The OECD's BEPS Initiative and International Tax Reform

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) initiative is headed for the home stretch. Whether it will cross the finish line, however, remains to be seen. Recently, the G20 Finance Ministers endorsed a comprehensive OECD report and plan to implement the BEPS initiative–the culmination of an ambitious two-and-a-half-year effort to overhaul the global tax system. The major concern: eliminating double non-taxation, or so-called “stateless” income, and putting an end to the perceived threat that multinational corporations are artificially (and improperly) shifting tax profits across borders to avoid taxation.  The BEPS measures are now set for discussion and action by the G20 heads of state during their November summit in Antalya, Turkey.  Is major international tax reform on the horizon?

To learn more about the BEPS initiative, please link to my article, The U.S. and BEPS: Hurry Up and Slow Down as previously published in the Sept./Oct. 2015 issue of Today's CPA magazine.  Mr. Freeman is the Tax Topics Column Editor  for Today's CPA magazine.