At its November 2021 meeting, the OECD Forum on Harmful Tax Practices (FHTP) updated its views on nine preferential tax regimes as part of the implementation of the BEPS Action 5 minimum standard, bringing the total number of reviewed regimes since the start of the BEPS project to 317.
The conclusions, which were approved by the Inclusive Framework in January 2022, include the following:
two newly introduced regimes – Hong Kong (China) (profits tax concession for carried interest) and Lithuania (large scale investment projects) – are considered ‘not harmful’;
two Mauritius regimes (‘foundations’ and ‘trusts’) have been abolished;
Qatar has amended its three preferential regimes (broadly relating to freezones) to be in line with the standard and these regimes are now considered ‘not harmful’.
Costa Rica made a commitment to amend recent legislative changes that were made to its free trade zone regime and the regime is now ‘in the process of being amended’ with potentially harmful features to be addressed.
A new preferential regime for software production and development in Albania is ‘under review’.
At its November 2021 meeting, the OECD Forum on Harmful Tax Practices (FHTP) updated its views on nine preferential tax regimes as part of the implementation of the BEPS Action 5 minimum standard, bringing the total number of reviewed regimes since the start of the BEPS project to 317.
The conclusions, which were approved by the Inclusive Framework in January 2022, include the following:
two newly introduced regimes – Hong Kong (China) (profits tax concession for carried interest) and Lithuania (large scale investment projects) – are considered ‘not harmful’;
two Mauritius regimes (‘foundations’ and ‘trusts’) have been abolished;
Qatar has amended its three preferential regimes (broadly relating to freezones) to be in line with the standard and these regimes are now considered ‘not harmful’.
Costa Rica made a commitment to amend recent legislative changes that were made to its free trade zone regime and the regime is now ‘in the process of being amended’ with potentially harmful features to be addressed.
A new preferential regime for software production and development in Albania is ‘under review’.
