The Concept of �Aggressive Tax Planning� Launched by the OECD and the EU Commission in the BEPS EraRedefining the Border between Legitimate and Illegitimate Tax Planning

Abstract

In recent years, the need to prevent and combat aggressive tax planning has played a key role not only in the agendas of international organizations and supranational institutions (OECD, EU, G-20, UN), but also in the agendas of national tax administrations. In this context, given the constraints and problems that result from the traditional model of enforcing tax obligations, the OECD is working towards the implementation of a complementary model of cooperative compliance, which shall be regarded as an instrument to improve voluntary tax compliance and to prevent tax fraud, tax evasion and aggressive tax planning. This piece of work addresses the fuzzy concept of aggressive tax planning in the framework of cooperative compliance programs and assesses how the �tax paradigm� shift that is taking place at the international level (BEPS global tax reset) affects the delineation of the border between legitimate tax planning and tax avoidance, thus raising a number of issues and problems for taxpayers insofar as the redrawing of this thin red line has not been conducted in a globally uniform, transparent and consistent manner.