The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s base erosion and profit shifting process will not have significant implications on Luxembourg-based companies, Fitch Ratings has said. The agency on January 8 re-affirmed Luxembourg’s AAA rating, with a stable outlook. According to Luxembourg for Finance, the territory’s financial services promotional agency, the… – Continue reading
Jan. 11 — The European Union is resuming efforts to create a common system for calculating the tax base of businesses operating in the EU, and aims to adopt the OECD BEPS package by the end of the Dutch EU presidency in June, a top official said. “This is the… – Continue reading
Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland denies treaty benefits in case of dividend paid on shares acquired for hedging derivative contracts. Court stated that due to the fully hedged nature of ownership, there was economic nexus and interdependency between two independent transactions and therefore, the “intermediary” bank did not have beneficial… – Continue reading
‘We’re not a tax haven, we have never been involved in any kind of tax malpractice’ – Michael Noonan, Irish Minister for Finance 5th October 2015 If your top political figures need to constantly state that your country is not a tax haven, then the chances are it probably is… – Continue reading
The focus has been on increasing global participation in India through liberalisation of foreign direct investment (FDI) laws. It covered easing FDI sectorial caps and conditions in diverse sectors ranging from highly regulated sectors like defence, construction& development, civil aviation to single brand retailing, automatic route for FDI in Limited… – Continue reading
Changes in I-T Act likely to curb tax evasion by multinational companies The government might change transfer pricing provisions in Budget 2016-17 to ensure companies with overseas presence and consolidated revenue of more than Rs 5,000 crore comply with extensive data reporting and documentation. Legislative changes in the Income Tax… – Continue reading
This is the first of our series of posts on Brazilian tax treaties. In each post we will provide an overview of a specific tax treaty between Brazil and a particular foreign country, as well as comments on any Brazilian administrative or judicial precedents applying the treaty, and highlights on… – Continue reading
The year 2015 will be marked as the year of slow economic growth and haphazard fiscal and monetary policies due in part to the uncertainties brought about by the change in government. There were also leadership changes at the FIRS and a number of state tax authorities. This article outlines… – Continue reading
On December 21, 2015, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the U.S. Treasury Department (Treasury) released proposed regulations (REG-109822-15) on country-by-country (CbC) reporting (the Proposed Regulations). In general, the Proposed Regulations are modeled after, and are consistent with, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recommendations for CbC reporting,… – Continue reading
few days before Christmas, in the full light of an Australian summer, the Australian tax commissioner published the tax details of 1,500 large corporate taxpayers which showed a staggering one-third of these companies paid no tax in 2014. This transparency measure was part of a wider package of ground-breaking legislation… – Continue reading
Action Plan 6 of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) final reports identifies treaty abuse, particularly treaty shopping, as one of the most significant causes of BEPS. It recognizes that existing domestic and international tax rules, including double taxation treaties, should be… – Continue reading
The international community led by the G20 initiated the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project a few years ago with the aim of ensuring that profits are taxed where economic activities are performed and where value is created, the Business Standard reports. Governments, tax authorities and social groups have… – Continue reading
January 2016 You will find below a summary of some of the most important tax developments that have happened since the release of our last newsletter, at OECD, EU or country level, in the area of tax transparency and the fight against tax avoidance. EU – Tax transparency and anti-BEPS… – Continue reading
On 13 November 2015 the Treasurer and Minister of Finance jointly announced that a new double tax treaty had been negotiated with Germany, replacing the 1972 agreement. The new treaty has not yet been formally adopted as part of Australian law, as a change to the International Tax Agreements Act… – Continue reading
With all due respect, the OECD’s BEPS project was a fiasco, accomplishing little of any positive value and opening up a Pandora’s box with its focus on “value creation” in the context of transfer pricing. Despite all the “happy talk” coming out of the OECD and all the talk of… – Continue reading
SOUTH African Revenue Service (SARS) commissioner Tom Moyane has been instructed by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan to halt the implementation of his ambitious restructuring plans. The far-reaching restructuring project for the tax authority was one of the first initiatives undertaken by Mr Moyane following his appointment as commissioner in October… – Continue reading
Now that the final report on BEPS Action 7 has been released, “Preventing the Artificial Avoidance of Permanent Establishment Status” (Final Report), taxpayers are able to consider the final language to be incorporated into Article 5(5) of the OECD Model Tax Convention.1 This language also will be incorporated into the… – Continue reading
