OECD publishes MAP peer review reports for seven jurisdictions

On April 9, 2020, the OECD published stage 2 peer review monitoring reports of a further seven jurisdictions as part of its work on Action 14 of the base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project.

The reports concern the following seven jurisdictions: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Sweden.

The reports evaluate the progress made by these seven jurisdictions in implementing any recommendations resulting from jurisdictions' stage 1 peer review reports. The stage 2 monitoring considers any developments in the period April 1, 2017 – September 30, 2018, and the mutual agreement procedure (MAP) statistics are based on years 2016 and 2017.

The results from the peer review and peer monitoring process demonstrate positive changes across all seven jurisdictions, although not all show the same level of progress, the OECD said.

According to the OECD, all jurisdictions now have a documented notification/bilateral consultation process to be applied in cases where an objection is considered as being not justified by their competent authority.

The report reveals that Austria, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and Sweden have added more personnel to the competent authority function, and/or made or initiated several organisational improvements with a view to handling MAP cases in a more timely, effective, and efficient manner.

The report further reveals that Austria, Germany and Sweden decreased the amount of time needed to close MAP cases, and Liechtenstein and Luxembourg met the sought-after 24-month average time frame to close MAP cases. Austria introduced legislative changes to ensure that all MAP agreements can be implemented notwithstanding domestic time limits if the treaty does not provide for it, while in five of the other six, this is already the case.
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Last, Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, and Sweden have updated or clarified issues in their MAP guidance. 

See Reports