shareholders acting in concert, and at least 15% of the capital must be held by shareholders each holding less than 2%; for existing SIICs, the 60% condition applies from 1 January 2009. The SIIC owes a 20% levy on distributions paid to a shareholder holding at least 10% of the capital whose dividends are exempt or lightly taxed, for distributions paid from 1 July 2007. The article also creates Article 151 septies C: deferral of tax, with a 10% reduction per year of use, on gains made by hotel, café and restaurant operators that sell their premises to a SIIC between 2007 and 2009 and keep operating them under a lease of at least nine years.