Pascal Saint-Amans pre-empts criticism of final OECD BEPS guidance

International Tax Review is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 1-2 Paris Garden, London, SE1 8ND

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2025

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

Pascal Saint-Amans pre-empts criticism of final OECD BEPS guidance

Pascal Saint-Amans, director of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, has pre-empted criticism of the final BEPS package of measures released today.

The final package has been published on the OECD's website today and will be presented at the G20 meeting in Peru later this week.

The tax chief expects non-governmental organisations (NGO) to be the biggest critics of the OECD’s efforts but thinks taxpayers will have some concerns as well.

“NGOs will say that nothing has happened,” said Saint-Amans in a pre-BEPS release interview with TPWeek. “Whatever we do, that will be the complaint.”

He said NGO criticism is about keeping tax avoidance high on their tax campaign agendas.

He also thinks the OECD may be criticised for not going far enough towards formulary apportionment (FA).

FA is an alternative to the arm’s-length principle that would see developing countries, which have a bigger emphasis on people functions over intellectual property, take a larger share of tax profits.

Saint-Amans said, in response, that the BEPS guidance is a consensus of all countries involved, including non-OECD members such as India, China and Brazil.

Without this agreement, the guidance could not have been finalised because the countries that have reached consensus (OECD members and those in the G20) will go on to implement BEPS measures in their tax regimes.

Multinational enterprises are likely to be concerned, and critical, that the recommendations will create uncertainty.

“My response to that is “Yes, it’s not untrue”.”

Uncertainty is likely, for instance, when governments will need to interpret the guidance to apply it to national legislation. This could create discrepancies and differences in different countries, particularly those where English is not the first language.

“But how do you measure that in a dynamic approach? What would have happened without this project? There is more consensus now than there was years ago.”

However, in subsequent interviews with taxpayers, there is a concern that the uncertainties connected to this guidance will develop further over time and the OECD will not be able to keep pace with international business in order to solve them.

"I think what we will find over time is that, due to the emphasis on combatting the perceived abuses of today, there will be a lack of balance in the approaches that will result, over time, in modifications to many of the recommendations made [in the final guidance]," said Mike Patton, partner, DLA Piper, Los Angeles.

Saint-Amans used Brazil, India and China as an example, explaining that, because of the work on the BEPS action plan, there are now mutual agreement processes in place in these countries.

“But what about the praise?” Saint-Amans asked. “People were sceptical of our ability to deliver anything.”

He added that now the guidance is finalised, the next step will be advising on implementation and monitoring how the guidance is implemented, with an emphasis on tax administrations.

To see how taxpayers and their advisers have reacted, internationally, view our follow-up content by clicking here.



more across site & shared bottom lb ros

More from across our site

Veteran Elizabeth Arrendale will lead the new advisory practice, which will support clients with M&A tax structuring, post-deal integration, and more
MAP cases keep increasing, and cases closed aren’t keeping pace with the number started, the OECD’s Sriram Govind also told an ITR summit
Nobody likes paperwork or paying money, but the assertion that legal accreditation doesn’t offer value to firms and clients alike is false
Ryan hopes the buyout will help it expand into Asia and the Middle East; in other news, three German finance ministers have called for a suspension of pillar two
SKAT, which was represented by Pinsent Masons, had accused Sanjay Shah and other defendants of fraudulent dividend tax refund claims
TP managers must be able to explain technical issues in simple terms, ITR’s European Transfer Pricing Forum heard
Prudential had challenged HMRC over VAT group relief; in other news, Donald Trump unveiled timber and wood tariffs, and the European Commission published a ViDA implementation strategy
Australia’s CbCR rules have ‘widespread support’ and do not put American companies at a competitive disadvantage, the FACT Coalition said
Baker McKenzie advised two of the member firms involved, while several advisers provided transaction counsel to US-based Grant Thornton Advisors
Foreign remittance requirements put additional administrative burden on Indian law firms and strain their relationship with foreign associate firms, according to practitioners
Gift this article