Browse by: "2015"

This report contains revised standards for transfer pricing documentation incorporating a master file, local file, and a template for country-by-country reporting of revenues, profits, taxes paid and certain measures of economic activity. The revised standardised approach  will require taxpayers to articulate consistent transfer pricing positions and will provide tax administrations with useful information to assess transfer pricing and other BEPS risks, make determinations about where audit resources can most effectively be deployed, and, in the event audits are called for, provide information to commence and target audit enquiries. Country-by-country reports will be disseminated through an automatic government-to-government exchange mechanism. The implementation package included in this report sets out guidance to ensure that the reports are provided in a timely manner, that confidentiality is preserved and that the information is used appropriately, by incorporating model legislation and model Competent Authority Agreements forming the basis for government-to-government exchanges of the reports.

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are important for their contribution to employment, innovation, economic growth and diversity. This report examines the tax treatment of SMEs, the case for SME preferences, and the use of tax preferences and simplification measures for SMEs in thirty-nine OECD and G20 countries. It finds that many of the tax systems examined provide incentives to incorporate and to distribute income in certain types of capital form. Ideally, taxes should be neutral with regard to the business decisions of SMEs, including decisions related to their creation, form and growth. However, certain features of the tax system may disproportionately affect SMEs, for example, the asymmetric treatment of profits and losses, a bias toward debt over corporate equity, and the higher fixed costs of tax and regulatory compliance for small businesses. This report recommends that measures designed to address these concerns be carefully targeted to affected firms and seek to avoid introducing further distortions and complexity.

The Revenue Statistics in Latin America publication is jointly undertaken by the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, the OECD Development Centre, the Inter American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Inter-American Development bank (IDB). It compiles comparable tax revenue statistics for a number of Latin American and Caribbean economies, the majority of which are not OECD member countries. The model is the OECD Revenue Statistics database which is a fundamental reference, backed by a well-established methodology, for OECD member countries. Extending the OECD methodology to Latin American countries enables comparisons about tax levels and tax structures on a consistent basis, both among Latin American economies and between OECD and Latin American economies.

Revenue Statistics in Asian Countries is jointly undertaken by the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration and the OECD Development Centre. It compiles comparable tax revenue statistics for Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Korea and Japan. The model is the OECD Revenue Statistics database which is a fundamental reference, backed by a well-established methodology, for OECD member countries. Extending the OECD methodology to Asian countries enables comparisons about tax levels and tax structures on a consistent basis, both among Asian economies and between OECD and Asian economies. A special feature in this edition provides country profiles on recent tax administration and related reforms in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Data on government sector receipts, and on taxes in particular, are basic inputs to most structural economic descriptions and economic analyses and are increasingly used in economic comparisons. This annual publication gives a conceptual framework to define which government receipts should be regarded as taxes. It presents a unique set of detailed and internationally comparable tax data in a common format for all OECD countries from 1965 onwards.

This report includes changes to the OECD Model Tax Convention to prevent treaty abuse. It first addresses treaty shopping through alternative provisions that form part of a minimum standard that all countries participating in the BEPS Project have agreed to implement.  It also includes specific treaty rules to address other forms of treaty abuse and ensures that tax treaties do not inadvertently prevent the application of domestic anti-abuse rules. The report finally includes changes to the OECD Model Tax Convention that clarify that tax treaties are not intended to create opportunities for non-taxation or reduced taxation through tax evasion or avoidance (including through treaty-shopping) and that identify the tax policy considerations that countries should consider before deciding to enter into a tax treaty with another country.

This report includes changes to the definition of permanent establishment in the OECD Model Tax Convention that will address strategies used to avoid having a taxable presence in a country under tax treaties. These changes will ensure that where the activities that an intermediary exercises in a country are intended to result in the regular conclusion of contracts to be performed by a foreign enterprise, that enterprise will be considered to have a taxable presence in that country unless the intermediary is performing these activities in the course of an independent business. The changes will also restrict the application of a number of exceptions to the definition of permanent establishment to activities that are preparatory or auxiliary nature and will ensure that it is not possible to take advantage of these exceptions by the fragmentation of a cohesive operating business into several small operations; they will also address situations where the exception applicable to construction sites is circumvented through the splitting-up contracts between closely related enterprises.

