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INTRODUCTION
Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project is the
OECD response to tax planning strategies that exploit
these gaps and mismatches in tax rules to artificially shift
profits to low or no-tax jurisdictions: OECD conservative
figures indicate annual losses in a range from 4 to 10%
of the global corporate income tax (CIT) revenues due
to such policies, equal to annual amount of 100 to 240
USD billion.
As a result of a project formally launched in 2013 with
the release of the Action Plan, on 5 October 2015
OECD presented the final BEPS reports: a 15-actions
package of measures for closing the gaps in existing
international rules which allow corporate profits to be
artificially shifted from a jurisdiction to another where
little or no economic activity takes place, thus ensuring
that profits are taxed where economic activities
generating the profits are performed and where value
is actually created. G20 Finance Ministers committed
for “swift, global and efficient implementation” of BEPS
conclusions.
Previously the need for a “comprehensive anti-BEPS
Directive” was stressed by Finance Ministers Schäuble
(Germany), Sapin (France) and Padoan (Italy) in a
November 2014 letter to Commissioner Moscovici,
advocating in the context of the OECD/G20’s final
adoption of the BEPS conclusions for “a set of common,
binding rules on corporate taxation to curb tax
competition and fight aggressive tax planning”.
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THE ANTI-TAX AVOIDANCE PROPOSED
EU DIRECTIVE
ACKNOWLEDGING THE LIMITS NATIONAL TAX LAWS HAVE IN AN INCREASINGLY INTERCONNECTED
WORLD, WHICH PREVENT THEM TO KEEP PACE WITH GLOBAL CORPORATIONS, FLUID MOVEMENT
OF CAPITAL, AND THE RISE OF THE DIGITAL ECONOMY, SOME YEARS AGO OECD STARTED A PROJECT
AIMED AT FOCUSING ON GAPS AND MISMATCHES THAT CAN BE EXPLOITED TO GENERATE DOUBLE
NON-TAXATION, AND ULTIMATELY UNDERMINING FAIRNESS AND INTEGRITY OF TAX SYSTEMS.
by
ANDREA CIRCI
, International Tax Partner Studio Tributario e Societario Deloitte, Italy
and
MASSIMILIANO MATTIOLI,
Tax partner LMBA – Tax & legal firm in Bologna, Italy
ITALY