The reports evaluate the progress made by these eight jurisdictions in implementing any recommendations resulting from their stage 1 peer review. They take into account any developments in the period January 2018- August 2019 and build on the MAP statistics for 2016-2018.
The OECD last week released stage 2 peer review reports for a further eight tax jurisdictions as part of its work on BEPS Action 14.
The eight jurisdictions for which the reports have been released are: Australia, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Malta, Mexico, New Zealand, and Portugal.
Under BEPS Action 14, jurisdictions have committed to implement a minimum standard to improve the resolution of tax-related disputes between jurisdictions.
The reports evaluate the progress made by these eight jurisdictions in implementing any recommendations resulting from their stage 1 peer review. They take into account any developments in the period January 2018- August 2019 and build on the MAP statistics for 2016-2018.
The results from the peer review and peer monitoring process demonstrate positive changes across all eight jurisdictions, although not all show the same level of progress. Highlights include:
- The Multilateral Instrument was signed by all eight jurisdictions and has already been ratified by seven of them, which brings a substantial number of their treaties in line with the standard. In addition, there are bilateral negotiations either ongoing or concluded.
- Australia, Ireland, Japan, Malta, New Zealand and Portugal now have a documented bilateral notification/consultation process that they apply in cases where an objection is considered as being not justified by their competent authority.
- Australia, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and Portugal have added more personnel to the competent authority function and/or have made organizational improvements with a view to handle MAP cases in a more timely, effective and efficient manner.
- Australia and Malta closed MAP cases within the pursued average time of 24 months. Furthermore, Israel, New Zealand and Portugal decreased the amount of time needed to close MAP cases.
- Ireland and Mexico introduced legislative changes to ensure that MAP agreements can always be implemented notwithstanding domestic time limits, which was already the case for Japan and Portugal.
- All jurisdictions have issued or updated their MAP guidance.
The OECD will continue to publish stage 2 peer review reports in batches in accordance with the Action 14 peer review assessment schedule. In total, 82 stage 1 peer review reports and 45 stage 1 and stage 2 peer monitoring reports have now been finalized and published, with the fifth batch of stage 2 reports to be released in a few months.
The author is Alex Hunter, Editor, TP News. He oversees and updates the publication and also regularly writes news stories about transfer pricing and international tax law. Alex is reachable at editor@transferpricingnews.com