This report sets out recommendations for domestic rules to neutralise the effect of hybrid mismatch arrangements and includes changes to the OECD Model Tax Convention to address such arrangements.  Once translated into domestic law, the recommendations in Part 1 of the report will neutralise the effect of cross-border hybrid mismatch arrangements that produce multiple deductions for a single expense or a deduction in one jurisdiction with no corresponding taxation in the other jurisdiction. Part I of the report sets out recommendations for rules to address hybrid mismatches in respect of payments made under a hybrid financial instrument or payments made to or by a hybrid entity.  It also recommends rules to address indirect mismatches that arise when the effects of a hybrid mismatch arrangement are imported into a third jurisdiction. The recommendations are supported by a commentary and examples to illustrate how they should apply. Part 2 of the report sets out proposed changes to the Model Convention that will ensure the benefits of tax treaties are only granted to hybrid entities (including dual resident entities) in appropriate cases.  Part 2 also considers the interaction between the OECD Model Convention and the domestic law recommendations in Part 1.

This publication is the ninth edition of the full version of the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital. This full version contains the full text of the Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital as it read on 15 July 2014, including the Articles, Commentaries, non-member economies positions, the Recommendation of the OECD Council, the historical notes (now expanded to go back to 1963), the detailed list of conventions between OECD member countries and the background reports.

There are hundreds of empirical studies finding evidence of tax-motivated profit shifting, using different data sources and estimation strategies. While measuring the scope of BEPS is challenging given its complexity and existing data limitations, a number of recent studies suggest that BEPS is responsible for significant global corporate income tax (CIT) revenue losses. This report assesses currently available data and concludes that significant limitations severely constrain economic analyses of the scale and economic impact of BEPS and improved data and methodologies are required. Noting these data limitations, a dashboard of six BEPS indicators has been constructed, using different data sources and assessing different BEPS channels. These indicators provide evidence that BEPS exists and has been increasing over time. New empirical analysis estimates that the scale of global CIT revenue losses could be between USD 100 and 240 billion annually at 2014 levels. The report also presents a toolkit to assist countries evaluate the fiscal effects of BEPS countermeasures. The research also finds significant non-fiscal economic distortions arising from BEPS.  The report concludes by making recommendations regarding data and monitoring tools to improve the analysis of BEPS in the future.

The lack of timely, comprehensive and relevant information on aggressive tax planning strategies is one of the main challenges faced by tax authorities worldwide. Mandatory disclosure regimes can enable countries to quickly respond to tax risks by providing early access to such information. This report includes an overview of mandatory disclosure regimes, based on the experiences of countries that have such regimes, and sets out recommendations for a modular framework for use by countries wishing to implement or amend mandatory disclosure rules in order to obtain early information on aggressive or abusive tax planning schemes and their users. The recommendations provide the necessary flexibility to balance a country’s need for better, more timely information with the compliance burdens for taxpayers. This report also sets out specific recommendations for rules targeting international tax schemes, as well as for the development and implementation of more effective information exchange and co-operation between tax administrations.

Improving dispute resolution mechanisms is an integral component of the work on BEPS. The measures developed under Action 14 of the BEPS Project and contained in this report aim to minimize the risks of uncertainty and unintended double taxation. They do so by ensuring the consistent and proper implementation of tax treaties, including the effective and timely resolution of disputes regarding their interpretation or application through the mutual agreement procedure. Countries have agreed to important changes in their approach to dispute resolution, such as a minimum standard with respect to the resolution of treaty-related disputes. They have committed to its rapid implementation and agreed to ensure its effective implementation through the establishment of a robust peer-based monitoring mechanism.  A large group of countries has also committed to provide for mandatory binding arbitration in their bilateral tax treaties as a mechanism to guarantee that treaty-related disputes will be resolved within a specified timeframe.

The mobility and fungibility of money makes it possible for multinational groups to achieve favourable tax results by adjusting the amount of debt in a group entity. The recommended approach ensures that an entity’s net interest deductions are directly linked to its level of economic activity, based on taxable earnings before deducting net interest expense, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA). This approach includes three parts: a fixed ratio rule based on a benchmark net interest/EBITDA ratio; a group ratio rule which allows an entity to deduct more interest expense in certain circumstances based on the position of its worldwide group; and targeted rules to address specific risks. A country may choose not to introduce the group ratio rule, but in this case it should apply the fixed ratio rule to multinational and domestic groups without improper discrimination.

This publication contains the Supplementary Phase 2 Peer Review Report for the British Virgin Islands.