Our Insights

By Jivaan Bennett

The High Level Working Party (Taxation), a Council preparatory body, decided in 2014 that a concrete roadmap was necessary to address the issues of unfair tax competition, base erosion and profit shifting in the EU context (“EU BEPS”). Following from the Commission’s launch of its Anti-Tax Avoidance Package on 28 January 2016 (see our February newsletter), the Dutch Presidency has set out its key objectives. In the short term, the two principal legislative developments will be:
In the medium term, the Dutch Presidency will undertake work on transfer pricing, outbound payments (payment flowing out of the EU), disclosure of aggressive tax planning, beneficial ownership of non-transparent entities, dispute settlement in the area of transfer pricing and the conditions and rules for the issuance of tax rulings.

1. Interest and Royalties Directive – The Dutch Presidency intends to further the work embarked on in September 2015 on the inclusion of a minimum effective taxation (MET) clause.
2. Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive – this Directive proposal is intended to target areas of tax avoidance not covered by the existing European tax laws (namely the Parent-Subsidiary Directive and the proposed revised Interest and Royalties Directive – see (1) above).

This article appears in the JHA March 2016 Tax Newsletter, which also features:

1. Budget 2016 by Steve Bousher
2. BPP Holdings v HMRC [2016] EWCA Civ 121 by Peter Stewart
3. P Panayi Accumulation & Maintenance Settlements v Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (Case C-646/15) by Jivaan Bennett
4. UBS AG and anor v Commissioners for HMRC [2016] UKSC 13 by Peter Stewart