Asian Voices: BEPS and Beyond

The OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project has, thus far, mostly been an OECD-driven project. Nevertheless, its efforts in involving representatives from developing and emerging countries in the Asia-Pacific region have been encouraging and are laudable, given the tremendous challenges of achieving global consensus in a highly technical field and the tight time frame of the BEPS Project. The Asia-Pacific region poses unique challenges in its great diversity of economic development, as well as cultural and legal traditions. Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Korea, as OECD members, are at the forefront of tax innovation and development, while China, India and Indonesia are at the table as members of the G20. However, the majority of the countries in the region are non-OECD, non-G20 developing countries. For these developing countries, the BEPS changes will bring added challenges at a time when their economies are rapidly transforming and they are in the midst of absorbing and legislating pre-existing international tax principles and modernizing their tax administration. The purpose of this book is to enrich the current discourse on the work of the OECD, by drawing on the top minds in tax and transfer pricing across Asia-Pacific. It aims to fill a void in the BEPS debate where the Asian perspective and the impact of the unique conditions in the region on the outcome of the BEPS Project may not have been adequately articulated or considered. This book takes the form of a series of analyses, commentaries and case studies, grouped along geographic, industry and thematic lines, critically examining the implications of the BEPS Project for the region. The approach taken is multifaceted, encompassing perspectives from key tax administrators and policymakers, leading academics and thought leaders in the advisory space, balanced with industry views and practical case studies applying the BEPS recommendations to business models common to the region.