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…
On 6 March 2018 the Grand Chamber of the CJEU ruled in the Achmea decision (C-284/16) that the bilateral investment treaty (BIT) between The Netherlands and the Slovak Republic violated EU law because it allowed an arbitral tribunal to interpret provisions of EU law in a dispute between investors and (Member) States, while such interpretation…
Increased focus on taxation of cross-border situations involving both individuals and companies is one of the key features of the post-BEPS international tax environment. One central aspect of this is increased administrative cooperation between tax administrations in exchange of information and assistance in recovery of taxes. Territoriality principle Recent UK decisions have emphasised the need…
Introduction The financial crisis had made multinational enterprises (MNE) look inward for funding options, as external sources of capital were not readily available. Among various intra group-financing possibilities, cash pooling among group members is undoubtedly one of the most important tools to facilitate cash management. Even though tax authorities recognize the commercial rationale of such…
On 21 March, the European Commission will publish a proposal for a two-fold strategy to reform the taxation of digital companies like Google and Facebook. The most recent draft of the proposal that has been distributed on March 15 suggests that one should lower one’s expectations. Last autumn, a group of EU Finance Ministers propelled…
The Spanish Supreme Court recently issued (February 19, Spanish version here) a long awaited judgment confirming that the Spanish inheritance tax legal framework breaches the free movement of capital when taxing non-EU residents on Spanish assets received through inheritance. The origin of this discrimination is the Spanish regional inheritance taxation system, under which Spanish regions…
Non-inclusion of the Swiss-United Kingdom income tax treaty in the list of Covered Tax Agreements of both the states on signing the BEPS MLI on 7 June 2017 surprised some observers. This evident gap between two OECD member countries was quickly filled by a protocol to the Swiss-United Kingdom treaty concluded on 30 November 2017….
On February 1, 2018, Indian Finance Minister presented the country’s latest Budget, which contains an international tax proposal that may not send a positive message to foreign companies doing business with India. The Budget proposes to amend the definition of “business connection” stipulated in Explanation 2 to section 9(1)(i) of the Income Tax (IT) Act…
