Is tax avoidance a bad thing? The international tax community seems recently to adopt an almost unanimous position: Yes, it is supposedly a very bad thing, as it not only reduces public revenue, but also makes taxation “less fair”, since tax-avoiding taxpayers do not pay their “fair share”. It is surprising how unanimous is this…
Probably without noticing it, Colombia did not take into account that signing the recent DTT with France would allow some treaty-covered taxpayers to claim Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN) protection. Some of Colombia’s DTTs, as the ones signed with Spain, Chile, Switzerland, Portugal and Mexico, include Most-Favoured-Nation clauses with respect to royalties. In this sense, it is important…
“Improper and plainly undermines legal certainty and the rule of law.” This is how four U.S. senators – including the Chairman and Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee – recently described the European Commission’s State aid investigation into tax rulings by Member States, including into Ireland’s tax treatment of Apple. Of course the…
The EU Commission and EU Parliament want to settle for nothing less than public country-by-country-reporting, in direct conflict with G20 BEPS adoption resolution. For many good reasons, business in Europe is opposed to such publication. I do not need to dwell on the arguments here. These are widely available. My interest has been piqued by…
When UK voters went to the polls on 23 June 2016 and voted by a slim majority to leave the European Union, few of them had in mind the impact on taxation. Future generations are unlikely to view it kindly. Looked at from the present the dominating features are uncertainty and disruption of settled tax…
1. The Tendency We live in a time where the media, politicians, NGOs and activists increasingly are preoccupied with international tax matters. A simultaneous preoccupation is observed among the OECD, G20, EU countries and most other developed countries alike. This has led to continuously increasing regulatory requirements and strengthened legislation towards companies. The tendency is…
Change is the only constant! As businesses find new ways to operate, tax authorities are finding new ways to tax. All is fair in the world of taxes! The tax world has been brimming with, news and claims of tax avoidance. Tax has become representative of responsible corporate behaviour, governance and citizenry, and some big…
On 6 June 2016, the European Commission finally released its decision in the McDonald’s State Aid case. After the clarifications recently provided on the Commission’s position concerning transfer pricing cases and the arm’s length principle (see especially its decision in the Belgian Excess Profits Exemption Scheme, §§ 145–150, clarifying the Commission’s reliance on an independent…
1. The international context: OECD giant steps towards international transparency Last year OECD released its Update on Voluntary Disclosure Programs: A pathway to tax compliance, a renewed edition of the survey published in 2010; the 2015 update was aimed at providing guidance to governments wishing to offer taxpayers the chance to come forward and become…
William Byrnes with Haydon Perryman This month we turn our attention to the recently revised 2016 W-8BEN-E form which has 30 parts over eight pages that can be catalogued into four sections. The IRS released its previous substantial update of the W-8BEN-E in February 2014 and in April 2016 its most recent revisionary updated form with accompanying…
Volume 44, Issue 5 contains: ARTICLES: Roland ISMER, Sophia PIOTROWSKI, ‘A BIT Too Much: Or How Best to Resolve Tax Treaty Disputes?’ Abstract: State to state disputes under tax treaties are increasingly open for mandatory arbitration when intergovernmental negotiations do not reach a timely agreement. The present contribution seeks to understand this procedure. It also…
I want to talk about TP documentation. If what I say seems a little crazy, then at least of part of it is to be deliberately provocative. I attended a wonderful TP conference in London in March with many knowledgeable speakers, but one (shocking) question lingers in my mind. In a workshop, the workshop leader…
I recently participated in a seminar on tax & innovation in Naples, my home town where I stay often to arrange personal issues, which has a sparkling start-up community, in an increasingly conducive ecosystem. I was trying to remain engaging for non-tax folks and not sleep them out with tax technical issues, so I structured my short…
In highly dramatic fashion the French tax authorities and IT specialists raided Google’s headquarters and McDonalds. I don’t own Google stock. I’m not in favor of Google’s near monopoly on search (though it has accomplished this by offering a really great product and (free) work tools that make my life much easier). I don’t eat…
