Quantera Global Newsletter - February 2021 - Quantera Global Schedule a call

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    Quantera Global Newsletter – February 2021

    We are pleased to share the most important national and global developments in tax law that are (closely) related to the transfer pricing world.

    Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

    Send an e-mail to TPnews@quanteraglobal.com or call us at +31 88 221 5800 and we will introduce you to the relevant professional.

    Quantera Global news, developments, and blogs:

    • Quantera Global on television

    Our company was part of the broadcast of “Barometer” on Sunday 24 January (RTL Z). Please watch the recording via the following link (Dutch – no subtitles).

     

    • Quantera Global team update
      • We are happy to announce that as of January, Wouter Schelfaut has joined the Dutch Quantera Global team. Wouter is 25 years old and has a master’s degree in Tax Law and in Finance & Investments. Thanks to this unique combination, he will be a valuable asset for our financial transactions team. Welcome to Quantera Global, Wouter!

     

    • Quantera Global – OECD BEPS action 14.

    Following an invitation from the OECD to comment on the BEPS Action 14 Consultation Document released on 18 November 2020, Quantera Global has submitted it commentaries to make dispute resolutions more effective. Furthermore, Quantera Global was invited to be part of the panel discussion during the consultation meeting on February 1.

    If you would like to read the full memo with our comments, please click on this link.

    • Webinars

    In 2020 we started hosting free-of-charge webinars on a variety of Transfer Pricing topics. This became an instant success. Therefore, we will continue these webinars in 2021.  We currently have the following webinars scheduled:

    • 11 February: Data & Transfer Pricing: nothing to worry about!
    • 18 February: The good hope (our view on transfer pricing developments)
    • 2 March: Transfer Pricing specifics for the UK and Brexit
    • 25 March: Transfer Pricing Risk Management: compliance & organization
    • 17 June: Transfer Pricing Risk Management: APAs & MAPs

    To register for one or more webinars, please visit our website https://www.quanteraglobal.com/group-sessions/ and select the webinar you would like to register for.

    You can watch previous webinars by clicking on this link.

    News around the world:

    • Australia
      • The Australian Taxation Office (‘ATO’) has published a law companion ruling which describes the Commissioners view on aspects of the law relating to hybrid mismatches, amendments to the targeted integrity rule and provides general guidance and examples on the hybrid mismatch rules.
      • The ATO has released a practical compliance guideline about market value substitution rules when there is a buy-back or redemption of hybrid securities.

     

    • Belarus

    Belarus has reformed the Belarus tax code to make the current law clearer and update certain transfer pricing control provisions. The changes are effective as of January 2021.

     

    • Denmark

    The Danish National Tax Tribunal decided that a substantial difference in interest paid and received on a participation in a cash pool is not justified. An important aspect of this case was the lack of sufficient transfer pricing documentation and more specific the lack of a functional analysis of the group treasury company. The National Tax Tribunal stated that “the interest rates for comparable cash flows that are fully hedged between two group parties must bear interest at the same rate, as the cash flows in this way cancel out each other.”

     

    • Estonia

    Estonia joins the BEPS multilateral tax treaty, which was announced by the OECD on January 15.

     

    • Italy

    On January 15, the Italian Tax Authority issued final guidance on the National digital services tax that was incorporated in the Italian law as of January 2020. The guidance was issued to provide more clarification on certain aspects of the digital services tax.

     

    • Kenia

    The new digital services tax of Kenia came into force on January 1. The Kenia Revenue Authority expect that more than 1,000 companies will have to pay the 1.5% tax rate on digital turnover.

     

    • Luxembourg

    On January 8, the Luxembourg Tax Authorities issued guidance containing their view on the in December 2020 incorporated new interest deduction limitation rules.

     

    • Malta

    On January 4, the Maltese government issued guidelines on the automatic exchange of information in relation to cross border arrangements. DAC6 was already incorporated in the Maltese law and regulations, however taxpayers still had to wait for the corresponding guidance.

     

    • Netherlands

    The Dutch minister of foreign affairs shared the new tax treaty with Liechtenstein with the Dutch parliament. The new tax treaty is supposed to become active ultimately on February 11.

     

    • OECD

    On January 21, the OECD updated its COVID-19 guidance in relation to the application of tax treaties.

     

    • Singapore
      • On January 4, Singapore published a tax ruling in which it concludes that a corporation and three foreign shareholders are not related to each other due to no party having control over the other parties. Additionally, the parties are not under control of a common person.
      • Singapore has set a safe harbour interest rate for intercompany loans for 2021. The taxpayer is allowed to use a fixed margin of 2.75% above the selected base reference rate instead of performing a detailed transfer pricing analysis to comply with the arm’s length principle. The threshold for applying this safe harbour is for loans not exceeding SGD 15 million.

     

    • Sweden

    The Swedish court denied currency exchange losses as these losses would not have occurred if the parties were not related to each other. If the separate entity approach would have been applied, it would be clear that there was another option realistically available to avoid the currency losses.

     

    • United Kingdom

    The UK tax authority (‘HMRC’) confirms that it is investigating the corporate transfer pricing practices of several multinationals. The majority of the cases will be resolved by paying additional taxes and a change of the transfer pricing system. If the HMRC finds evidence of deliberately incorrect transfer prices, criminal investigations will follow.

     

    • United States of America

    From January 6, the US has suspended the retaliatory tariffs on French products.

    This information is intended only as a general update for interested persons and should not be used as a basis for decision-making. For further details please contact Quantera Global, Eindhovenseweg 128, 5582 HW Waalre,
    the Netherlands, phone: +31 88 221 58 00, e-mail: TPnews@quanteraglobal.com