On October 5, the OECD issued it formal recommendations on the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Action Plan. These recommendations have been subsequently adopted by the G20. We acknowledge the monumental effort that has been put forth to produce a modernized international system of tax rules through the BEPS… – Continue reading
Legislation amending the rules governing transfer pricing documentation—to include country-by-country reporting, as well as master file and local file provisions—has been enacted and has an effective date of 1 January 2016. The Dutch Upper House (Eerste Kamer) on 22 December 2015 passed the legislation (the bill is referred to in… – Continue reading
The Norwegian Ministry of Finance published a public consultation paper regarding country-by country reporting for tax purposes. The proposal suggests that multinational groups—when the ultimate parent company is a resident in Norway—would be required to submit country-by country reports. The reporting requirements could also affect foreign group entities that are… – Continue reading
The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service have proposed regulations setting out a new requirement for certain U.S. persons that are the ultimate parent of a multinational group (a “U.S. MNE group”) having annual revenue of at least $850 million to file an annual report (the “CbC report”). The… – Continue reading
Rules requiring master file and local file reporting—“full” transfer pricing reporting—are advancing in Korea. 5 January 2016 Korea’s parliament on 2 December 2015 approved legislation (released as draft legislation by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance of Korea in August 2015) to implement the OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting… – Continue reading
A striking example of the EU’s efforts to accelerate the implementation of anti-base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) measures is the amended Parent Subsidiary Directive (PSD). Originally designed to prevent economic double taxation of profits distributed within an EU corporate, the PSD is now also being deployed to counter undesired… – Continue reading
Although the British Virgin Islands is often seen as an offshore tax haven, a closer look shows such opinions may be overstated There is a stereotypical image of the so-called ‘tax haven’ for ‘shady people to put their money’. While it is true that BVI Finance enjoys warm, sunny weather… – Continue reading
Increasing regulation has made transfer pricing complex for multinational enterprises. Technology can help simplify the process In recent years there has been an increasing focus on transfer pricing, in line with the proliferation of transfer pricing requirements from a growing number of countries around the world, and the OECD’s project… – Continue reading
The international community led by the had initiated the (BEPS) project a few years ago with the aim of ensuring that profits are taxed where economic activities are performed and where value is created. Governments, and social groups have been voicing their concern over the past decade that multinational enterprises… – Continue reading
On 14 December 2015, the Swiss Council of States discussed the legislative draft of the Corporate Tax Reform III and in principle approved the reform package. In deviation from the revised draft legislation issued by the Swiss Federal Council on 5 June 2015, the Council of States voted against the… – Continue reading
THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA (DC) recently enacted, as part of its budget, provisions that force entities doing business in any of 39 arbitrarily designated “tax havens” to report their income on worldwide combined reporting. Eighteen are Caribbean jurisdictions. A tax haven is defined by the DC code… – Continue reading
The year 2015 was arguably a momentous one for transfer pricing (TP). A combination of local and international developments will mark it as a period which defined the future direction of this subject. Key Developments The Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) released final reports as part of its… – Continue reading
ONE | A NEW LIBERAL GOVERNMENT Elected in October 2015, Canada’s new Liberal government has proposed a tax platform featuring significant changes, including a four per cent increase (to 33 per cent) in the federal tax rate for individuals on income over C$200,000 and a 1.5 per cent drop in… – Continue reading
The Caribbean territory Saint Kitts and Nevis has set out plans to amend the territory’s international tax rules in its 2016 Budget. The Budget is said to target “the potential for abuse through the use of transfer pricing techniques,” which the Government said “not only affects the withholding tax regime… – Continue reading
The Luxembourg Parliament in December 2015 approved tax measures affecting both corporate and individual taxpayers. These provisions generally are effective beginning 2016, with a few measures applying retroactively as from 2015. Among the measures in the tax legislation are the following provisions: Transposition of amendments to the EU Parent-Subsidiary Directive… – Continue reading
The Administration of the Ministry of Finance has announced the upcoming amendment of the Intellectual Property tax regime. The said amendment will incorporate the recommendations of Action 5 of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which were issued on 5 October 2015 for the Action Plan against ‘Base… – Continue reading
Multinational companies have enjoyed a sustained period of falling corporate tax rates around the world. However, with the conclusion of the OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting project earlier this year marking the start of fundamental changes to the international tax system, and with governments more determined than ever to… – Continue reading
