The international taxation system is experiencing a progressive period of change due to the necessity to coordinate the fiscal impositions and the tax arrangements applied by the different jurisdictions to their citizens and companies operating in different countries. Indeed, Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) seek to reduce their overall tax bill by moving their profits through different countries, called tax havens, to exploit differences between national tax regimes. The primary purpose of this thesis is to present the base erosion and profit shifting phenomenon by first exploring its background, considering the consequences it has been causing in the international taxation system, and then the commitments on improvements undertaken by both OECD and European Commission throughout the years. As we will see later in this thesis, the discovery of the tax avoidance strategies by MNEs (Apple, Starbucks and other ones), which allow them to avoid billions of dollars of taxes, shows problems in the current international tax system. This problem is mainly due to the fast changes that the digital world has raised, resulting in new challenges for fiscal legislation originally designed for a much less globalized economy. When MNEs start to operate into foreign jurisdictions, the cooperation between independent tax regimes leads to double taxation, a very relevant problem, which affects the competitivity of the MNEs. On the other hand, the overlap of the tax system in different countries may generate situations in which the corporate income will be less taxed or even not at all. This thesis mainly focuses on the work of the major antagonist of the MNEs in this taxation war, represented by the abovementioned OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), considered the key element of the international fiscal system, which has developed guidelines with the aim of redefining some of the already corroborated taxation principles. The OECD has given a title to this phenomenon of tax evasion, calling it BEPS acronym for base erosion and profit shifting, expressing the behaviour acted by international commercial operators which look for opportunities to shift the profits from a country to another or to erode the tax base of their country of residence, arising the interaction among different regulatory systems. To contrast this phenomenon, it has been required to policy makers to restore reliance in the system and secure that profits are taxed where economic activities occur and value is generated. The BEPS package of measures constitutes the first significant renewal of the international tax rules of the last years. As a result to the application of the new measures, it is expected that revenues will be returned to the countries where they have been carried out and where value is generated. One key element of the BEPS project is the process of implementation. The BEPS package is intended to be implemented by making changes in domestic law and practices through a cooperation between OECD and G20 countries which should therefore be mutually beneficial to governments and business. To sum up, this thesis deeply analyses, in the first chapter, the work of OECD and the development of the BEPS project throughout the years, starting with an introduction to international taxation and providing the basis needed to understand the path followed to reach the creation of the fifteen actions; it is followed by an explanation of the main strategies used by MNEs to avoid taxation and the evaluation of the consequences of Hybrid mismatches for the international economic framework; then, in the second chapter, it is explained the OECD/G20 BEPS Actions Project, analysing the causes and effect of each action; finally, chapter three regards the analysis of the four investigations on tax rulings already been concluded by the European Commission.
Il sistema fiscale internazionale sta vivendo un periodo di progressivo cambiamento a causa della necessità di coordinare le imposizioni fiscali e il regime fiscale applicato dalle diverse giurisdizioni ai propri cittadini e alle imprese che operano in paesi diversi. Infatti, le imprese multinazionali (MNE) cercano di ridurre la loro pressione fiscale complessiva spostando i loro profitti attraverso diversi paesi, chiamati paradisi fiscali, per sfruttare le differenze tra i regimi fiscali nazionali. Lo scopo primario di questa tesi è quello di presentare il fenomeno dell'erosione di base e del profit shifting esplorandone prima il background, considerando le conseguenze che ha causato nel sistema fiscale internazionale, e poi gli impegni di miglioramento assunti sia dall'OCSE che dalla Commissione Europea nel corso degli anni. Come vedremo più avanti in questa tesi, la scoperta delle strategie di evasione fiscale da parte delle multinazionali (Apple, Starbucks e altre), che permettono loro di evitare miliardi di dollari di tasse, mostra problemi nell'attuale sistema fiscale internazionale. Questo problema è dovuto principalmente ai rapidi cambiamenti che il mondo digitale ha sollevato, con conseguenti nuove sfide per la legislazione fiscale originariamente concepita per un'economia molto meno globalizzata. Questa tesi si concentra principalmente sul lavoro del principale antagonista delle multinazionali in questa "guerra fiscale", rappresentato dall'OCSE (Organizzazione per la cooperazione e lo sviluppo economico), considerata l'elemento chiave del sistema fiscale internazionale, che ha sviluppato linee guida con l'obiettivo di ridefinire alcuni dei principi fiscali già corroborati. L'OCSE ha dato un titolo a questo fenomeno di evasione fiscale, chiamandolo "BEPS" acronimo di base erosion e profit shifting, esprimendo il comportamento degli operatori commerciali internazionali che cercano opportunità di trasferire gli utili da un paese ad un altro o di erodere la base imponibile del proprio paese di