OECD: Release of a discussion draft on BEPS Action 12 (Mandatory Disclosure Rules)

Public comments are invited on a discussion draft which deals with Action 12 (Mandatory Disclosure Rules) of the BEPS Action Plan.

In July 2013, the Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting directed the OECD to commence work on 15 actions designed to ensure the coherence of corporate income taxation at the international level. The first seven of these actions were presented to G20 Leaders at the Brisbane Summit in November 2014.

Action 12 of the BEPS Action Plan notes the usefulness of disclosure initiatives in addressing the lack of comprehensive and relevant information, available to tax authorities, on tax planning strategies and calls on OECD and G20 countries to:

ACTION 12

Require taxpayers to disclose their aggressive tax planning arrangements

Develop recommendations regarding the design of mandatory disclosure rules for aggressive or abusive transactions, arrangements, or structures, taking into consideration the administrative costs for tax administrations and businesses and drawing on experiences of the increasing number of countries that have such rules. The work will use a modular design allowing for maximum consistency but allowing for country specific needs and risks. One focus will be international tax schemes, where the work will explore using a wide definition of “tax benefit” in order to capture such transactions. The work will be co-ordinated with the work on co-operative compliance. It will also involve designing and putting in place enhanced models of information sharing for international tax schemes between tax administrations.

This discussion draft provides an overview of mandatory disclosure regimes, based on the experiences of countries that have such regimes, and sets out recommendations for a modular design of a mandatory disclosure regime including recommendations on rules designed to capture international tax schemes. 

The Discussion Draft sets out a standard framework for a mandatory disclosure regime that ensures consistency while providing sufficient flexibility to deal with country specific risks and to allow tax administrations to control the quantity and type of disclosure. The  Discussion Draft is divided into four chapters as follows:

• Chapter I is the introduction of this document.
• Chapter II provides an overview of the key features of a mandatory disclosure regime and considers its interaction with other disclosure initiatives and compliance tools.
• Chapter III sets out both the framework and features for the modular design of a mandatory disclosure regime.
• Chapter IV looks at international transactions and considers how these could best be captured by a mandatory disclosure regime.

The Action Plan calls for this work to be completed by September 2015. As part of the transparent and inclusive consultation process mandated by the Action Plan, the CFA invites interested parties to send comments on this discussion draft.

Comments should be submitted by 30 April 2015 at the latest (no extension will be granted) by email to mandatorydisclosure@oecd.org in Word format (in order to facilitate their distribution to government officials). They should be addressed to Achim Pross, Head, International Co-operation and Tax Administration Division, OECD/CTPA.

Please note that all comments received regarding this consultation draft will be made publicly available. Comments submitted in the name of a collective “grouping” or “coalition”, or by any person submitting comments on behalf of another person or group of persons, should identify all enterprises or individuals who are members of that collective grouping or coalition, or the person(s) on whose behalf the commentator(s) are acting.

Public Consultation

A public consultation meeting on Action 12 will be held in Paris at the OECD Conference Centre on 11 May 2015.