The Allocation Of Multinational Business Income Reassessing The Formulary Apportionment Option

The Allocation of Multinational Business Income: Reassessing the Formulary Apportionment Option Edited by Richard Krever & François Vaillancourt Although arm’s length methodology continues to prevail in international taxation policy, it has long been replaced by the formulary apportionment method at the subnational level in a few federal countries. Its use is planned for international profit allocation as an element of the European Union’s CCCTB proposals. In this timely book – a global guide to formulary apportionment, both as it exists in practice and how it might function internationally – a knowledgeable group of contributors from Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States, address this actively debated topic, both in respect of its technical aspects and its promise as a global response to the avoidance, distortions, and unfairness of current allocation systems. Drawing on a wealth of literature considering formulary apportionment in the international sphere and considering decades of experience with the system in the states and provinces of the United States and Canada, the contributors explicate and examine such pertinent issues as the following: the debate about what factors should be used to allocate profits under a formulary apportionment system and experience in jurisdictions using formulary apportionment; application of formulary apportionment in specific sectors such as digital enterprises and the banking industry; the political economy of establishing and maintaining a successful formulary apportionment regime; formulary apportionment proposals for Europe; the role of traditional tax criteria such as economic efficiency, fairness, ease of administration, and robustness to avoidance and incentive compatibility; determining which parts of a multinational group are included in a formulary apportionment unit; and whether innovative profit-split methodologies such as those developed by China are shifting traditional arm’s length methods to a quasi-formulary apportionment system. Providing a comprehensive understanding of all aspects of the formulary apportionment option, this state of the art summary of history, current practice, proposals and prospects in the ongoing debate over arm’s length versus formulary apportionment methodologies will be welcomed by practitioners, policy-makers, and academics concerned with international taxation, all of whom will gain an understanding of the case put forward by proponents for adoption of formulary apportionment in Europe and globally and the counter-arguments they face. Readers will acquire a better understanding of the implications of formulary apportionment and its central role in the current debate about the future of international taxation rules. “...providing (sic) all the intellectual ammunition needed to carefully re-examine one of the ideas traditionally considered as apocryphal by the OECD and to a significant portion of the tax professional community...readers of this book will come away not only with a renewed understanding of the multiple facets of formulary apportionment, but also of some of the fundamental pressure points in the international tax system. Accordingly, it is a welcome and timely addition to the literature. ” Dr. Stjepan Gadžo, Assistant Professor at University of Rijeka, Faculty of Law / British Tax Review 2021, Issue 2, p243-246

Since its Company Tax Communication of 2001, the European Commission has been promoting a comprehensive harmonization of corporation taxes within the Internal Market on the basis of consolidation and formulary apportionment of the profits of cross-border enterprises, both in the form of a Home State Taxation (HST) and of the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base. This study assesses whether this approach represents a viable alternative to the arm's length standard currently applied in international tax law. The study comprises four parts. First, a theoretical concept of formulary apportionment is presented, followed by an evaluation of the practical experiences of four jurisdictions (United States, Canada, Switzerland and Germany) with formulary apportionment at the subnational level. Next, a proposal for harmonization on the basis of consolidation and apportionment is developed, and the book concludes with an overall analysis of the merits and drawbacks of the proposed model for harmonization.

The challenges and opportunities of new technologies in the tax field Technological developments induced major reforms in the regulatory international and domestic tax landscapes as well as in the developments in the use of technology by tax administrations and taxpayers. New technology, especially the innovations in virtual asset-light cross-border business organizations, data analytics, service and process automation, on one hand, disrupted the well-established legal tax principles and rules and, on the other, stimulated informed data-driven and structured solutions in tax compliance. Technological advances affected nearly every area and each aspect of taxation: Direct tax regulations, indirect tax law, and tax procedures including tax compliance, and tax control functions. International organizations such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations (UN), and the European Commission as a supranational organization fostered critical legislative reforms and proposals among which are the OECD Two-Pillar Solution to Address the Tax Challenges Arising from Digitalisation of the Economy, Article 12B of the UN Model Tax Convention to tax automated digital services, new rules for tracing transfers of crypto-assets in the EU, as well as the EU ́s VAT e-commerce package and "VAT in the Digital Age" package. While these proposals aim to address a wide range of the benefits and challenges of Economy 4.0, certain questions arise concerning the consistency of the legislative developments with their initial objectives, the appropriateness of the legal form for the economic substance of the regulated relations for the effectiveness of the regulations as well as their coherence. This volume contains a collection of scientific chapters on the general topic "Tax and Technology" that were successfully completed by the 2022/2023 LL.M. graduates of the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law, WU. The volume is divided into three parts that contain the contributions dealing with the impact of the technology on international tax law, indirect tax law, and procedural law. Each chapter provides an in-depth analysis of a unique research question aiming to innovatively contribute to the current debate and develop a practical approach for implementing the findings.

