The Relevance of the Beneficial Ownership Concept in Tax Treaty Clauses That Do Not Include It in Their Wording: A Note on the Colgate-Palmolive Case

5 Pages Posted: 16 Mar 2021

See all articles by Aitor Navarro

Aitor Navarro

Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance

Date Written: December 16, 2020

Abstract

This case note analyzes the outcome of the Spanish Colgate-Palmolive case, decided by the Supreme Court in September 2020. The case revolved around the interpretation of Article 12 of the Spain-Switzerland tax treaty (1967), on royalties, which omits any reference to the beneficial owner of the income in its wording. In short, the Court considered that the beneficial ownership concept cannot be construed by resorting to the OECD Commentaries, because soft law documentation cannot supersede the content of an applicable tax treaty.

Keywords: Tax Treaty, Double Tax Convention, Beneficial Ownership, Royalties, Switzerland, Spain, OECD Commentaries, Soft Law, Interpretation

JEL Classification: H20, H87, F23, K33, K34

Suggested Citation

Navarro, Aitor, The Relevance of the Beneficial Ownership Concept in Tax Treaty Clauses That Do Not Include It in Their Wording: A Note on the Colgate-Palmolive Case (December 16, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3773478 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3773478

Aitor Navarro (Contact Author)

Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance ( email )

Marstallplatz, 1
Munich, Bayern 80539
Germany

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
168
Abstract Views
578
Rank
341,802
PlumX Metrics