2021 IOTA Forum on Implementation of Measures to Counter BEPS

Adrienn Juhász's picture
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The 2021 meeting of IOTA’s Forum on Implementation of Measures to Counter Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) was held digitally between 8th-10th June. The three-day event welcomed 165 participants from 35 countries.

The main purpose of the Forum on Implementation of Measures to Counter BEPS is to share knowledge and experiences between IOTA member tax administrations to identify best practices in the implementation of the BEPS Action Plan. It aims to create opportunities for its members to work collaboratively towards meeting the emerging challenges of implementing the BEPS measures.

This year’s digital Forum meeting focused on the following key aspects of the BEPS Action Plan:

  • Tax challenges arising from digitalisation of the economy (Action 1) – with an introduction into the topic and update on the latest developments by the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration followed by a presentation by Germany;
  • Effective treatment of information on tax rulings subject to the automatic exchange between tax administrations (Action 5) – with a presentation by members of Subgroup 1 (Hungary, Italy, Sweden and United Kingdom) on the  Second  IOTA  Report on the Effective Treatment of Tax Rulings Subject to the Exchange between Tax Administrations;
  • Mandatory Disclosure Rules (Action 12) – with presentations by Belgium and Hungary;
  • Country-by-Country Reporting (Action 13) – with presentations by Finland, France and Norway.

The Forum meeting also included a session on key transfer pricing issues, including a presentation by the OECD on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and presentations by tax officials from Belgium, Georgia, Germany and the Slovak Republic on transfer pricing documentation requirements.

Both Day 1 and Day 2 of the Forum hosted Group Discussions in smaller groups, focusing on topics such as mandatory disclosure rules and transfer pricing documentation. Day 3 of the event included a session where representatives of tax service providers and the business community (Anglo American, CFE Tax Advisers Europe, Ernst & Young, PWC, and Unilever) shared their views and experiences of the key Forum topics.

Presentations and discussions of the three-day event provided valuable insights about the BEPS implementation process in IOTA member countries, the challenges and implications for tax administrations of taxing the digital economy, and the effective treatment of information on tax rulings subject to exchange between tax administrations, to mention just a few.

The video recordings of the event, presentations, and group discussion notes are available for registered IOTA website users on the event’s webpage.