PEs
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PE Watch 2023: Year In Review
Originally published: February 2024 EY’s market leading PE Watch: 2023 in review is out (also available here: https://lnkd.in/eRMJv5jK) and I am happy to announce that I penned the section on how 2023 treated the difficult issue of remote work PEs. Scroll quickly to Section 2 to find out more. I end on a hopeful note that… Continue reading
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Work From Home
Originally published: February 2024 If someone works from a home office in a different country than their employer, can that trigger a permanent establishment (PE) subjecting the employer is to corporate tax? I’ve written on this countless times (see here: https://lnkd.in/em6mvyxX) and it’s a grey zone. Some people would really like such working arrangement, but given… Continue reading
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The Arrival Of The New Beps Pe Clause In Actual Tax Treaties Via The Mli: Impact, Risks And Need For Further Regulatory Changes (Particular Focus On Spain)
Originally published: March 2023 Foreign companies making money without having a taxable presence has long been a frustration for countries such as Spain. In the BEPS project (c 2013-2015), Action 7 extended the permanent establishment (PE) definition to address this. But the taxable nexus question is a red herring: most large MNEs have nexus, but… Continue reading
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Dutch tax ruling: parking spots are a PE
Originally published: March 2023 If I am a non-Dutch company renting out bicycles or escooters in a Dutch city through an app interface, do I pay any corporate tax in the Netherlands? Yes, say the Dutch tax authorities in this ‘knowledge groups’ opinion (https://lnkd.in/efraUg8n). In their view, the non-Dutch company has a fixed place of… Continue reading
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The OECD Two-Pillar Solution—a Perspective on Nigeria’s Position
Originally published: March 2023 If Pillar 1 (P1) falls apart (as widely predicted), Nigeria’s experience shows an alternative approach on the taxation of digital companies. Nigeria is one of the only countries (alongside Kenya, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) that has explicitly rejected the P1. This article by Tayo Ogungbenro and Israel Ajayi FCA,FCTI,MBA… explains why (https://lnkd.in/eMNQGwXM). In the years… Continue reading
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Dutch tax ruling: 3 employees working from home are not a PE
Originally published: February 2023 The Dutch tax authorities issued a ruling (https://lnkd.in/ezuRyJrV) that a foreign EU company did not have a Dutch permanent establishment (PE) for having three employees who worked fully remote from their home offices in the Netherlands, as the home offices are not ‘at the disposal’ of the employer. This is a… Continue reading
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Girls Just Wanna Have Funds
Originally published: February 2023 Most tax people think that withholding taxes (WHT) (https://lnkd.in/eq5pfNnb) is the key tax issue for private equity funds (PE Funds) and their fund manager (AIFM). After all, it reduces investment returns. But there is a host of PE Funds tax problems, usually dealt with by fund structuring specialists that rarely reach… Continue reading
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Too Much Tax Will Kill You
Originally published: January 2023 A lot of emerging markets have the following corporate tax system: (1) have a corporate tax mostly following international standards, (2) push the boundaries in favour of the tax authorities by (a) slapping withholding tax (WHT) on everything, (b) a broad capital gains tax (CGT) and (c) a broad permanent establishment… Continue reading
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Austrian PE case
Originally published: September 2022 Could a home office of a ‘work from anywhere’ employee be a permanent establishment (PE) of the employer? If so, the employer may have to figure out how much profits can be allocated to it and pay CIT on it, which can quickly get complicated. That’s why proponents of the new… Continue reading
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Dennett: Where Am I?
Originally published: August 2022 The OECD, the UN and scores of academics have wrecked their brains over the past decade to come up with a tax reform to allow source countries to tax profits by the biggest tech cos. The two main hurdles are (1) creating a nexus to get the tech revenue in the… Continue reading
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What corporate tax policy would support ‘work from anywhere’?
Originally published: July 2022 Work on questions like these is only just starting to come out. The COVID era guidance on remote work and permanent establishments (PEs) was quite lenient, but limited in scope to situations where remote work was beyond the control of the people involved. This no longer applies. Initial signs show that… Continue reading
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Italian Tax Authorities Expand Concept of Permanent Establishment for the Digital Age
Originally published: July 2022 Additional musings on the Italian Netflix case and the unique Italian approach of deeming permanent establishments (PE) to exist in case of ‘significant economic presence’. The article makes clear that this approach is very much on shaky ground, especially in a tax treaty context. But there’s another problem that the article… Continue reading
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Interesting Spanish tax ruling about remote working and PE risks
Originally posted: January 2022 Interesting Spanish tax ruling about remote working and PE risks. A UK company has a senior employee (but without authority to sign contracts) stranded in Spain during COVID-19 lockdowns. After the lockdowns end, the employee refuses to return to the UK, instead preferring to work remotely. The UK company disagrees and… Continue reading
About Me
I am Leonard, an experienced M&A Tax and International Tax expert. I write about tax on LinkedIn and Twitter sometimes (but mostly LinkedIn). People liked the posts, but there were too many of them to keep track of. So, now they are on a blog for future reference.
Obvious disclaimers on all my posts: this is not advice. These views are my own and do not necessarily represent my employer.
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LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leendertwagenaar/