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BEPS Actions
Base Erosion and Profit Shifting
There are 15 BEPS Actions that are currently being considered and worked on by the OECD. For each of the Actions, there are factors to consider such as the timing, impact and potential impact on policy. The OECD/G20 has set a number of deadlines to conclude on the BEPS Actions.
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- BEPS Action 6
- BEPS Action 7
- BEPS Action 8, 9 , 10 - Overview
- BEPS Action 8
- BEPS Action 9
- BEPS Action 10
- BEPS Action 11
- BEPS Action 12
- BEPS Action 13
- BEPS Action 14
- BEPS Action 15
Action 1: Digital economy
Action 1 addresses the tax challenges of the digital economy and aims to identify and address the main challenges that the digital economy poses for the existing international tax rules.
A discussion draft was released by the OECD in Spring 2014. Following comments from interested parties and a public consultation meeting in April 2014, the OECD paper on Action 1 was published in September 2014. It should be noted that the G20 and OECD intend that final recommendations will form a comprehensive and cohesive approach. As a result, while some of the proposed solutions have been agreed, they are not yet finalised and may be affected by other Actions or decisions and future work on BEPS in 2015.
An additional discussion draft was released by the OECD in December 2014 and comments on the discussion draft were published in February 2015.
Further work is expected in 2015 to evaluate a number of broader tax challenges raised by the digital economy, as discussed in the OECD paper.
Related links:
- OECD.org: Comments on discussion draft (February 2015)
- OECD.org: OECD discussion draft (December 2014)
- OECD.org: OECD paper (September 2014)
- OECD.org: Comments on discussion draft (April 2014)
- OECD.org: OECD discussion draft (March 2014)
Action 2: Hybrids
Action 2 aims to neutralise the effects of hybrid mismatch arrangements. The OECD intends to do this by making changes to the model tax convention and providing recommendations on the design of domestic rules to prevent hybrids from being a source of ‘double non-taxation’.
Discussion drafts on Action 2 were released by the OECD in Spring 2014. Following comments from interested parties, the OECD paper on Action 2 was published in September 2014. Part 1 of the paper contains recommendations for the design of domestic rules and Part 2 of the paper contains the OECD’s recommendation on treaty issues.
Guidance, in the form of a detailed Commentary to enable domestic adoption, is expected to be issued no later than September 2015. The Commentary will supplement Part 1 of the paper, explaining the recommended rules and illustrating their application with practical examples.
It should be noted that the G20 and OECD intend that final recommendations will form a comprehensive and cohesive approach. As a result, some of the proposed reforms are not yet finalised as they may be affected by decisions and future work on BEPS in 2015, especially Action 3 (CFC) and Action 4 (Interest).
Related links:
- OECD.org: OECD paper (September 2014)
- OECD.org: Comments on discussion draft (May 2014)
- OECD.org: OECD discussion draft (Treaty issues) (March 2014)
- OECD.org: OECD discussion draft (Recommendations for domestic laws) (March 2014)
Action 3: CFCs
Action 3 aims to develop recommendations regarding the design and strengthening of controlled foreign company rules, to address concerns over the possibility of creating affiliated non-resident taxpayers and routing income of a resident enterprise through the non-resident affiliate to reduce or avoid taxation.
A discussion draft was released by the OECD in April 2015.
Related links:
- OECD.org: OECD discussion draft (April 2015)
Action 4: Interest deductions
Action 4 aims to limit base erosion via interest deductions and other financial payments. Recommendations are expected to be published for domestic law limitations on tax deductions for both related and unrelated party interest expense and economically equivalent payments. The workstream will also develop guidance for the transfer pricing of debt.
A discussion draft was published by the OECD in December 2014. Interested parties were invited to submit comments by 6 February 2015 and a public consultation will be held in February 2015.
Related links:
- OECD.org: Comments on discussion draft (February 2015)
- OECD.org: OECD discussion draft (December 2014)
Action 5: Harmful tax practices
Action 5 aims to identify and counter harmful tax practices, taking into account transparency and substance. The Action Plan will look at developing recommendations on the definition of harmful tax practices, and developing a strategy to expand to non-OECD members.
