(March 2, 2015) 

On March 2, 2015 the OECD issued two different news releases regarding regional network meetings on BEPS. The first news release regards a meeting for French-speaking countries which was held in Libreville, Gabon on February 27, 2015. The second news release regards a meeting for the Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Network which was held in Lima, Peru on February 26-27, 2015. Both meetings focused on BEPS issues.

The meeting for French-speaking countries was organized in cooperation with CREDAF (Centre de rencontre des administrations fiscales) and was attended by 40 tax officials from 13 countries, as well as representatives from regional and international organizations. According to the news release the main topics of discussion were the base erosion issues which have specific relevance for the region and the development of toolkits in order to implement the measures designed to tackle BEPS. The news release furthermore states that the meeting’s discussion highlighted several topics considered by the participants as being of particular importance, such as:

·        The balance between tax revenue and foreign investment in managing the tax incentives;

·        The regulation of indirect transfer of assets located in the partner countries; and

·        Intragroup payments (royalties, interests, remuneration of services).

The co-chairs of the meeting, Mr. Claude Combo, Deputy Director of the revenue authority of Gabon, and Mr. Dieudonné Lokadi Moga, Director of the revenue authority of the Democratic Republic of Congo, wrote a summary of the discussions (only available in French). Click here to be forwarded to this summary of the discussions as published on the website of the OECD, which will open in a new window.

The meeting for the Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Network was attended by 89 senior tax officials from 14 jurisdictions, as well as representatives from 7 international organizations. According to the news release the discussions focused on BEPS issues of particular relevance for the region, such as commodities transactions, interest deductions, the difficulties in finding adequate transfer pricing comparables and the development of toolkits to assist the implementation of solutions to counter BEPS. The Co-Chairs of the meeting, Mr. Marcio Verdi from CIAT and Mr. Richard Llaque from SUNAT wrote a summary of the discussions, highlighting the key outcomes. Click here to be forwarded to this summary of the discussions as published on the website of the OECD, which will open in a new window.

The outcomes of the discussions of both meetings will be discussed at the meeting of the Global Forum on Transfer Pricing and the Task Force on Tax and Development on March 16-18, 2015 in Paris.

According to the news release upcoming regional network meeting include: 

·         Europe/Asia: Ankara, Turkey (March 4-5, 2015);

·         Africa: Pretoria, South Africa (April 20-21, 2015) (co-organized with ATAF).

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