Brussels, 2 October 2017 1.Meeting of the OECD Forum on Tax Administration in Oslo The 11th Plenary meeting of the OECD Forum on Tax Administration took place in Oslo on 29 September 2017. The Forum on Tax Administration brought together tax commissioners of the most advanced tax administrations worldwide, including OECD and G20 countries, to […]

Brussels, 25 September 2017 1. Fair taxation of the Digital Economy – European Commission publishes communication to the European parliament and Council Days after taxing the digital economy took centre stage at the informal ECOFIN meeting in Estonia, the European Commission published its communication to the European Parliament and Council entitled, ‘A fair and Efficient […]

Brussels, 18 September 2017 1.Digital Economy – focus of informal ECOFIN over weekend. Estonian Presidency position The challenges posed by the digital economy to fair taxation in the EU took centre stage at the informal ECOFIN meeting in Estonia on 15 & 16 September. The Estonian Presidency highlighted that the current tax rules are out […]

Brussels, 11 September 2017 1.Estonian presidency to propose EU rules for a ‘virtual Permanent Establishment’ The Estonian presidency of the Council of the European Union will propose amendments of the definition and concept of Permanent Establishment (‘PE’). The document that had been leaked and was reported by Reuters should be discussed at the informal meeting […]

4 September 2017 1.EU wins WTO dispute with Brazil over tax subsidies The World Trade Organisation dispute settlement panel issued a ruling in the case of Brazilian tax subsidies, in one of the most comprehensive disputes launched by the European Union. WTO panel found that Brazilian tax subsidy schemes are illegal under the World Trade […]

28 August 2017 1.European Commission advances with EU blacklist work  The European Commission is advancing with its work on establishing a list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes. According to a document analysed by Bloomberg, EU member states are considering options for various sanctions for blacklisted countries, including a flexible approach that would allow Member […]

21 August 2017 1.Publication of comments received on the OECD Model Tax Convention 2017 Update The OECD published the comments received on the 2017 update on the Model Tax Convention (“MTC”). Draft contents was released on 11 July 2017 with respect to the changes in relation to paragraph 13 of the Commentary on Article 4 […]

31 July 2017 1.OECD publishes report on neutralising the effects of branch mismatch arrangements (BEPS Action 2) A branch mismatches occurs where two jurisdictions apply different classifications to the allocation of income or expenditure  between, the branch in head office of the same taxpayer.  In 2015 as part of the BEPS Project, the OECD released […]