Investment Management

Sustainability is becoming an increasingly important factor in the decisions of investors, companies, consumers, shareholders and policy- and lawmakers. The broadly supported awareness for the Environmental Social and Governance (‘ESG’) objectives is reflected in many international voluntary standards as well as in an increasing number of European regulations to mobilise financing for sustainable growth.

The anti-hybrid mismatch rules of the EU Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (ATAD2) aim to prevent situations of a double deduction and a deduction without a corresponding inclusion of the income at the level of the recipient resulting from a hybrid mismatch. All EU Member States have implemented ATAD2 in their domestic laws as from 1 January 2019 (for Belgium) or as from 1 January 2020 and 1 January 2022 (for a.o. the Netherlands and Luxembourg).

To adapt international tax rules to an increasingly digitalised economy, the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework proposes a two-pillar overhaul of the existing system as from 2023/2024. Tax directors and their teams can already model the impact and assess opportunities for manageable restructurings to mitigate the increased complexity.

In recent years tax authorities have placed more emphasis on combatting the use of abusive and aggressive tax structures by companies operating across borders, to ensure fair taxation.

The European Commission recently issued a new proposal (ATAD 3). It is highly recommended that taxpayers assess the possible impact of the proposal and consider opportunities for strengthening their local footprint and/or restructuring.