from 25 November 2009 to 31 January 2010

 

The OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs invites public comments on draft changes to the Commentary on the OECD Model Tax Convention dealing with tax treaty issues related to common telecommunication transactionstax treaty issues related to common telecommunication transactions.

 

Various tax treaty issues related to telecommunications have been brought to the attention of the Committee on Fiscal Affairs in recent years through its Working Party 1 on Tax Conventions and Related Questions. These include the taxation of payments to satellite operators, the characterisation of income from granting indefeasible rights of use over phone lines, the characterisation of roaming payments and payments for spectrum licenses. Some of these issues have given rise to disputes and the Committee on Fiscal Affairs has therefore decided that the Commentary on the OECD Model Tax Convention should clarify the application of treaties based on the OECD Model Tax Convention to income arising from these common transactions.

 

This public discussion draft includes proposals for additions and changes to the Commentary on the OECD Model Tax Convention that result from the work of the Working Party on these issues.

 

The Committee is considering the inclusion of these additions and changes in the next update to the OECD Model Tax Convention, which is tentatively scheduled for the second part of 2010. It therefore invites interested parties to send their comments on this discussion draft before 31 January 2010.  These comments will be examined at the February 2010 meeting of the Working Party, when the Working Party intends to complete its work on the next update.

 

This discussion draft is released for the purpose of inviting comments from interested parties. It does not necessarily reflect the final views of the OECD and its member countries.

 

Comments should be sent electronically (in Word format) to jeffrey.owens@oecd.org.

 

Unless otherwise requested at the time of submission, comments submitted to the OECD in response to this invitation will be posted on the OECD website.