Tax Treaties

Treaties dealing with the division of taxing rights between states.

BEPS, Digital platforms, Digitalization, Double Taxation, International Tax Law, Latin America, MNE Profits, OECD, Pillar I, Tax Policy, Tax Treaties, United Nations, Value Creation, Withholding Taxes

(Bomchil)/ /2 Comments

A couple of days ago, in the last weekly session of the Indiana-Leeds Summer Tax Workshop, I attended the presentation of a fascinating paper by Steven A. Dean (A Constitutional Moment in Cross-Border Taxation)(1) where the author analyzes the political and economic predominant influence of central economies in the design and shape of post-WWI in…

Double Taxation, Financial institutions, Income categorization, International Tax Law, MNE Profits, OECD, Permanent Establishments, Royalties, Tax Treaties, United Kingdom

(Temple Tax Chambers; King’s College London)/ /Leave a comment

Following the Supreme Court decision in Fowler v HMRC [2020] UKSC 22, the UK First-tier Tribunal has considered another case where classification of a source of income for tax treaty purposes was in issue. This time the question was classification as business profit or income from immovable property in the Canada-UK double tax treaty. In…

Abuse of law, Anti-tax avoidance, Double non-taxation, Double Taxation, International Tax Law, Mauritius, MLI, Netherlands, OECD, Principal purpose test, Tax Avoidance, Tax Planning, Tax Treaties, Treaty shopping, United Kingdom

(Temple Tax Chambers; King’s College London)/ /Leave a comment

In last month’s blog I promised to address the treaty aspects of  Davies and Others v HMRC [2020] UKUT 67 (TCC). The case concerned UK resident individuals who each took out a life insurance policy with a Bermuda insurer under which their entitlements were linked to a Mauritian company that developed land in the UK….

Abuse of law, Anti-tax avoidance, International Tax Law, Principal purpose test, Tax Avoidance, Tax Treaties, Trusts and Estates, United Kingdom

(Temple Tax Chambers; King’s College London)/ /Leave a comment

We have all become familiar with the expression in the PPT set out in article 7(1) of the MLI and article 29(9) of the 2017 OECD Model  where “obtaining that benefit was one of the principal purposes of any arrangement or transaction”.  Discerning which is a principal purpose is one of the main challenges in…

Beneficial ownership, Dividends, Financial institutions, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Tax Treaties, Withholding Taxes

(Reinarz Tax & Legal)/ /1 Comment

With a judgment rendered on 16 December 2019 (case no. 2C_209/2017), the Swiss Federal Supreme Court (“FSC”) rejected several reclaims of Swiss dividend withholding taxes made by a Luxembourg resident financial institution (“Lux Bank”) and thereby denied the claimant the benefits of the double taxation treaty between Switzerland and Luxembourg on income and capital taxes…

Pensions, Residence, Subsidiary, Switzerland, Tax Treaties, Thailand

(Reinarz Tax & Legal)/ /1 Comment

Tax Issue Under Review On 6 February 2020 (case no. 2C_510/2018), the Swiss Federal Supreme Court rendered a decision on the tax qualification of a pension plan benefit paid from a Swiss pension plan to an individual resident in Thailand, for the purposes of Swiss federal and cantonal withholding taxes on pension benefits paid to…

BEPS, COVID-19, Double Taxation, Employment, Fees for technical services, International Tax Law, Ireland, MLI, OECD, Permanent Establishments, POEM, Residence, Tax Treaties, United Nations

(Temple Tax Chambers; King’s College London)/ /Leave a comment

Measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus have impacted on every aspect of life. While the degree of enforced isolation and immobility varies from country to country, the basic elements remain the same: Most people are compelled to stay at home and to work from there if possible. The speed with which the pandemic has…

Abuse of law, Anti-tax avoidance, BEPS, Double non-taxation, Double Taxation, International Tax Law, MLI, OECD, Principal purpose test, Residence, Substance, Tax Avoidance, Tax Planning, Tax Treaties, Treaty shopping, Uncategorized, United Nations

(Temple Tax Chambers; King’s College London)/ /1 Comment

The Canadian Federal Court of Appeal has upheld the Tax Court of Canada decision in Canada v. Alta Energy Luxembourg S.A.R.L., 2020 FCA 43 (CanLII).   The case is of some significance because the Canadian Revenue Agency (“CRA”) sought to apply the Canadian domestic general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR) in order to deny treaty relief. The…

India, Royalties, Tax Treaties

(Nirma University)/ /Leave a comment

In my previous post, I had discussed the judgment delivered in the case of Elsevier Information Systems Gmbh v. Dy. Commissioner of Income Tax which discussed the liability of the taxpayer when it charges a subscription fee from the customers for rendering access to its database. It seems that the Income Tax Department has still…

Dividends, India, MLI, Residence, Tax Policy, Tax Treaties

(Managing Partner at BMR Legal)/ /Leave a comment

On February 1, 2020 India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Government’s Union Budget for the year 2020-21. With its continuing promise of making India a $5 trillion economy by 2025, the budget announcements contained a host of reforms to obliterate the seeping fears regarding prospects of the Indian economy with focus on agricultural, rural…

Double Taxation, EU law, EU/EEA, International Tax Law, Ireland, MNE Profits, OECD, Permanent Establishments, Tax Treaties, Transfer Pricing, United States

(Temple Tax Chambers; King’s College London)/ /Leave a comment

Two cases, currently before different courts highlight long-standing questions around the attribution of profits to permanent establishments. Irish and United Kingdom law on the attribution of profits to branches of non-resident companies remined identical for decades until 2003. In each country, a non-resident company trading through a branch in that country was chargeable to corporation…

Dividends, Double Taxation, International Tax Law, Latin America, Netherlands, OECD, Personal income tax, Residence, Tax Treaties, United Nations, Withholding Taxes

(Temple Tax Chambers; King’s College London)/ /1 Comment

Equality is one of the core values of modern democratic societies. It is no accident that equality featured in opening preamble to the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the first article of both the French Declaration of the Rights of Man in 1789 and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights…

Fees for technical services, Royalties, Rwanda, Tax Treaties

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The Rwandan Income Tax Act (Law nº 016/2018 of 13/04/2018) gazetted on April 16, 2018 overhauled the Rwandan income tax system with various significant changes. One of the changes introduced by the Rwandan Income Tax Act that gave rise to wide discussion among tax practitioners relates to non-deductible expenses—particularly the restriction imposed on the deductibility…

International Tax Law, OECD, Tax Treaties, United Nations

(Temple Tax Chambers; King’s College London)/ /1 Comment

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…