Principal purpose test

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (the highest appeal court for a number of Commonwealth countries) ruled  last month that payment rapid payment of dividends by a Trinidadian company …

On December 30th of last year, the Indian Income Tax Appellate Tribunal was the first “quasi judicial institution” to apply the PPT to a treaty-shopping arrangement.[1] The case concerned a dispute…

Part II. The (Toxic) Relationship of BO and GAAR in Light of the Husky Energy case. “[T]he concept of beneficial ownership is a basic principle of income taxation: the beneficial owner of income is…

Part I. International treaty autonomous BO-GAAR relationship “[T]he concept of beneficial ownership is a basic principle of income taxation: the beneficial owner of income is the person who should be…

Even before introduction of the BEPS PPT, the UK has had purpose-based provisions in various forms, designed to limit access to treaty benefits in its double tax treaties since the 1960’s. Its…

The relationship between treaties and domestic tax law ought to be straightforward. The pacta servanda sunt principle expressed in articles 26 and 27 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties…

Analysis of the ECJ judgments, reading by national courts, and impact on tax treaty practice Authors: Robert Danon,[1] Daniel Gutmann,[2] Margriet Lukkien,[3] Guglielmo Maisto,[4] Adolfo Martín…

When the UK introduced its diverted profits tax, I was telephoned by a lawyer at the US Treasury. He wanted to know whether the “just and reasonable” apportionment of profits, in certain…

Case law on thepurpose of transactions is starting to develop around the world. Is there a common pattern? Whether a financing structure was a “tax avoidance arrangement”  under  now repealed general…