Report on Taxation of Offshore Indirect Transfer of Assets Issued

The Platform for Collaboration on Tax – a joint initiative of the IMF, the OECD, the UN, and the World Bank Group – has published for public comments a revised version of its report on taxation of offshore indirect transfers of assets.

The Platform had previously sought input on a draft of the report, which generated huge interest. Given the volume of comments received, and some of the concerns raised, the Platform published a fresh report – on July 16 – with some new questions for consideration.

The Platform is specifically seeking input on the following questions:

• Has the draft better clarified the economic rationale for taxing such transfers by offshore indirect owners?
• The new draft does not express a preference for either of the described legislative approaches to taxing these transfers – is this made clear?
• Does the draft adequately reduce any perceived emphasis on such offshore transfers as constituting tax avoidance, and make clear that the economic rationale for so taxing them is not as an anti-avoidance device?

Comments must be received by September 24, 2018.