Last month, Dennis Weber started a debate on recent BEPS-related changes to European tax directives with his post on the General Anti-Abuse Rule in the Parent-Subsidiary. I would like to follow up on this with a short discussion of the second anti-avoidance measure introduced last year through Directive 2014/86/EU, which specifically targets hybrid financial instruments…
This is another lone voice cry in the wilderness – I am getting used to that. By 9 September 2015, anyone who has an opinion about further corporate tax transparency in Europe, are invited to file it (or forever hold their peace?). Those opinions must not be filed with DG-Taxud, but the EU General Directorate…
Haydon Perryman’s exclamation this month, in the form of the above title, underlies that the FATCA GIIN update as of August 2015 is that there is little to update in terms of new GIINs. From July until August, the GIIN total registration number only moved up to 171,109 from 168,239. Thus, the IRS release of…
In general terms, the application of anti-hybrid rules proposed by the OECD in Action 2 of the BEPS Project, with the aim of establishing a link between the tax treatment applicable to the remuneration derived from hybrid financial instruments in different jurisdictions, will depend on the fulfillment of four cumulative conditions: (i) the use of…
On August 12, 2015 the IRS released two final revenue procedures impacting the U.S. transfer pricing regime. Revenue Procedure 2015-40 concerns the protocols and procedures for requesting assistance of the U.S. competent authority (CA) and the other, Revenue Procedure 2015-41, the protocols and procedures for seeking an Advance Pricing Agreement with the IRS.[1] In 2013…
On august 7, 2015, OECD released its Update on Voluntary Disclosure Programmes: A pathway to tax compliance, a renewed edition of the survey published in 2010, aimed at providing guidance to governments wishing to offer taxpayers the chance to come forward and become compliant, regularizing their tax affairs and declare income and wealth that have…
Written by Associate Professor, PhD Anders N. Laursen, Department of Law, Aarhus University and Technical Advisor to CORIT Advisory On June 4th 2015 the High Court of Eastern Denmark decided to refer a case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) concerning the Danish mandatory group taxation regime. Also in June 2015, the Commission issued…
The case brings about the opportunity to fill a gap in the Norwegian tax law. In order to determine the fiscal residence of a corporation, the current formula stipulated by art. 2(2) Tax Act uses the notion of ‘belonging to the jurisdiction’, while the OECD model employs the term ‘place of effective management’[1] as a…
The first part of this blog post addressed the incompatibility of the anti-hybrid rule proposed by the OECD to the source state (“primary response”), which restricts the right to deduct the payments made to non-residents, with the non-discrimination provision found in article 24(4) of tax treaties patterned on the OECD MC. In this second part…
On August 5, 2015 Grant Thornton (GT) published their annual International Business Report, a global “mid market survey covering more than 10,000 companies in 35 economies”. Unfortunately, their website only provides summaries; the full report relating to tax is not available on the site. It appears a sensible assumption the mid market companies surveyed engage in cross…
With the declared aim of curbing cross-border tax arbitrage practiced with hybrid financial instruments, the OECD recommended, in Action 2 of the BEPS project, the adoption of anti-hybrid rules, designed to establish a link between the tax treatments applicable to the remuneration derived from financial instruments with characteristics of both equity and debt in the…
The services permanent establishment concept is perhaps the most noteworthy contribution to tax treaties provided by the UN model. The tax treaty concluded by South Africa and the United States in 1997, to replace the one terminated during the apartheid era, has provided an opportunity to consider thorny questions of services and permanent establishments. The…
China has made vast strides in environmental protection in the past decade. The Decision further indicates that “ecological civilization” a key development goal for China. Various schemes are being tried to curb harmful emissions, for example, a cap-and-trade system is already up and running in Shenzhen, Guangdong, and is slated to expand into six other…
In line with BEPS Action 12, the Brazilian President enacted, on July 21, 2015, the Provisional Measure (“MP”) no. 685, creating the obligation for taxpayers to disclose aggressive tax plannings. Even though this MP is enforceable immediately, the actual disclosure still depends on regulations to be issued in the near future. In addition, a MP…
