Anti-Abuse Rules in International Tax Law and their Interactions

1. Introduction

In 2012, the G20 put the fight against base erosion and profit shifting high on their agenda. Inspired and in accordance with the G20, in 2013, the OECD released the BEPS Action Plan consisting of 15 actions that the OECD identified as the most important tools to adapt the global tax system to the new challenges of globalization and digitization and to counter BEPS. After releasing the BEPS Action Plan, the OECD put huge efforts into the individual actions, releasing comprehensive final reports on the individual actions in 2015. Most of the BEPS actions are aimed at material changes of international and domestic tax law, however, in particular BEPS Action 12 is different as mandatory disclosure rules are introducing a reporting obligation focusing not only on taxpayers but mainly targeting intermediS. 74aries. This chapter deals with the interaction of such mandatory disclosure rules with other anti-abuse rules and shows the tensions and similarities. Furthermore, it will be analysed where the Directive on Administrative Cooperation (DAC6), the implementation of BEPS Action 12 into EU law, could be in tension with fundamental freedoms and principles under EU law. Due to l...