Comment Letters

On July 14, 2014, TEI submitted a letter to the South African Revenue Service (SARS) addressing new rules affecting foreign-based supplies of electronic services. The letter identified several areas where further guidance or amendments to the rules would assist businesses and SARS.The letter was prepared under the aegis of TEI's European Indirect Tax Committee, whose chair is Jean-Francois Turgeon of Caterpillar SARL. Materially contributing to the development of TEI's comments were Julien Brugere of Time Warner Inc. and Lynne Clare of Sony Corporate Services Europe Ltd.

On July 14, 2014, TEI submitted a letter to the South African Revenue Service (SARS) addressing new rules affecting foreign-based supplies of electronic services. The letter identified several areas where further guidance or amendments to the rules would assist businesses and SARS.

On June 27, 2014, TEI submitted a letter to the Canadian Department of Finance observing that requiring foreign e-commerce suppliers to register with Canadian Revenue Authority and collect GST/HST on sales to final consumers would restore neutrality to the Canadian sales tax system and mitigate the pricing difference resulting from the ineffectiveness of self-assessment of the tax. The Institute's comments went on to discuss several areas to be addressed if a mandatory registration system for foreign e-commerce providers is created.

On June 11, 2014, Tax Executives Institute submitted comments on the Consultation on Tax Planning by Multinational Enterprises announced in Annex 2 of the 2014 Canadian Budget Message.

On June 5, 2014, TEI submitted a letter to the European Commission recommending areas where additional guidance would help businesses and tax authorities implement recent amendments to Implementing Regulation (EU) No 282/2011. The new rules for determining the place of supply for VAT purposes within the EU for sales of services connected with immovable property will take effect on January 1, 2017.

On May 5, 2014, TEI submitted comments to the Internal Revenue Service regarding temporary and proposed regulations implementing Chapter 4 of the Code, better known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), and coordinating withholding under FATCA with withholding under Chapters 3 and 61 and section 3406.

On May 1, 2014, TEI submitted comments to the OECD regarding its Public Discussion Drafts on BEPS Action 2: Neutralise the Effects of Hybrid Mismatch Arrangements (Recommendations for Domestic Laws and Treaty Issues). TEI’s comments focused on the need for the OECD to specifically delineate the instruments and transactions that would be subject to the proposed, the proposed rules intended effect, and to coordinate the rules’ implementation across jurisdictions to prevent double-taxation from arising. 

On April 13, 2014, TEI submitted comments to the OECD regarding its Public Discussion Draft on BEPS Action 1:  Address the Tax Challenges of the Digital Economy. The Institute agreed with the OECD that there was no need to “ring fence” the digital economy through the adoption of special or separate international tax rules, and that any such attempt would be inadvisable.

On April 10, 2014, TEI filed comments with Canada’s Minister of Finance Joe Oliver on the 2014 Budget Proposals. TEI’s comments were prepared by its Canadian Income Tax Committee, whose chair is Bonnie Dawe of Finning International. Contributing substantially to the development of TEI’s comments were Carolyn Mulder of Wal-Mart Canada, Corp. and Jason Vincze of General Electric Canada. Also contributing to the comments were Giovanna Baragetti of Hydro One Networks, Inc.

On April 8, 2014, TEI submitted comments to the OECD regarding its Public Discussion Draft on BEPS Action 6: Preventing the Granting of Treaty Benefits in Inappropriate Circumstances. The Institute’s comments generally focused on the need for objective rules if the OECD is to combat inappropriate “treaty shopping.” TEI recommended that such rules should be in the form of clearly defined “limitation-on-benefits” provisions in the OECD’s Model Tax Convention, and not in the form of a general anti-abuse rule.