Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GLOBTAXGOV (A New Model of Global Governance in International Tax Law Making)

Teaser

The BEPS Project aims to provide OECD-, G20 and non-OECD/non-G20 (including developing countries) with tools to tackle tax base erosion and profit shifting by introducing 15 Actions to deal with transfer pricing, hybrid mismatches, harmful tax regimes, tax treaty abuse, among...

Summary

The BEPS Project aims to provide OECD-, G20 and non-OECD/non-G20 (including developing countries) with tools to tackle tax base erosion and profit shifting by introducing 15 Actions to deal with transfer pricing, hybrid mismatches, harmful tax regimes, tax treaty abuse, among others. In addition, the OECD has included 4 of the 15 Actions as Minimum Standards which are required to be implemented by countries that participate in the BEPS Inclusive Framework. Minimally, the standards that should be implemented are countering of harmful tax practices (Action 5), preventing of treaty abuse (Action 6), re-examining transfer pricing documentation including country by country reporting (Action 13), and enhancing resolution of disputes (Action 14). More than 110 countries including OECD, G20 and developing countries have committed to the implementation of these BEPS 4 Minimum Standards. The countries participating in the BEPS Inclusive Framework have a peer review schedule for the implementation of the BEPS 4 Minimum Standards, and if these Minimum Standards have not been implemented, the OECD will give a negative review which may also have consequences for the country. Due to the political support of the G20, the OECD has been empowered to develop common responses to international tax challenges reflected in the 15 Actions of the BEPS. Following these international tax develompents and with the objective of having an important role in internationl tax law making, the European Union has also introduced some of the BEPS Measures in the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive 1 and 2 and the Directives on Administrative Cooperation (DAC 1 TO 6) nd has started State Aid Investigations. In addition, the European Union in the ECOFIN Council (April 2018) has introduced the BEPS 4 Minimum Standards in the Standard of Good Governance in Tax Matters. This situation creates tensions between developed and developing countries, and between EU and non-EU (third) countries.

Against this backgroud, the GLOBTAXGOV project will have three research objectives. The first objective is to assess the feasibility of the current model of global tax governance taking into account the differences in tax systems and tax cultures and the different problems felt by developing and developed countries. To address this objective, this research will investigate the implementation of the four BEPS minimum standards in 12 of the 131 (as of July 2019) jurisdictions committed to the implementation of BEPS minimum standards. These jurisdictions are developed countries (the United States, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, and Australia) and developing, BRICS and emerging countries (Colombia, Senegal, Nigeria, South Africa, India, and Singapore). The second objective is to assess in light of legitimacy, the conditions under which the OECD can set standards in the current model of global tax governance. This objective takes into account the different approaches to fairness from the perspective of developed countries (i.e. OECD countries) and from the perspective of emerging economies, BRICS and developing countries. The third objective is to investigate in this model of global tax governance where the EU stands? and under what conditions can the state aid investigations and the role of the EU in setting up the international standard of good governance and fair competition be legitimate with respect to EU and third (non-EU) countries?

Work performed

DISSEMINATION
• Design and disseminate work carried out in the GLOBTAXGOV at blog GLOBTAXGOV, Twitter Account (@Globtaxgov) and LinkedIn group and Facebook group GLOBTAXGOV.
• Blogposts in the topic of global tax governance published in the blog GLOBTAXGOV (49 blogposts as of July 2019) at https://globtaxgov.weblog.leidenuniv.nl/
• 2 Leiden Law blogposts and 1 Kluwer international tax law blogpost (one pending) and three blogposts (Inter-American Center of Tax Administration blog)

ORGANIZATION CONFERENCES/WORKSHOPS
See GLOBTAXGOV (https://globtaxgov.weblog.leidenuniv.nl/outputs/past-events/)


PUBLICATIONS https://globtaxgov.weblog.leidenuniv.nl/articles/
https://globtaxgov.weblog.leidenuniv.nl/reports-conference-papers/

Principal Investigator: Irma Johanna Mosquera Valderrama (3 articles, 1 book chapter, 1 working paper UNU-CRIS and one Policy Brief). 1 book chapter pending publication and 1 article pending peer review.
PhD candidates: Frederik Heitmüller and Adrian Grant
1 conference report, 1 conference paper.

PARTICIPATION IN CONFERENCES
All slides available at https://globtaxgov.weblog.leidenuniv.nl/presentations-2/

2018
Presentations in more than 10 countries, one blog GLOBTAXGOV with more than 20 blogposts and also participation in tax policy making OECD, G20 and EU, academia fora, tax administration meetings, and our own event on the 7th of November 2018

2019
Presentations in more than 12 countries, one blog GLOBTAXGOV with more than 29 blogposts (49 blogpost between 2018-2019) and also participation in tax policy making World Economic Forum, academia fora, tax administration meetings and four events one on Tax and Development in cooperation with the United Nations University-CRIS in Bruges, one with the LorentzCenter and the NIAS (Netherlands Institute Advance Studies) on How countries learn to tax; another one on the Belt and Road Initiative in cooperation with LeidenAsia Centre and ERC StG Project TRICI-LAW, and a final one on International Customary Law in cooperation with ERC StG Project TRICI-LAW

Final results

Active participation in policy making involving all actors: international and supranational organizations, tax administrations, academia, business. Examples:

Participation in the T20 Task Policy Force on trade, investment and tax cooperation under the G20 Argentine Presidency. 2018.
Participation as an academic expert to the Project on Tax Certainty and Clarifying Treaty Interpretation at OECD. First meeting OECD Conference Centre, Paris, 12 September 2018.
Presentation “Tax and development” EU Commission Platform for Good Tax Governance 19 December 2018
“BEPS Action 6. Tax Treaties: Opportunity or source of inequality?” In EU FISCALIS 2020 Programme. Spill-over effects of Member States’ tax treaties on developing countries. 15 and 16 March 2018.
Author white paper: Taxation, Digtalization and Globalzation. World Economic Forum. First draft presented in Geneva, Switzerland 8 July 2019.
“Implementation of BEPS Minimum Standards” at the International Taxation Network CIAT (Inter-American Centre Tax Administration) at Training Center of the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation and Development 8-11 October 2018
“Tax Competition and Developing countries” at the Conference Pathways to Global Tax Governance, Leiden University, The Hague, the Netherlands.7 November 2018
“Peer review of BEPS Minimum Standards: From Compliance to Contextualization” at the Conference The Challenges and Opportunities of Multilateralism. University of Oxford, Oxford, the United Kingdom. 10-11 December
Presentation in Curacao, Malta, Turkey and Cyprus among others to address the challenges of the implementation of BEPS in panels organized by academia, tax advisors, business associations, and government officials.
Participation panel and moderator break out session addressing the challenges of tax cooperation for development in the Addis Tax Initiative/International Tax Compact Conference, Berlin 2019.

Website & more info

More info: https://globtaxgov.weblog.leidenuniv.nl/.