On 15 September 2015, the Dutch government released its budget for 2016, containing the Tax Plan 2016, which includes certain amendments to Dutch tax law. One of the proposed amendments was the inclusion of an anti-hybrid rule in the Dutch participation exemption regime (“PER”). On 22 December 2015, the amendments… – Continue reading
On Nov. 18, 2015, reforms to the Mexican Income Tax Law (MITL), Tax Code, Excise Tax and Federal Income Law for 2016 (collectively, the Tax Reform) were published in the Federal Gazette. The Tax Reform reestablishes measures to promote savings and increase incentives for doing business in Mexico, some of… – Continue reading
“Cash Booked Offshore for Tax Purposes by U.S. Multinationals Doubled between 2008 and 2014” In recent years, U.S. multinational companies have sharply increased the amount of money that they book to foreign subsidiaries. An April 2015 study by research firm Audit Analytics found that the Russell 1000 list of U.S…. – Continue reading
Hybrid mismatch arrangements are the focus of the 2-part Action Plan 2 of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD’s) Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) initiative. Hybrid Mismatch Arrangements abuse differences in the tax treatment of an instrument (i.e., a hybrid instrument) or an entity (i.e., a hybrid… – Continue reading
Luis E. Benitez VEGAS Already after two years of discussions on the various actions designed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (hereinafter OECD) to address the problem of the erosion of the tax base and the transfer Benefits under the BEPS project (for its acronym in English Base… – Continue reading
Measure tries to keep firms from exploiting tax law variations Foreign and local businesses with annual sales of 100 billion won ($85 million) or more, and over 50 billion won in transactions with overseas entities must report international transactions to the tax authority starting next year. Known as the “Google… – Continue reading
Legislation introduced on Tuesday by U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) would safeguard companies in country-by-country reporting requirements. The Bad Exchange Prevention Act follows the issuance by the Treasury Department on Monday of guidelines for adhering to the country-by-country reporting requirements under the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Base… – Continue reading
ICAEW says OECD has done a good job but success will depend on actual implementation by individual countries The new All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Responsible Tax has identified three it wishes to look at initially: the work of the OECD on its base erosion profit shifting (BEPS) Action Plan;… – Continue reading
Dec. 21 — The IRS proposed rules requiring large companies to report information including the amount of revenue, profit or loss, capital and accumulated earnings for each country of operation, consistent with OECD recommendations designed to combat base erosion and profit shifting. The proposed rules (REG-109822-15, RIN 1545-BM70) would apply… – Continue reading
The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) has welcomed a change to the Government’s approach1 to improve tax compliance by large companies but remains sceptical about the effectiveness of a ‘special measures’ regime to target tax abuse. John Cullinane, Tax Policy Director, said: “We are pleased that the framework for improving… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: When Grant Thornton recently appointed India leader Vishesh Chandiok on its global governance board, it reflected the country’s growing importance as a market for the London-headquartered professional services firm. At 41, Chandiok may be the youngest member of the board ever but points out that he doesn’t lack for… – Continue reading
IT is ironic that what was almost at the centre of the BEPS project has ended up in not having a concrete agreement and with a vague promise of some review by the year 2020. One may recall that it was the big digital companies and their tax affairs that… – Continue reading
The Protocol amending the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters will lead to substantially more transnational identity theft, crime, industrial espionage, financial fraud, and the suppression of political opponents and religious or ethnic minorities by authoritarian and corrupt governments. It puts Americans’ private financial information at risk…. – Continue reading
An Easy Checkoff for Global Competitiveness: The Case for a U.S. Innovation Box – Robert D. Atkinson – November 30, 2015. “Taxing corporate revenues from innovation-based activities less will not only boost U.S. global competitiveness it will help bring back IP-based corporate profits now overseas. “Within the last decade a… – Continue reading
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) on 17 December 2015 released guidelines that address country-by-country reporting. The ATO release—Law Companion Guideline (LCG) 2015/3—discusses Tax Laws Amendment (Combating Multinational Tax Avoidance) Act 2015 that was enacted earlier this month and discusses, in particular, Schedule 4. Background Schedule 4 created Subdivision 815-E of… – Continue reading
The Council of the European Union released details of a possible draft EU directive, addressing certain “anti-base erosion and profit shifting” (anti-BEPS) initiatives. The issues addressed concern certain international aspects of the proposal for an EU “common consolidated corporate tax base” (CCCTB), and reflect issues that are directly related to… – Continue reading
