The BEPS and the Tax Treatment of Hybrid Financial Instruments in Brazil

Abstract

In the past, the financial instruments used by companies to finance its activity were divided between debts and capital’s ones. Recently, new financial instruments were created, much more sophisticated than those used until then, whose fundamental characteristic is the combination of the elements present in debt and capital instruments. This new structure brought complications in tax and accounting areas. In international tax law, the main difficulty consists in the difference of qualification between distinct countries, which implies in distortions in the application of the double non-taxation tax treaties. It’s in this context that the BEPS Plan emerges, whose Plan Action nº 2 suggests measures to avoid those situations. This article aims to analyze OECD’s proposals, verifying if it is compatible with the tax treatment given by Brazil to these instruments.