OECD CLARIFIES THE RULES FOR THE GLOBAL MINIMUM CORPORATE TAX
On 14 March, the OECD published the Commentary on the Global Anti-Base Erosion (GloBE) Rules for the BEPS Pillar 2. The paper provides technical guidance on the operation and intended outcomes under the rules.
The document notes that inland transportation could be considered as an ancillary to an international shipping income by the OECD Model Tax Convention, but it is not covered by the exclusion of international shipping income and its related activities: inland transportation should therefore be subject to the global minimum corporate tax. The Commentary recognises that including inland transportation in the scope of the corporate tax "mitigates the risk of competitive distortions between shipping companies that have vertically integrated such services and independent freight forwarding and land-based logistics service providers."
On 15 March, in the framework of the Council of Finance Ministers, the French Presidency submitted a general approach on the proposal for a Directive to implement the minimum corporate tax into EU law, but failed to reach unanimity. The compromise text proposed by the Presidency delays the transposition deadline by one year (until 31 December 2023). The French Presidency hopes that an agreement will be reached with all EU Member States at the next ECOFIN Council on 5 April.
CLECAT will remind the European Commission and governments on the need to make sure to bring their tax systems- including shipping specific schemes such as tonnage taxes – and regulations like the Maritime State Aid Guidelines in line with the OECD/G20 model regulation.