Time is a crucial dimension in the application of any law. In tax law, however, where an environment characterized by rapid change on the national, European, and international levels complicates the provision of accurate legal advice, timing is particularly sensitive. This book is the first to analyse the relationship between time and three key areas of tax: treaties, EU law, and constitutional law issues, such as legal certainty and individual rights. Among the numerous timing issues arising out of applying tax rules, the book addresses the following: – time limits within which relief must be requested; – statutes of limitation for claiming a tax refund; – transitional issues relating to changes in tax treaties; – attribution of profits and expenses to a moving or closed-down business; – effect of tax-related CJEU decisions and EU directives; – compliance of exit tax regimes with free movement; – limits of retroactivity under principles protected by the EU Charter and the ECHR; and – conflict between efficiency of taxation and individual rights. Derived from a recent conference organized by the prestigious ATOZ Chair for European and International Taxation at the University of Luxembourg, the book brings together contributions from leading tax experts from various areas of tax practice, academia, and the judiciary. Among other issues, the book notably expands on how economic theory can inform a constitutional analysis of the timing of taxation. There is no other work that concentrates so usefully on the difficulties associated with applying tax rules – whether arising from treaties, jurisprudence, or policy – to changing circumstances over time. This book will quickly prove itself to be an indispensable resource for European tax lawyers, policymakers, company counsels, and academics.

This publication is the tenth 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 as it read on 21 November 2017, including the Articles, Commentaries, non-member economies’ positions, ...

This book presents an overview of the materials, court cases and mutual agreement procedures implemented in Canada, USA and Mexcio. In addition, it provides a background to the development of tax treaty law and the information necessary to interpret a tax treaty based upon the principles codified in the Vienna Convention of the Law of Treaties. Contents: the background of the early model tax conventions; the development of tax treaty law; the specific materials from Canada, the United States and Mexico; proposal for a trilateral tax treaty for North America to provide full relief from the harmful barriers against free movement of capital and services.

The book describes the difficulties of the current international corporate income tax system. It starts by describing its origins and how changes, such as the development of multinational enterprises and digitalization have created fundamental problems, not foreseen at its inception. These include tax competition—as governments try to attract tax bases through low tax rates or incentives, and profit shifting, as companies avoid tax by reporting profits in jurisdictions with lower tax rates. The book then discusses solutions, including both evolutionary changes to the current system and fundamental reform options. It covers both reform efforts already under way, for example under the Inclusive Framework at the OECD, and potential radical reform ideas developed by academics.

In international tax law, the term ‘beneficial ownership’ refers to which parties involved in a cross-border transaction are entitled to tax treaty benefits. However, determining beneficial ownership is a complex and often disputed issue, subject to different meanings in different countries. Archival research on its early use in tax treaties and in the developing OECD Model reveals that its meaning has changed dramatically over the decades, leading to new interpretations significantly affecting current tax practice and scholarship. This book, dedicated to establishing how beneficial ownership should ideally be interpreted, compares the use and interpretation of benefi-cial ownership, both current and historical, in a wide range of national jurisdictions as well as the EU, ultimately shedding a clearer light than has heretofore been available on the meaning of the term. In her very thorough analysis of the application of beneficial ownership, the author touches on such aspects as the following: – historical development of the beneficial ownership requirement as used in tax treaties and in the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital; – rules of double taxation conventions; – application of the OECD’s Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit-Shifting (BEPS); – the problem of so-called ‘white income’; – use of the substance-over-form principle; – attribution-of-income rules; and – the role of agents, nominees, and conduit companies. Specific analysis of the use and interpretation of beneficial ownership in a domestic law and treaty context in numerous jurisdictions – with particular emphasis on the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, and Germany – is a major feature of the presentation. As a thorough guide to determining whether a person claiming tax treaty benefits is the true owner – and which parties are excluded from treaty benefits and to what extent – this book will be of immeasurable value to lawyers, tax authorities, policymakers, and other professionals working with taxable international transactions of any kind.

A new edition of the preeminent work on the permanent establishment (PE) is a major event in tax law scholarship. Taking into account changes in judicial and administrative practice as well as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD’s) and the United Nation’s (UN’s) work in the three decades since the first edition, the present study brings the analysis up to date with the current internationally accepted interpretation of PE. The analysis is based on more than 720 cases from more than 20 countries, in addition to the OECD and UN model treaties and more than 630 books, articles, and official documents. The increased significance of the digital economy has rendered the traditional concept of PE inadequate for the allocation of taxing jurisdiction over the modern, mobile or digital international business. The author’s in-depth analysis explains the legal elements of the PE principle with attention to their continuing benefit and their shortcomings: criteria defining a PE- place of business, location, right of use, duration, business connection, business activity, ordinary course of business; evidence of a right of use to a place of business; business activities included in the PE concept of the tax treaties; identification of projects offshore and onshore; UN model treaty deviations from the OECD agency clause; distinction between jurisdictions with significant natural resources and countries possessing the capital, technology and know-how necessary to explore and exploit these resources; and how policies in each country may erode the PE concept. The book provides many synopses of court decisions and administrative rulings upon which the analysis is based. In addition to cases previously published in law reports and other publications, a number of unpublished decisions are included. A key word index makes it easy to find what is needed in any particular matter. The PE principle, in one version or another, is used in several thousand tax treaties in force today. This updated comprehensive study reveals the obligations imposed through the use of PE in tax treaties and will continue to be of immeasurable value to tax practitioners and scholars worldwide. In addition, the discussion of whether the notion of PE is an appropriate criterion for taxing jurisdiction in international fiscal law today provides authoritative and insightful food for thought.