An interim report was issued by the OECD in September 2014, setting out the progress made to date on Action 5. Its main focus was on intangible regimes such as patent boxes. Following the report, the UK and Germany put forward proposals endorsing the ‘modified nexus’ approach, which is predicated on a link between the expenditure incurred to develop patents and the income that those patents generate. On 6 February 2015, the OECD announced that the proposals have now been agreed by all OECD and G20 countries, and therefore present a consensus position.
Related links:
- OECD.org: OECD paper (September 2014)
Action 6: Prevent treaty abuse
Action 6 aims to prevent treaty abuse, through developing model treaty provisions and recommendations regarding the design of domestic rules to prevent the granting of treaty benefits in inappropriate circumstances.
A discussion draft was released by the OECD in March 2014. Following comments from interested parties, the OECD paper on Action 6 was published in September 2014. The report contains model provisions and related Commentary, but these should be considered as drafts that are subject to refinement. Final versions are expected to be released in September 2015.
A discussion draft on follow-up work was released in November 2014. Comments received from interested parties in response to this draft were published in January 2015, following which a public consultation took place at the end of January 2015.
Related links:
- OECD.org: Comments on discussion draft (January 2015)
- OECD.org: OECD discussion draft on follow-up work (November 2014)
- OECD.org: OECD paper (September 2014)
- OECD.org: Comments on discussion drafts (April 2014)
- OECD.org: OECD discussion draft (March 2014)
Action 7: Permanent establishment status
Action 7 aims to prevent the artificial avoidance of Permanent Establishment (“PE”) status, by redefining the threshold for creating a PE to prevent base erosion and profit shifting. The work includes a focus on the use of commissionaires and keeps some specific activity exemptions, including for warehousing.
A discussion draft was released by the OECD in October 2014. Comments received from interested parties in response to this draft were published in January 2015, following which a public consultation took place at the end of January 2015.
Related links:
- OECD.org: Comments on discussion draft (January 2015)
- OECD.org: OECD discussion draft (October 2014)
Actions 8, 9 and 10: Transfer Pricing
Actions 8, 9 and 10 objective is that transfer pricing outcomes are in line with value creation, by requiring that the attribution of value for tax purposes is consistent with economic activity generating that value.
It should be noted that the G20 and OECD intend that final transfer pricing recommendations will form a comprehensive and cohesive approach. As a result, where proposed solutions have been agreed, they are not yet finalized and may be affected by decisions and future work on BEPS in 2015.
A discussion draft on revisions to Chapter 1 of the OECD’s Transfer Pricing Guidelines (including risk, recharacterisation and special measures) was released in December 2014. This draft covers Actions 8, 9 and 10. Interested parties were invited to submit comments by 6 February 2015 and a public consultation will be held on 19-20 March 2015.
Related links:
- OECD.org: Comments on discussion draft (February 2015)
- OECD.org: OECD discussion draft on revisions to Chapter I of the Transfer Pricing Guidelines (Including risk, recharacterisation and special measures) (December 2014)
Action 8: Transfer pricing – intangibles
Please refer to comments above in relation to Actions 8, 9 and 10 collectively. Action 8 looks specifically at intangibles and will develop rules to prevent base erosion and profit shifting where intangibles are owned by, used by, contributed to or moved among group members.
A discussion draft was released by the OECD in July 2013 following on from earlier work to modernise this area before the start of the BEPS project. Comments received from interested parties in response to this draft were published in October 2013 and a public consultation took place in November 2013. The OECD released their paper on Action 8 in September 2014.
In addition, further work on hard-to-value intangibles and cost contribution arrangements will be undertaken in 2015.
Related links:
- OECD.org: OECD paper (September 2014)
- OECD.org: Public consultation summary (November 2013)
- OECD.org: Comments on revised discussion draft (October 2013)
- OECD.org: Revised discussion draft (July 2013)
Action 9: Transfer pricing – risk & capital
Please refer to comments above in relation to Actions 8, 9 and 10 collectively. Action 9 looks specifically at risks and will develop rules to prevent base erosion and profit shifting by transferring risks among, or allocating excessive capital to, group members.
Action 10: Transfer pricing – high-risk transactions
Please refer to comments above in relation to Actions 8, 9 and 10 collectively. Action 10 looks specifically at other high-risk transactions and will develop rules to prevent base erosion and profit shifting by engaging in transactions which would not, or would only very rarely, occur between third parties.
