WHAT IS INTERNATIONAL TAX PLANNING?
Taxes can be confusing. If you have ever studied tax, you would know how complicated it is. International Tax Planning has different tax slabs for everything. Different criteria or conditions are to be fulfilled for taking certain tax benefits. Goods and services are being manufactured and sold and then re-sold in a different country.
No one but the tax rules can determine which place should be the place of taxation. More so, in the digital age, people consume content from around the globe.
How is taxation decided for cross-border taxation?
It can be daunting and one usually requires an expert to navigate through the rules of taxation. International Taxation means a cross-border transaction. It has its own level of intricacy. One of the major concerns in the field of international taxation is Transparency with the Privacy of Information. Thus, international tax planning is essential.
International Tax Planning
It also termed Expanded Worldwide Planning (EWP) is a component of international taxation that implements directives from several tax authorities. These tax benefits authorities are none but the government agencies of different countries. The OCED or Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development is an organization comprising the governments of 38 high-income economies. These countries fall under the category of developed nations like Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, and the USA.
OCED was formed to provide a platform for seeking answers to common economic problems, comparing their experiences with different policies identifying the ones that benefit the most, and coordinating domestic and international policies.
OCED proposed the following Directives
- Common Reporting Standard (CRS)- It is an international system for automatically exchanging information.
- Base Erosion and Profit Shifting- This was a practice introduced by OCED to limit the companies’ ability to shift profits to low-tax locations. This was done to prevent multinational companies from tax aversion.
The worldwide exchange of tax information powered by CRS brought transparency to international taxation. The upside for this was that accurate taxes could be charged. However, there was a flip side to the token. Such worldwide exchange called for concern for privacy and breach of data.
In fact, this led to the leaked revelations of the ‘Panama Papers’ and ‘Paradise Papers’. To keep the breach of data in check, Expanded World Planning allows a tax-paying body to minimize the reporting obligations under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and CRS.
EWP has set 6 principles of asset protection and privacy protection
1. Privacy: EWP gives privacy and compliance with tax laws. It enhances the protection from data breaches and strengthens family security. It addresses the concerns of law firms and international planners about some aspects of CRS related to their client’s privacy.
2. Asset Protection: EWP is the structure that uses asset protection laws in the jurisdictions of residence to shield these assets from creditors’ claims. And a trust with its own asset protection. The provisions can still receive additional protection with the policy.
3. Succession Planning: EWP provides a wealth holder a method to enact an International planners of real estate plan according to his/her wishes without complying with forced heirship rules in the home country. The plan must be coordinated with all the aspects of a properly structured Private placement life insurance policy together with other elements of a wealth owner’s financial and legal planning.
4. Tax Shield: EWP assets held in a life insurance contract are considered tax-deferred in most jurisdictions throughout the world. and the PPLI policies that are properly constructed shield the assets from all taxes. In this case, upon the death of the insured, benefits are paid as a tax-free death benefit.
5. Compliance Simplifier: EWP adds an ease of reporting to tax authorities and administration of assets, and commercial substance to structures. In addition, of insurance company is considered the beneficial owner of the assets approach greatly simplifies reporting obligations to tax authorities.
6. Trust Substitute: EWP creates a viable structure under the specific insurance regulations for civil law jurisdictions. As a result, companies with foreign trusts in these civil law jurisdictions, face obstacles.
Conclusion
EWP also provides the benefit of PPLI (Private Placement Life Insurance). It is a special mechanism that acts like a tax wrapper or tax shield for its users. In this mechanism, you are using your asset(investment) as insurance and not giving any premium to another insurance company. This can only be used by high-income individuals, families, or organizations. The users have to transfer their high-worth investment to this policy of PPLI. Point to be noted, insurance instruments are mostly exempted from tax across nations.