Follow The Money: A Discussion Of The Organisation For Economic Co-Operation And Development’s Base Erosion And Profit Shifting Project: Has The US Taken Steps To Adopt A Global Solution To This Worldwide Problem?

This article looks at the recent actions taken by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to prevent hybrid mismatches and tax base erosion. These actions have come in the form of the “Action Plan for Base Erosion and Profits” (BEPS). BEPS has spanned from 2013 to 2015 and has been the collaborative effort of representatives from 34 countries (with much help from the G-20 countries) as well as input from other non-member countries. Through this project, the OECD seeks to eradicate the problems caused by the current corporate tax structure and the tendency of countries to choose country-specific solutions to global problems of tax avoidance by large multinational corporations. Some of the areas targeted by the BEPS project include abuses of transfer pricing, corporate inversions, the use of tax havens, and hybrid entities. Most recently, the OECD has released its final set of deliverables in October 2015. This article seeks to explain some of the problems with the current state of corporate taxation and explain some of the BEPS deliverables. The article will also take a critical look at the suggestions made by the OECD, the challenges companies will face, unilateral steps that countries have already taken, whether or not the OECD is the correct body to promulgate these solutions, and what the United States has done in response to BEPS