Despite tremendous efforts from OECD/G20 to keep the domestication of BEPS outcomes as smoothly as possible, the current international tax scenario is a rough, somehow agitated transition aimed at reaching a much more inter-nation equitable system where, progressively and within a more or less foreseeable future, the national tax base is expected to be better…
IRS Operational Update: Reorganization and Risk-Based Approach The IRS new Large Business and International (LB&I) risk approach has been implemented in the form of “campaigns”, focusing on weighing the size of the compliance risk, how often the risk is occurring, where it is occurring and if the risk is a result of a promoted scheme….
The decision of the CJEU in Republic of Austria v Federal Republic of Germany (Case C-648/15) on 12 September 2017 is a landmark decision in tax treaty dispute resolution. Han Verhagen raised important questions about the Court as an arbitrator for tax treaty disputed in his blog-post on 13 September 2017. One obvious benefit in…
In March I blogged about the first OECD draft guidance on the allocation of profits to commissionaire and other PE’s. Looking at the June OECD draft, further ideas have come up as to why the allocation of profits to absentees is not a good transfer pricing idea. I have great respect for the OECD’s work…
On 12 September 2017, the CJEU confirmed that it has jurisdiction over a dispute between Austria and Germany regarding the interpretation of a double tax convention entered into between the two Member States under article 273 TFEU.[1]CJEU 12 September 2017, case number C-648/15, Opinion delivered by Advocate-General Mengozzi on 27 April 2017. The case was…
As widely reported, the signing ceremony of the Multilateral Convention to implement tax treaty related measures to prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (“MLI”) took place on 7 June 2017, in Paris, with the participation of Ministers and other high-level political representatives from various countries around the world. Besides the United States, which from the…
Limited Liability Companies have become one of the most common forms of business organisation in the United States. Their main attraction is a combination of limited liability for LLC members and structural flexibility that can be adapted to almost any business requirement. US federal income tax seeks to eliminate double taxation of profits in the…
“The judge who always likes the results he reaches is a bad judge,” Justice Antonin Scalia had famously said. A recent ruling delivered by the Bengaluru Bench of the Indian Income Tax Tribunal in ABB FZ-LLC vs. Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax (pronounced on June 21, 2017) is a case in point. In what was a…
The objective of the EU Merger Directive (“MD”) is to remove tax obstacles to cross-border restructuring operations while safeguarding the financial interests of the Member States.[1] In aligning these two aims, the MD employs a carry-over relief mechanism at both company and shareholder level. Through the carry-over mechanism at shareholder level, laid down in Article…
More and more soccer players hit the newspapers because they are not just creative in the soccer stadiums but also in dealing with their tax returns. Recently we have seen the press reporting on Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo. Let I make instantly clear to you that I have no knowledge at all about soccer…
This contribution lays down a general plan for what the EU should do in order to attain a harmonized set of norms regulating the allocation of taxing rights among Member States and in the relation between those States and third countries, which would benefit both Member States and their taxpayers by eliminating several instances of…
Google’s international corporate structure and operating model has featured significantly in the political and legal debate about the taxation of multinational companies, particularly in the technology sector. Although presented in anonymous form, “Rco Group”, engaged in internet search and advertising services described in the OECD BEPS Action 1, Addressing the Tax Challenges of the Digital…
On 22 June 2017, the OECD released for public comment the revised discussion draft on the application of the profit split method, which intends to continue the work developed in the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines and, in more details, in the BEPS Actions 8-10, whose motto aims to assure that transfer pricing outcomes are in…
Intermediaries (such as: tax advisors, accountants, banks, and lawyers) who design tax structures are now on the Commission’s radar. She recently proposed extensive transparency rules on the basis of which information about cross-border tax structures – bearing certain ‘hallmarks’ – will now have to be reported by the intermediary to the national tax authority (‘reporting…