International tax regimes and practices are heavily criticized for failing to fairly levy corporate tax on giant multinational taxpayers in the current globalized and digitalized world. This important and far-seeing book demonstrates how formulary apportionment (FA) – an approach by which a multinational corporation pays each jurisdiction’s corporate tax based on the share of its worldwide income allocated to that jurisdiction – can achieve the much-sought goal of aligning value creation and taxation. The author, through an intensive analysis of the European Union’s (EU’s) Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) Directive Proposal(s) and comparison to the United States (US’s) formulary apportionment experience, shows how the perceived problems with an FA system can be overcome and lays out the necessary elements for its feasibility. With detailed attention to the debates around formulary apportionment and its theoretical foundations, the book provides a blueprint for rebuilding the normative framework for the EU’s tax reform by clearly analysing the implications of the following and more: theorising public benefits to be represented by taxation; reorganising different economic theories about tax neutrality and tax justice; advancing the comparative legal research methodology to analyse law reform by combining the functional approach and the problem-solving approach; designing the logical formulary apportionment system for digital economy; ensuring the removal of the incentive for multinationals to shift reported income to low-tax locations; reducing the tax system’s complexity and the administrative burden it imposes on firms; eliminating transfer pricing complexity for intra-firm transactions; achieving equal weighting of the sales factor, the labour factor, and the asset factor in the formula; application of ‘destination-based’ rule for attributing the sales factor; and replacing the traditional permanent establishment nexus with a ‘factor presence nexus’. The presentation incorporates extensive comparison between the EU’s formulary apportionment tax reform option and FA systems existing in the United States (US) at state level, including reference to relevant US case law and legislation. As a possible option to address the problem of base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS), formulary apportionment is gaining increasing acceptance and attention. This book will prove invaluable to taxation authorities, tax practitioners, and scholars in its deeply informed and systematic guidance on good practices and prevention of problematic experiences in establishing and implementing an effective and market-neutral FA system.

In light of the significant transformations affecting international tax in recent years, this book offers in-depth examinations on a series of key issues on the taxation of cross-border transactions. Craig Elliffe brings together a wealth of acclaimed legal academics to consider how the Inclusive Framework (IF) is responding to the ways in which highly digitalised businesses operate.

International Tax Law is at a turning point. Increased tax transparency, the tackling of Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS), the reconstruction of the network of bilateral tax treaties, the renewed discussion about a fair and efficient allocation of taxing rights between States in a global, digitalized economy, and the bold push for minimum corporate taxation are some expressions of this shift. This new era also demonstrates the increased influence of international standard setters such as the OECD, the UN, and the EU. Each of these developments alone has the potential of being disruptive to the traditional world of international tax law, but together they have the potential to reshape the international tax system. The Oxford Handbook of International Tax Law provides a comprehensive exploration of these key issues which will shape the future of tax law. Divided into eight parts, this handbook traces the history of international tax law from its earliest days until the present, including reflections on the developments that have characterized the last one hundred years. The second section places tax law within the broader international context considering how it relates to public and private international law, as well as corporate, trade, and criminal law. Sections three and four consider key legal principles and issues such as regional tax treaty models, OECD dispute resolution, and transfer pricing versus formulary apportionment. Subsequent analysis places these issues within their European and cross-border contexts providing an assessment of the role of the ECJ, state aid, and cross-border VAT. Section seven broadens the scope of this analysis, asking how trends in recent major economies and regions have helped shape the current outlook. The final section considers emerging issues and the future of international tax law. With over sixty authors from 28 different countries, the Oxford Handbook of International Tax Law is an invaluable resource for scholars, academics, and practitioners alike.

Value-added tax (VAT) is a mainstay of revenue systems in more than 160 countries. Because consumption is a more stable revenue base than other tax bases, VAT is less distorting and hence more likely to encourage investment, savings, optimum labor supply decisions, and growth. VAT is not without criticism however, and faces its own specific technical and policy challenges. This book, the first to thoroughly evaluate VAT from a global policy perspective after over 50 years of experience with its intricacies, offers authoritative perspectives on VAT’s full spectrum—from its signal successes to the subtle ways its application can undermine revenue performance and economic neutrality. The contributors—leading tax practitioners and academics—examine the key policy issues and topics that are crucially relevant for measuring the success of the tax in the first part of the book, including: revenue generation and revenue efficiency; single rate versus multiple rates; susceptibility to fraud; exemptions and exceptions; compliance cost for businesses; policy and compliance gaps in revenue collection; adjustment rules caused by the transactional nature of the tax; transfer pricing issues; treatment of vouchers; permanent establishments and holding companies; payment of refunds; cross-border digital transactions; and supplies for free or below cost price. The second part offers six country reports—on New Zealand, Japan, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, and India—to demonstrate the different ways in which VAT operates in a variety of national economies. Whether a government is contemplating the imposition of a general consumption tax for the first time or new rules for applying an existing one, it is important for policymakers to keep central the aim to design a tax that realizes optimal efficiency and causes minimal distortions. This invaluable book serves as an expert guide to VAT policy development in this area. It will be welcomed not only by concerned government officials but also by tax professionals (both lawyers and accountants) and academics in tax law.

This book brings together a landmark collection of essays on tax law and policy to celebrate the legacy of Professor Judith Freedman. It focuses on the four areas of taxation scholarship to which she made her most notable contributions: taxation of SMEs and individuals, tax avoidance, tax administration, and taxpayers' rights and procedures. Professor Freedman has been a major driving force behind the development of tax law and policy scholarship, not only in the UK, but worldwide. The strength and diversity of the contributors to this book highlight the breadth of Professor Freedman's impact within tax scholarship. The list encompasses some of the most renowned taxation experts worldwide; they include lawyers, economists, academics and practitioners, from Britain, Canada, Portugal, Australia, Germany, Italy, Malta, Ireland, and Ukraine.