The Beneficial Owner in the OECD Model
Back to the Future?
Keywords:
tax treaties, treaty shopping, OECD Model, concept of beneficial ownerAbstract
A central concept in tax treaty application, the “beneficial owner” was never defined in the OECD Model, and only had limited clarifications in the Commentaries. With the trend towards countering treaty shopping in 2003, authorities started to attribute a broad or “economic” or meaning to the concept, associated with “substance-over-form” or “economic substance” doctrines. The uncertainty from divergent case law caused the OECD to discuss the “beneficial owner” in two drafts incorporated to the Commentaries in 2014. Consistent with historical Commentaries and the context of its adoption, the concept was confirmed by the OECD as limited to agents, nominees or intermediaries, which do not have the right to enjoy the payment received, since obliged to pass it on. By clarifying a notion already included in the Model, the 2014 Commentaries do not introduce dynamic interpretation, but reassert the historical meaning of the concept, leaving treaty shopping to specific anti-abuse rules
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