A Multilateral Instrument for Updating the Tax Treaty Network
Description:... The Multilateral Instrument is, and will continue to be, highly important in international tax law. It will modify over 1,200 tax treaties, with the purpose of coordinating the implementation of international tax rules to avoid base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) and reducing the negative effects of harmful tax competition among states. Through the Multilateral Instrument, its parties can incorporate into their tax treaty network the rules resulting from the OECD BEPS Project, addressing hybrid mismatch arrangements, the abuse of treaties and the artificial avoidance of permanent establishment status, as well as rules for improving dispute resolution mechanisms, including mandatory binding arbitration. Although the Multilateral Instrument has spared states the monumental effort that otherwise would have been required to renegotiate their tax treaties in a coordinated and timely manner, it is a complex treaty that has led to uncertainty. The book provides a precise and in-depth analysis of the Multilateral Instrument from a public international law and tax law perspective, to systematically answer the questions that the tax community has raised regarding this convention. In particular, the book analyses how the Multilateral Instrument works, how the Multilateral Instrument impacts tax treaties and to what extent the parties and signatories have committed themselves to implementing the uniform tax treaty-related BEPS measures through the Multilateral Instrument. For this analysis, the book touches upon each of the essential elements of the Multilateral Instrument and considers the options available to the treaty makers in designing the convention, as well as the positions notified to the depositary by the parties and signatories.
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