Addressing base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) is a key priority of governments. In 2013, OECD and G20 countries, working together on an equal footing, adopted a 15-point Action Plan to address BEPS. This publication is the final report for Action 7.

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.

Addressing base erosion and profit shifting is a key priority of governments around the globe. This Explanatory Statement offers an overview of the BEPS Project and outcomes.

This report presents studies and data available regarding the existence and magnitude of base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS), and contains an overview of global developments that have an impact on corporate tax matters.

Attribution of Profits to Permanent Establishments: Issues and Developments The profit attribution to permanent establishments is one of the most controversial topics in international tax law. In recent years it was subject to various changes based on the introduction of the “Authorized OECD Approach” in 2008 and 2010, the outcomes of Final Report on OECD BEPS Action 7 and the Final Report on “Additional Guidance on the Attribution of Profits to a Permanent Establishment under BEPS Action 7” from 2018 (with the previous Discussion-Drafts). This publication discusses the most important issues and recent developments related to the attribution of profits to permanent establishments. Starting with an in-depth analysis on the commonalities and differences between the profit attribution provisions in modern double tax treaties (ie Art 7 AOA vs Art 9 OECD/UN Models), it further deals with topics such as profit attribution to PEs and PE exemptions (Art 5 para 4), profit attribution to agency PEs (Art 5 para 5 and 6), and profit attribution to a "significant economic presence" and to market states. This book is based on the outcomes of the presentations and discussions held during the WU Transfer Pricing Symposium that took place in October 2019 at the WU Vienna University of Economics and Business. The authors, apart from providing a theoretical background to the discussed issues, also present case studies that show how certain issues can be approached in practice. Every chapter ends with a summary of the opinions on the issues at stake of representatives of tax administrations, multinationals and tax advisories, which completes this essential practical guideline.

Value Creation and its effects on Transfer Pricing and tax law Emerging from the OECD/G20 BEPS Project, a new, somewhat fuzzy notion of Value Creation came to permeate not only Transfer Pricing language but also wider allocation rules and anti-abuse provisions in international tax law. The notion of ‘Value Creation’ reframes the interpretation and application of the Arm’s Length Principle (ALP) that is embedded in Articles 7 and 9 of the OECD Model Convention. This new Value Creation notion and approach assist in understanding key enterprise functions while different industry sectors manifest these concepts in various ways. Situating such notions and this approach within the law of tax treaties and analyzing terms of the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines alongside their factual context is the aim of this book. Here, law students address Transfer Pricing and Value Creation in sectors as varied as commodities trade, automotive, consumer products, food and beverages, pharmaceutical and life sciences, telecommunications, and the key topic of value creation in a digitalized economy. Our LL.M. students were required to address issues not explored in legal research and to discuss factual topics relevant for Transfer Pricing. All students focused on topics that are new to the international tax debate that keep evolving and on factual matters that often escape legal research.

Permanent Establishments (PEs) are a key facet of international taxation. They constitute the crucial threshold for the assignment of taxing rights to a jurisdiction in all cases of enterprises operating in more than one country. The issue of whether there is a PE, and how much profit should be allocated to it, is an increasingly important factor in tax planning, tax accounting, tax compliance, and related tax risk management. Groundbreaking developments have reshaped the face of the classical PE concept during the year 2017. Following action item no. 7 of the Anti-BEPS efforts of G20 and OECD, the OECD has presented the Multilateral Instrument (MLI) on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting in June 2017. Based on the MLI as well as earlier drafts, Article 5 of the OECD Model Tax Convention and the Official Commentary have been amended in November 2017. Similarly, Article 7 of the OECD Model Tax Convention on the allocation of income in PE situations is influenced by the October 2015 OECD BEPS proposals. This academically rigorous yet thoroughly practical work provides comprehensive guidance on a variety of complex PE issues. Its initial chapters analyse the latest OECD and EU developments in the context of Articles 5 and 7 of the OECD Model Tax Convention. 21 country chapters cover domestic PE issues as well as country-specific treaty developments from a practical perspective. Contributors: Fabrizio Acerbis, Maret Ansperi, Yumiko Arai, Ákos Burján, Anna Berglund, Peter Collins, Mike Cooper, David Cuellar, Veronika Daurer, Frank Feng, Mikhail Filinov, Sandra Fleurier, Jose Antonio Gonzalez, Herbert Greinecker, Søren Jesper Hansen, Lars Ellegård Holst, Mauricio Hurtado, Martin Jann, Renaud Jouffroy, David Lermer, Peter Lindblad, Iren Lipre, Jessica Ma, Anna Mallol, Dennis Matthijs, Hamish McElwee, Kunal Mehta, Osman Mollagee, Matthew Mui, Ramón Mullerat, Luis Felipe Muñoz, Stephen Nauheim, Francesco Nuzzolo, Yoshiyasu Okada, Marianne Orell, Oren Penn, Martin Poulsen, Lene Munk Rasmussen, Ekkehart Reimer, Daniel Rinke, Stefan Schmid, Mathias Schreiber, Vishal J. Shah, Smit Sheth, Tom Stuer, Maarten Temmerman, Eszter Turcsik, Hein Vermeulen, Huili Wang, Sonia Watson, Ciska Wisman, Raymond Wong & Alan Yam.