BEPS: UK ratifies the OECD Multilateral Instrument

Europe

The Double Taxation Relief (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) Order 2018 has been approved by the House of Commons on 23 May 2018 (the “Order”) (full text available here). The Order ratifies the OECD’s Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (the "Multilateral Instrument") and brings those provisions into the UK’s domestic legislation.

This comes ahead of the Multilateral Instrument coming into force on 1 July 2018. The UK joins Slovenia, the Republic of Austria, Isle of Man, Jersey and Poland as countries that have ratified the Multilateral Instrument. As of 1 July 2018, the Multilateral Instrument will modify the treaties the UK has with those five jurisdictions (and any others that ratify the Multilateral Instrument), subject to certain grace periods.

To learn more about the effect of the Multilateral Instrument coming into force and the BEPS Project more generally, please see our articles: BEPS: OECD announces Multilateral Instrument will come into force (here), UK takes steps to ratify the Multilateral Instrument on BEPS (here), BEPS: Update on Multilateral Instrument (here), BEPS: Multilateral Instrument Published (here), Business Implications of BEPS (here) and Current BEPS Action Items (here).