Agreement on automatic exchange of information within the EU
On 6 October 2015, the EU Finance Ministers reached political agreement in the Council to amend Directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation. The revised directive will require member states to automatically exchange a basic set of information on advance cross-border tax rulings (rulings) and advance pricing arrangements (APAs), both of which
Automatic exchange of information of advance cross-border tax rulings from 1 January 2017
On 6 October 2015, the EU Finance Ministers reached political agreement in the Council to amend the existing Directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation (“the Directive”). The Directive will require the Member States to automatically exchange a basic set of information on advance cross-border tax rulings (“rulings”) and advance pricing arrangements
OECD recommendations on BEPS proposals for G20 and wider take-up
On 5 October 2015, multinational enterprises (“MNEs”) received final recommendations from the OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting (“BEPS”) project. This week, the G20 Finance Ministers are likely to agree on these OECD recommended changes to the international tax rules and to implementation plans. A number of non-G20 countries have also been involved in work
OECD is heading toward consensus on interest limitation rules
The OECD and country representatives of the OECD Working Party 11 (‘WP11’) are likely to recommend in the BEPS action plan that local interest limitation rules should focus primarily on an interest/EBITDA cap, whereby countries may set the cap within certain boundaries (30% and 10% likely to be put forward as upper and lower limits). As
Belgium: agreement on tax shift
On 23 July 2015, the Belgian federal government reached an agreement on the so-called “tax shift”. The tax shift is mainly aimed at i) reducing the tax burden on labour, ii) improving the competitiveness of Belgian companies and iii) creating more jobs. It involves the introduction of a number of new tax measures that may impact
OECD releases model documents for implementing BEPS country-by-country reporting
On 8 June 2015, the OECD released a “Country-by-Country Reporting Implementation Package”. The package includes model legislation the OECD suggests could be used by countries to mandate filing of country-by-country reports (“CbCRs”). The model legislation does not attempt to address the filing of the so-called master file or local file reports. The key takeaway is
OECD Discussion Draft on transfer pricing aspects of hard-to-value intangibles published
The OECD has published a discussion draft on the arm’s length pricing of intangibles when valuation is highly uncertain at the time of the transaction or the intangibles are hard to value. The discussion draft, released on 4 June 2015, is part of Action Item 8 of the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS)
European Commission takes the next step in its EU-wide State aid review of tax ruling practices
On 8 June 2015, the European Commission announced its next steps in its EU-wide State aid review of Member States’ tax ruling practices. The European Commission states in its press release that, following the December 2014 enquiry, Estonia and Poland refused to respond in full detail to the information request. Therefore, the Commission has now
