Introduction The taxation of cryptocurrencies has managed to attract strong interest even among the general Finnish population. A key reason has been the perceived unfairness of crypto taxation, because a private person pays taxes on crypto gains but has been unable to deduct losses. Luckily, recent case law brought change to this asymmetry. For the…
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…
In a double take two-to-one decision because of a withdrawn decision due to the death of a judge, a Ninth Circuit panel in Altera reversed a unanimous en banc decision of the Tax Court that the qualified cost sharing arrangements (QCSA) regulations[1] were invalid under the Administrative Procedure Act.[2] The renown Professor Calvin Johnson (Texas) and I shared comments on this case. Professor Johnson’s…
Mutual agreement procedure (MAP) pursuant to article 25 of the OECD and UN Model treaties imposes obligations on tax administrations. Inadequacies in the performance of these obligations has been the subject of much work by the OECD in the course of the 21st Century. BEPS Action 14 OECD Action 14 – 2015 Final Report, Making…
Beginning 1 January 2020, Switzerland will significantly reshape its corporate taxation in an effort to comply with international tax standards while remaining one of the most attractive jurisdictions for foreign investments. 1. Introduction In this article, I will provide the background that led to that Swiss tax reform (“Reform”) also elaborating on the tax regimes…
I am delighted to inform you that the June-July 2019 double issue of Intertax has been published. It includes the editorial by Stef van Weeghel, Digitalization in a Broader Tax Perspective; double-blind peer-reviewed articles on corporate tax systems, the MLI, cross-border losses and EU law, liability in EU VAT, and taxation of cryptocurrencies. You may…
Taxation of the digital economy has become a war in the post-BEPS world. As with any war, there are more or less clear rivals and there will be of course winners and losers. It goes without saying that there are also “casualties” in this conflict, i.e. those policy options initially included in the drafts published…
The quest to align the international tax order with the challenges posed by the digital economy has so far mostly focused on solving issues involving incorporated structures. What is somehow escaping the attention of the tax treaty policymakers is the fact that it is not only in the domain of companies that we have lost…
BEPS Action Plan 6 observes that corporations are misusing Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) provisions by indulging in treaty shopping. A typical example of treaty abuse that BEPS Action Plan 6 seeks to counter is that of an American corporation entering the Indian market through Mauritius because of the favourable India-Mauritius DTAA. An intermediary mailbox…
This is the first article of a short series that explores the international taxation of income attributable to Autonomous Artificial Intelligence (AAI). The series is based on an article written by the author and published by Kluwer in INTERTAX, Volume 47, Issue 05 (May 2019).[1] Each article features questions posed by prominent tax professors around…
Corresponding adjustments and the MAP process When the price charged for goods or services sold between related parties is not in accordance with the arm’s length principle, Article 9(1) of the OECD Model authorizes the tax authorities of a State to make primary adjustments to the transfer price. This may trigger economic double taxation as…
I wrote in my last blog that despite its impact, corporate tax avoidance is one of the lesser debated issues in India. This is what I wrote: “Multinational tax avoidance has almost never made it to the front pages of popular Indian newspapers and has never been discussed on primetime TV news debates. That corporate…
There has been much brouhaha about equalization levies in the context of the digital economy. One of the hotly debated issues is whether such levies are covered by tax treaties at all. In this post, I should like to reflect over this issue as objectively as possible. I shall not, however, delve into issues of…
On 16 April 2019, the European Parliament (EP) voted in favour of the proposed Directive on the protection of persons reporting on breaches of Union law (hereinafter “the Directive”).[1]Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of persons reporting on breaches of Union law (SWD(2018) 116 final and…
