Taxation of International Partnerships - 2nd edition

25 years OECD Partnership Report - A comparative study of 15 countries and what has changed since 1999, including new developments like hybrids, multilateralism and national amendments.

Why this book?

The taxation of partnerships in an international context is undoubtedly one of the most complex areas of (international) tax law. It is also of great importance from a practical point of view. This is particularly due to two conflicting principles: Some countries treat partnerships as taxable entities, while others treat them as opaque or transparent and only see the partners as taxpayers for tax purposes. This difference in approach can lead to double taxation as well as double non-taxation. In addition, specific problems can arise in the case of triangular situations.

The tax treatment of partnerships is so difficult and so important from both a practical and academic/theoretical point of view that, in 1999, the OECD published an extensive report on this subject, the so-called “OECD Partnership Report”. This document set forth in great detail the view of the OECD with respect to the taxation of international partnerships from the perspective of the state of source as well as the state of residence. The Report contained some general remarks on the taxation of partnerships but was mainly built on examples of specific cases and their tax treatment.

In 2024, the OECD Partnership Report celebrated its 25th anniversary. Consequently, it is time again to investigate if and how the ideas of the OECD have been adopted and – in light of BEPS and the discussion on hybrids in particular – further developed by various jurisdictions, just as the 1st edition of this book did 10 years ago. As in that 1st edition, this book aims first to give a short introduction on the taxation of international partnerships in individual jurisdictions and then, second, to answer the problems posed in the examples in the Partnership Report from each jurisdiction’s perspective and in light of new developments. To get the full picture, the jurisdictions covered include the economically most important EU Member States and other European countries like Switzerland and the United Kingdom, as well as Australia, Brazil, Canada, China and the United States.