Various discussion drafts have been released by the OECD in relation to Action 10:
- A discussion draft on low value-adding intra-group services was released in November 2014. Comments submitted by interested parties were published by the OECD in January 2015.
- A discussion draft on cross-border commodity transactions was released in December 2014. Interested parties were invited to submit comments by 6 February 2015.
- A discussion draft on the use of profit splits in the context of global value chains was released in December 2014. Interested parties were invited to submit comments by 6 February 2015.
Related links:
- OECD.org: Comments on discussion draft on cross-border commodity transactions (February 2015)
- OECD.org: Comments on discussion draft on profit splits in the context of global value chains (February 2015)
- OECD.org: Comments on discussion draft on low value-adding intra-group services (January 2015)
- OECD.org: OECD discussion draft on the transfer pricing aspects of cross-border commodity transactions (December 2014)
- OECD.org: OECD discussion draft on the use of profit splits in the context of global value chains (December 2014)
- OECD.org: OECD discussion draft on low value-adding intra-group services (November 2014)
Action 11: BEPS data collection
Action 11 aims to establish methodologies to collect and analyse data on BEPS and the actions to address it. The OECD intends to do this by developing recommendations regarding indicators of the scale and economic impact of BEPS and ensure that tools are available to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness and economic impact of the actions taken to address BEPS on an ongoing basis.
In August 2014, interested parties were invited to comment on Action 11 and the comments received were published in October 2014. A discussion draft was subsequently published in April 2014.
Related links:
- OECD.org: OECD discussion draft on improving the analysis of BEPS (April 2014)
- OECD.org: public responses to request for input (October 2014)
Action 12: Disclosure of aggressive tax planning
Action 12 aims to require taxpayers to disclose their aggressive tax planning arrangements. This will be addressed through the development of recommendations regarding the design of mandatory disclosure rules for aggressive or abusive transactions, arrangements, or structures, taking into consideration the administrative costs for tax administrations and businesses and drawing on the experiences of the increasing number of countries that already have such rules.
A discussion draft was released by the OECD in March 2015.
Related links:
- OECD.org: OECD discussion draft (March 2015)
Action 13: Transfer pricing documentation
Action 13 aims to re-examine transfer pricing documentation and will develop rules regarding transfer pricing documentation to enhance transparency for tax administration, taking into consideration the compliance costs for business.
A white paper on transfer pricing documentation was released by the OECD in July 2013, with a discussion draft in January 2014 followed by a public consultation. A report was published in September 2014 containing guidance on transfer pricing documentation and country-by-country reporting. This report proposed a new three tier global standard for transfer pricing documentation, including a common template for country-by-country information to be reported to tax authorities and in transfer pricing master and local files.
In February 2015, the G20 and OECD released further guidance on the implementation of transfer pricing documentation and country-by-country reporting. The guidance covers implementation of country-by-country reporting including the timing of introduction, application to ‘large’ businesses and filing mechanisms.
Related links:
- OECD.org: OECD paper (September 2014)
- OECD.org: Comments received on OECD discussion draft (March 2014)
- OECD.org: Discussion draft (January 2014)
- OECD.org: Public consultation summary (November 2013)
- OECD.org: Memorandum on TPD and CBC (October 2013)
- OECD.org: Comments on white paper (October 2013)
- OECD.org: White paper (July 2013)
- OECD.org: Communique (June 2013)
Action 14: Dispute resolution
Action 14 aims to make dispute resolution mechanisms more effective, through developing solutions to address issues that prevent countries from resolving treaty-related disputes under mutual agreement procedures.
A discussion draft was released in December 2014. Comments from interested parties were published in January 2015, followed by a public consultation.
Related links:
- OECD.org: Comments on discussion draft (January 2015)
- OECD.org: OECD discussion draft (December 2014)
Action 15: Multilateral instrument
Action 15 aims to develop a multilateral instrument to enable jurisdictions to implement measures developed in the course of the work on BEPS and to amend bilateral tax treaties.
A report was released by the OECD in September 2014, identifying the issues arising from the development of a multilateral instrument that modifies bilateral tax treaties. The report concluded that a multilateral instrument is desirable and feasible, and that negotiations for such an instrument should be convened quickly.
Related links:
- OECD.org: OECD paper (September 2014)
