Anti-base erosion, profit shifting measures talked at APEC seminar

Khanh Hoa (VNA) – Representatives of the 21 APEC economies have agreed to cooperate in preventing base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) at a seminar on the implementation of a BEPS action plan in Nha Trang city.

The function, wrapping up on February 22, was chaired by the General Department of Taxation under the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance.

Participants discussed opportunities and challenges and shared experience in implementing anti-BEPS measures in the APEC economies, with attention paid to the four BEPS minimum standards, the BEPS Implementation Forum, and the Multilateral Instrument for BEPS tax treaty measures (MLI). 

They showed their full awareness of the importance of BEPS prevention and BEPS’s impacts on the fairness and effectiveness of international taxation systems.

Statistics show that 76 percent of the APEC members have joined the BEPS Implementation Forum, and this participation provides the economies which are not OECD members or G20 countries with a chance to be involved in global efforts against cross-border tax avoidance.

Meanwhile, the MLI was built with a view to facilitating the amendment to existing bilateral tax treaties so as to carry out related tax measures within the framework of the BEPS initiative.

About 40 percent of the double-taxation avoidance agreements belong to the APEC economies, and 19 percent of these economies have confirmed that they will sign the MLI this June, which is believed to be a foundation for the implementation of the BEPS action plan in 2017, when Vietnam is the APEC Chair.

A BEPS action plan was completed and is set to be included in a report of the meeting of APEC deputy finance ministers and central bank deputy governors on February 23. It will be reported to the APEC finance ministers at their meeting slated for this October.-VNA