Representatives of the 21 APEC economies agreed to cooperate to prevent base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) after a seminar on the implementation of a BEPS action plan in Nha Trang City. — VNA/VNS Photo Nguyen Khang

KHÁNH HÒA – Representatives of the 21 APEC economies agreed to cooperate to prevent base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) after a seminar on the implementation of a BEPS action plan in Nha Trang City.

The function, wrapping up yesterday, was chaired by the General Department of Taxation under the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance.

Participants discussed opportunities and challenges, and they shared experiences in implementing anti-BEPS measures in APEC economies, with attention paid to the four BEPS minimum standards, the BEPS Implementation Forum and the Multilateral Instrument for BEPS tax treaty measures (MLI).

They demonstrated a full awareness of the importance of BEPS prevention and BEPS’s impacts on the fairness and effectiveness of international taxation systems.

Statistics show that 76 per cent of APEC members have joined the BEPS Implementation Forum, and this participation provides the economies which are not OECD members or G20 countries with a chance to be involved in global efforts against cross-border tax avoidance.

Meanwhile, the MLI was built to facilitate the amendment to existing bilateral tax treaties, so as to carry out related tax measures within the framework of the BEPS initiative.

About 40 per cent of the double-taxation avoidance agreements belong to APEC economies, and 19 per cent of those economies have confirmed that they will sign the MLI this June. The MLI is believed to be a foundation for the implementation of the BEPS action plan in 2017, when Việt Nam is the APEC Chair.

A BEPS action plan has been completed and is set to be included in a report of the meeting of APEC deputy finance ministers and central bank deputy governors today. It will be reported to the APEC finance ministers at a meeting slated for this October. — VNS