Switzerland In International Tax Law

"Switzerland has recently witnessed an unprecedented level of tax treaty negotiations. Although this is a direct result of Switzerland's revised position regarding exchange of information, a number of contracting states have taken this opportunity to modify tax treaty benefits and/or clarify certain aspects of tax treaty interpretation and application. These are considered extensively in this edition. As Switzerland has steadily aligned itself with international principles of international taxation, the self-imposed anti-abuse rules for the application of tax treaties have become less relevant. Nevertheless, Swiss courts have become more creative in determining where there is and where there is not treaty abuse. As a result, the 1962 Abuse Decree is making way for a more complex basket of anti-abuse rules and regulations"--Foreword (page vii).

This study considers how tax authorities attempt to strike down international tax avoidance structures, in particular those involving the use of conduit and base companies set up by third-country residents for purposes of "treaty shopping" and "EC-Directive shopping". The book focuses on the interaction between provisions and judicially developed doctrines of domestic tax law preventing international tax avoidance on the one hand, and norms of international law, in particular tax treaties and rules of Community law, on the other. It also considers treaty-based anti-avoidance measures such as the "beneficial ownership" requirement and "limitation on benefits" provisions. This part of the study compares and analyses the case law of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

This book deals comprehensively with the problems raised by residence of individuals for tax purposes. It begins with an overview of residence of individuals in private international law, with a particular emphasis on general principles on residence and conflict of law rules. It then examines issues raised by residence of individuals in EC (non-tax) law. Individual country surveys provide in-depth analyses from a national viewpoint. The following countries are discussed: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and United Kingdom.

Advanced Introduction to International Tax Law provides a concise yet wide-ranging overview of the key issues surrounding taxation and international law from a world authority on international tax. Systems of taxation deviate between jurisdictio

The book identifies linguistic issues arising in bilateral income tax conventions and presents an in-dept analysis of tax treaty policies on multilingualism and the administrative practice and case law on the issues raised by the translation of treaties. Individual country surveys discuss the use of legal concepts, including those that do not exist in the legal system of one of the two contracting states and the way such concepts should be interpreted in such state (e.g. trust). Further, the use of concepts in one state that are similar but not identical to a treaty concept that is well known only in the other state (e.g. droit d'auteur vs copyright) are presented. The book also includes special reports on multilingual issues under both art. 33 of the Vienna Convention and art. 3(2) of the OECD Model Convention and Commentaries. Finally, a specific chapter is devoted to the EU law aspects and a review of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

Permanent Establishments (PEs) are a key facet of international taxation. They constitute the crucial threshold for the assignment of taxing rights to a jurisdiction in all cases of enterprises operating in more than one country. The issue of whether there is a PE, and how much profit should be allocated to it, is an increasingly important factor in tax planning, tax accounting, tax compliance, and related tax risk management. Groundbreaking developments have reshaped the face of the classical PE concept during the year 2017. Following action item no. 7 of the Anti-BEPS efforts of G20 and OECD, the OECD has presented the Multilateral Instrument (MLI) on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting in June 2017. Based on the MLI as well as earlier drafts, Article 5 of the OECD Model Tax Convention and the Official Commentary have been amended in November 2017. Similarly, Article 7 of the OECD Model Tax Convention on the allocation of income in PE situations is influenced by the October 2015 OECD BEPS proposals. This academically rigorous yet thoroughly practical work provides comprehensive guidance on a variety of complex PE issues. Its initial chapters analyse the latest OECD and EU developments in the context of Articles 5 and 7 of the OECD Model Tax Convention. 21 country chapters cover domestic PE issues as well as country-specific treaty developments from a practical perspective. Contributors: Fabrizio Acerbis, Maret Ansperi, Yumiko Arai, Ákos Burján, Anna Berglund, Peter Collins, Mike Cooper, David Cuellar, Veronika Daurer, Frank Feng, Mikhail Filinov, Sandra Fleurier, Jose Antonio Gonzalez, Herbert Greinecker, Søren Jesper Hansen, Lars Ellegård Holst, Mauricio Hurtado, Martin Jann, Renaud Jouffroy, David Lermer, Peter Lindblad, Iren Lipre, Jessica Ma, Anna Mallol, Dennis Matthijs, Hamish McElwee, Kunal Mehta, Osman Mollagee, Matthew Mui, Ramón Mullerat, Luis Felipe Muñoz, Stephen Nauheim, Francesco Nuzzolo, Yoshiyasu Okada, Marianne Orell, Oren Penn, Martin Poulsen, Lene Munk Rasmussen, Ekkehart Reimer, Daniel Rinke, Stefan Schmid, Mathias Schreiber, Vishal J. Shah, Smit Sheth, Tom Stuer, Maarten Temmerman, Eszter Turcsik, Hein Vermeulen, Huili Wang, Sonia Watson, Ciska Wisman, Raymond Wong & Alan Yam.