Search results for

The effective implementation of the arm’s-length principle is closely linked to the availability of information. In transfer pricing, the asymmetry of information between taxpayers and tax administrations can be acute, potentially opening opportunities for BEPS. For this reason, the BEPS Action Plan stressed the need to enhance transparency in general, and for transfer pricing purposes in particular. Andrew Hickman, Samia Abdelghani and Paul Hondius explain these enhancements in the context of Action 13.

Jesse Eggert, Liz Chien, and Eric Robert explain why the digital economy cannot be ring-fenced for tax purposes.

The BEPS package was unveiled on October 5 2015 and endorsed by the G20 finance ministers at their meeting a few days later in Lima and by the G20 leaders at their November summit in Antalya. A little more than two years earlier, the OECD and G20 countries embarked on a significant re-write of the international tax rules to ensure that profits are taxed where economic activities are carried out and value is created. The BEPS package comprises reports on each of the 15 actions identified in the BEPS Action Plan, which was released in July 2013 and on the basis of which the BEPS Project was launched in September of that year. In this overview article David Bradbury, Achim Pross, Marlies de Ruiter, and Raffaele Russo take stock of what has been achieved over the last two years and look to the new challenges ahead. The following articles contain a detailed overview of each of the 15 actions.

The idea of substantial activity is central to the work on harmful tax practices, as Kate Ramm explains.

The 2013 BEPS Action Plan stressed that improving the availability and analysis of data on BEPS is critical, including to monitor the implementation of the Action Plan. Tom Neubig and Bob Cline explain how the Action 11 Final Report, Measuring and Monitoring BEPS, addresses this challenge.

Transfer pricing was pointed to as a root cause of the erosion of countries’ tax bases even before the BEPS Project materialised. Andrew Hickman, Melinda Brown and Mayra Lucas explore the transfer pricing-specific aspects of the project.

The 2013 BEPS Action Plan recognised that “actions to counter BEPS must be complemented with actions that ensure certainty and predictability for business”. Edward Barret and Evelyn Lio track the work of Action 14 of the BEPS Action Plan, which called for work to improve the effectiveness of the mutual agreement procedure (MAP) and thereby address obstacles that currently prevent countries from solving treaty-related disputes and minimise as much as possible elements of uncertainty related to the interpretation and application of novel rules resulting from the other work on BEPS issues.

Work on Action 4 identified three key areas of risk that must be addressed to protect countries from BEPS involving interest, say Mark Johnson and Oliver Petzold.

With the final deadlines for the OECD’s BEPS Project falling at the end of this year, 2016 was always going to be a year dominated by questions about implementation. While BEPS-related activity is not the only issue on the horizon, that alone will ensure multinationals are kept busy over the next 12 months. Joe Stanley-Smith and Matthew Gilleard look through the peephole to analyse taxpayer hopes, fears and expectations for the year ahead.

Kate Ramm explains how the building blocks approach will lead to effective controlled foreign company rules.