Organisation for Economic and Commercial Development.
The past few years have seen the sensational rise of new models of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services, which have been synthetically captured under the umbrella definition of “sharing economy”. The ascent of digital platforms – including renowned companies headquartered in the Silicon Valley like Airbnb and Uber, or the French unicorns…
Some four years ago in this blog, I wrote about problems that would start to emerge as exchange of information between tax administrations became more routine and extensive. If nothing else, the number of disputes in this area was bound to increase. See also Exchange of Information: bumps in the road. 2019 has already seen…
Income tax rules are under great pressure internationally, because multinational enterprises, such as Apple, Facebook and McDonald’s, and rich individuals, such as Messi and Ronaldo, avoid or evade taxes. In addition to that, the legitimacy of these rules can be questioned, because the OECD – an organization with limited membership – has set them. Developing…
In my International Taxation class tomorrow (October 10th) we are going to discuss the OECD’s “Unified Approach” released a day earlier on October 9, 2019. Given the keen interest generated by digital taxation and the allocation of profits/losses generated therefrom, I thought it of interest to the Kluwer International Tax readers that I share my…
India recently notified a Protocol that amends the India-China tax treaty and incorporates some of the OECD recommendations put forth as part of its BEPS project. The changes would apply from the 2020 financial year. The Protocol brings about serious changes to the tax treaty in several areas, including limiting treaty abuse, tackling artificial avoidance…
On 10 September Wolters Kluwer organized an interesting discussion on Permanent Establishments. The discussion was led by 3 panelists, Tamara Schwärzler (PwC Switzerland); Arvid A. Skaar (Norwegian lawyer, well known for his standard work on Permanent Establishments) and myself as editor of the Wolters Kluwer PE+ tool. Tamara kicked off the session by discussing Tax…
The OECD Work Programme published in May of this year under the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS aims to achieve a consensus solution to the problems of taxing the digital economy. The OECD Work Programme is broad in scope and considers radical departures from long established rules for international taxation, for example current transfer pricing…
Globally, countries are making a concerted effort to rein in the direct tax challenges posed by the digital economy. Some of this work is directly inspired by the recommendations set out by the OECD as part of its 15-point Action Plan to tackle base erosion and profit shifting. The Indian government, too, introduced two key…
Two of my recent articles have examined the Australian decision in Commissioner of Taxation v Resource Capital Fund IV LP [2019] FCAFC 51. The articles examine the central question on the source of income earned and the tax classification and entitlement to treaty benefits of investment funds. Real property gains This time I consider two…
On 11 July 2019, the event “Global Transfer Pricing Standard and Brazilian Approach: The Way Forward” took place in Brasilia, in which the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Brazilian Federal Revenue Office (RFB) presented the main discrepancies between the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines (TPG) and the Brazilian transfer pricing rules, an…
Commissioner of Taxation v Resource Capital Fund IV LP [2019] FCAFC 51 addressed a number of fundamental international tax issues. The case concerned a gain from the sale of shares in an Australian incorporated public company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange by two Cayman Island limited partnerships whose partners included residents of the United…
A. Where are we? A worldwide and LATAM picture A current worldwide picture of unilateral initiatives developed on the direct taxation of the digitalized economy includes at least the following paths:[1] (i) the traditional PE concept, as updated by BEPS Final Recommendation on Action 7, and subsequently reflected in the OECD MC 2017 and the…
On June 9, 2019 the G20 finance ministers endorsed the program of work that was issued by the OECD’s Inclusive Framework on BEPS on May 31, 2019 in relation to tax challenges arising from the digitalization of the economy. As expected, the program of work has two parts. The first part, called Pillar One, aims…
This is a short series of blogs on transfer pricing documentation: what I have seen over the years, how it does (not) align with OECD documentation requirements, and thoughts on possible improvements. I focus on practicalities. Why do we need TP documentation? One answer is because many countries’ laws require it. More interesting is the…
