The importance of substance in the post -BEPS era

This course is part of a 4-Module training program, providing participants with a 360 degree overview of the new tax environment in which Alternative Investments have to navigate.  Please follow the link to the full program: Alternative investments in the post-BEPS era - Training program

This training will be of significant importance for independent directors that need to have a clear understanding of substance requirements in international taxation. While substance has always been important for Luxembourg companies that frequently operate in a cross-border context, the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (“BEPS”) Project only elevated their importance in an international tax environment that is characterized by total transparency. The more recent initiative of the EU Commission in regard to shell entities is evidence that the topic of substance will remain high on the agenda.

The main features of the program are:

• Substance requirements: Analysing the reasons of substance requirements from a Luxembourg perspective, a foreign tax perspective, a tax treaty perspective, a transfer pricing perspective and a reputational risk perspective
• Limits of anti-abuse legislation (substance requirements) in an EU context
• The new initiative of the EU Commission in regard to shell entities
• Organisation of substance: Analysing how substance might be organised in practice (looking at different substance models)