The importance of the permanent establishment (PE) principle in tax treaties cannot be undermined. Whether or not a source country has the right to tax business profits of a foreign company would depend wholly on the existence or non-existence of a PE of that company in the source country. Work undertaken by the OECD in…

Introduction This is the second part of the input dealing with the MLI’s LOB rule. It focuses on the second and the third subtests under the MLI’s LOB rule, i.e. the concept of income emanating from or being incidental to the taxpayer’s active conduct of business in a State of residence and a State of…

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” George Santayana, The Life of Reason: Reason in Common Sense (1905). A seminar was held in Rotterdam on 18 May 2018 on “value creation” in the new tax universe to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the International Fiscal Association. An erudite panel, comprising Prof…

Introduction This is the first part of the input regarding the MLI’s LOB. It addresses the active conduct of a business, which constitutes the first subtest under the MLI’s LOB rule. The second part, in turn, will draw attention to the second and the third subtests, i.e. the concept of income emanating from or being…

On 25 September 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted the historic resolution Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The agenda calls upon all 193 UN member states to strive to achieve a socially, environmentally and economically sustainable world by 2030. The agenda contains 17 goals and 169 sub-objectives – Sustainable Development Goals…

We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions:   Michael Lang, Double Taxation Conventions in the Case Law of the CJEU This Essay analyzes the jurisdiction of the CJEU regarding the interpretation of Double Taxation Conventions, by examining the relevant case law…

Introduction As the General Reporter for the Subject 2 (The Future of Transfer Pricing) of the 2017 IFA Congress in Rio de Janeiro, I joined the plenary session on August 29 in a panel chaired by Luís Eduardo Schoueri and composed of Isabel Verlinden, Jefferson Vanderwolk, Mateus Calicchio Barbosa, Natalia Quiñones, Richard Vann, and Yariv…

We are happy to inform you that the latest issue of the journal is now available and includes the following contributions: Madeleine Merkx, John Gruson, Naomie Verbaan & Bart van der Doef, Definitive VAT Regime: Stairway to Heaven or Highway to Hell? The current VAT system was intended to be a transitional system applying an…

There is only one legal certainty about Brexit. On 29 March 2019 EU law will cease to apply in the United Kingdom, as a result of the UK having given notice of withdrawal on 29 March 2017. This is clear from Article 50(2) of the Treaty on European Union. Draft withdrawal agreement A Draft Agreement…

The first common EU list of non cooperative tax jurisdictions – commonly referred as the EU black list – was released on 05 December 2017. It included seventeen offshore countries: American Samoa, Bahrain, Barbados, Grenada, Guam, South Korea, Macao SAR, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Namibia, Palau, Panama, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and United…

On 21 March, just a few days after the publication of the (frankly not exciting) OECD report on the tax challenges of digitalization, the European Commission presented its own “package” on the taxation of the digital economy. This comprises: (a) a proposal for a Directive on the corporate taxation of a “significant digital presence”, or…

International VAT Principles Multi-Stage Tax Value-Added Tax (VAT) is designed to collect tax through a staged process. Each business in the supply chain takes part in the process of controlling and collecting the tax based on that supply chain. The business will then remit the portion of tax corresponding to its margin, in other words…

On 6 March 2018, the CJEU has issue its judgment on the case Achmea BV (C-284/16 here), that can impact many areas of the EU law, including tax matters. The Court states that “Articles 267 and 344 TFEU must be interpreted as precluding a provision in an international agreement concluded between Member States, such as Article 8…