In the context of trade relations and international investments, international taxation is the subject of constant review, especially by taxpayers, as they seek the correct adequacy and compliance with tax obligations, within the best economic efficiency. And, when we add two or more countries to this list, the complexity of the applicable tax rules multiplies.
Dynamics of studies and comparisons that were the focus of the AIJA Annual Conference on Taxation, held at the beginning of March in Norway. From this conference it is possible to extract trends and new procedures that will be applied in different jurisdictions, such as Italy, USA, Austria, Holland, Liechtenstein, Portugal, Spain, Mexico, Singapore, Norway, among others.
Here, I highlight an example of a new European Union Directive that will affect companies established in the member countries of the bloc. The norm deals with a new rule to combat abuses by taxpayers in aggressive tax planning or tax evasion, called the Unshell Directive.
With this Directive, which still needs to be transposed into the internal legislation of the member countries of the bloc, a substance test was created, in which tax authorities will apply various filters related to income, people and physical presence. In the event that the company is classified as a shell company - shell company, it will lose tax benefits that it may be making use of in the place of its establishment, as well as being subject to payment of income tax at source for payments made to third countries .
In another reading, with the application of the Unshell Directive, it is possible to point to the disappearance of holding companies that were only intended to manage the receipt of royalties and use of tax benefits in countries with favored taxation, for example.
From this European standard, Brazil, as well as other countries, will be able to adopt similar criteria and create their substance tests to verify whether or not a company incorporated has our so-called business purpose in tax planning. And, the company, passing the substance test, will be free to continue to make use of its business form and tax benefits that apply to it.
Fábio Stefani,
