UK and International Tax news

Tax Residence Of Pension Funds

Friday 4th March 2016

The OECD has issued a discussion draft on proposals for changes to the OECD Model Tax Convention concerning the treaty residence of pension funds.
Paragraph 12 of the final version of the Report on Action 6 of the BEPS Action Plan [Preventing the Granting of treaty Benefits In Inappropriate Circumstances] indicates that “additional work will also ensure that a pension fund should be considered to be a resident of the State in which it is constituted regardless of whether that pension fund benefits from a limited or complete exemption from taxation in that State. This will be done through changes to the OECD Model Tax Convention, to be also finalised in the first part of 2016, which will ensure that outcome for funds that will meet a definition of “recognised pension fund…”

The discussion draft includes draft changes to Articles 3 and 4 of the OECD Model Tax Convention, and to the Commentary on these Articles. These are to ensure that a pension fund is considered to be a resident of the State in which it is constituted for the purposes of tax treaties. These changes were discussed by Working Party 1 on Tax Conventions and Related Questions, the subgroup of the OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs in charge of the Model Tax Convention, at its meeting of February 2016.

Comments have been requested by 1 April 2016.

Contact Us