residenza, determinando l'interazione tra diversi sistemi normativi. Per contrastare questo fenomeno, è stato chiesto ai responsabili politici di ripristinare la fiducia nel sistema e garantire che gli utili siano tassati nel luogo in cui si svolgono le attività economiche e si genera valore. Il pacchetto di misure BEPS costituisce il primo rinnovo significativo delle norme fiscali internazionali degli ultimi anni. In seguito all'applicazione delle nuove misure, si prevede che le entrate saranno restituite ai paesi in cui sono state realizzate e dove viene generato valore. Un elemento chiave del progetto BEPS è il processo di attuazione. Il pacchetto BEPS deve essere attuato apportando modifiche alla legislazione e alle pratiche nazionali attraverso una cooperazione tra l'OCSE e i paesi del G20, che dovrebbe quindi essere reciprocamente vantaggiosa per i governi e le imprese. In sintesi, questa tesi analizza in modo approfondito, nel primo capitolo, il lavoro dell'OCSE e lo sviluppo del progetto BEPS nel corso degli anni; segue una spiegazione delle principali strategie utilizzate dalle multinazionali per evitare la tassazione e la valutazione delle conseguenze degli squilibri ibridi per il quadro economico internazionale; poi, nel secondo capitolo, viene spiegato il progetto OCSE/G20 BEPS Actions Project, analizzando le cause e gli effetti di ciascuna azione; infine, il terzo capitolo riguarda l'analisi delle quattro indagini sulle sentenze fiscali già concluse dalla Commissione Europea.
The fight of OECD and European Commission against base erosion and profit shifting: from a domestic taxation system to a global taxation framework
VENTRESCA, REGINALDO
2018/2019
Abstract
The international taxation system is experiencing a progressive period of change due to the necessity to coordinate the fiscal impositions and the tax arrangements applied by the different jurisdictions to their citizens and companies operating in different countries. Indeed, Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) seek to reduce their overall tax bill by moving their profits through different countries, called tax havens, to exploit differences between national tax regimes. The primary purpose of this thesis is to present the base erosion and profit shifting phenomenon by first exploring its background, considering the consequences it has been causing in the international taxation system, and then the commitments on improvements undertaken by both OECD and European Commission throughout the years. As we will see later in this thesis, the discovery of the tax avoidance strategies by MNEs (Apple, Starbucks and other ones), which allow them to avoid billions of dollars of taxes, shows problems in the current international tax system. This problem is mainly due to the fast changes that the digital world has raised, resulting in new challenges for fiscal legislation originally designed for a much less globalized economy. When MNEs start to operate into foreign jurisdictions, the cooperation between independent tax regimes leads to double taxation, a very relevant problem, which affects the competitivity of the MNEs. On the other hand, the overlap of the tax system in different countries may generate situations in which the corporate income will be less taxed or even not at all. This thesis mainly focuses on the work of the major antagonist of the MNEs in this taxation war, represented by the abovementioned OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), considered the key element of the international fiscal system, which has developed guidelines with the aim of redefining some of the already corroborated taxation principles. The OECD has given a title to this phenomenon of tax evasion, calling it BEPS acronym for base erosion and profit shifting, expressing the behaviour acted by international commercial operators which look for opportunities to shift the profits from a country to another or to erode the tax base of their country of residence, arising the interaction among different regulatory systems. To contrast this phenomenon, it has been required to policy makers to restore reliance in the system and secure that profits are taxed where economic activities occur and value is generated. The BEPS package of measures constitutes the first significant renewal of the international tax rules of the last years. As a result to the application of the new measures, it is expected that revenues will be returned to the countries where they have been carried out and where value is generated. One key element of the BEPS project is the process of implementation. The BEPS package is intended to be implemented by making changes in domestic law and practices through a cooperation between OECD and G20 countries which should therefore be mutually beneficial to governments and business. To sum up, this thesis deeply analyses, in the first chapter, the work of OECD and the development of the BEPS project throughout the years, starting with an introduction to international taxation and providing the basis needed to understand the path followed to reach the creation of the fifteen actions; it is followed by an explanation of the main strategies used by MNEs to avoid taxation and the evaluation of the consequences of Hybrid mismatches for the international economic framework; then, in the second chapter, it is explained the OECD/G20 BEPS Actions Project, analysing the causes and effect of each action; finally, chapter three regards the analysis of the four investigations on tax rulings already been concluded by the European Commission.È consentito all'utente scaricare e condividere i documenti disponibili a testo pieno in UNITESI UNIPV nel rispetto della licenza Creative Commons del tipo CC BY NC ND.
Per maggiori informazioni e per verifiche sull'eventuale disponibilità del file scrivere a: unitesi@unipv.it.
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14239/5522