Settlement of Disputes in Tax Treaty Law

In a world of tight legal and economic networks, tax disputes are on the advance. Until recently, mutual agreement procedures have virtually been the only means to settle such tax disputes amicably. In practice, mutual agreement procedures did not prove satisfactory, because legal certainty is not guaranteed and the taxpayer has no possibility to enforce the avoidance of taxation not in accordance with the double tax treaty. The Convention of the elimination of double taxation in connection with the adjustment of profits of associated enterprises can serve as an alternative dispute settlement vehicle. Still, only transfer pricing disputes fall within the applicability of this EU Convention and its geographic scope is restricted to EU territory. As part of their present treaty policy, some countries have therefore added arbitration clauses to newly negotiated tax treaties. These arbitration clauses extend the competence of an arbitration board not only to transfer pricing disputes but to the entire scope of a tax treaty, thereby avoiding most of the disadvantages of a simple mutual agreement procedure. In addition, related legal areas such as the arbitration provisions of the WTO, NAFTA, ICSID or social security systems may provide interesting inputs for future developments in the settlement of tax treaty disputes.