GAARs and Treaties: From the Guiding Principle to the Principal Purpose Test. What Have We Gained from BEPS Action 6?
The issue of General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAARs) and treaties is a legal problem as old as double tax conventions themselves. However, the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project, materialized in fifteen Actions and particularly in the Final Report of BEPS Action 6, involves a radical change in the very physiognomy of the problem. Apart from the inclusion of a Limitation-on-benefits rule in the OECD Model, the most groundbreaking innovation arising from BEPS Action 6 would be the incorporation, also to the Model, of a GAAR (the Principal Purpose Test). This article will examine the pros and cons of the Principal Purpose Testvis á vis the old paradigm. It also seeks to analyse some new problems originating from the very existence of the PPT.