Press Release: Malta Chamber of SMEs welcomes launch of direct flights to New York
17 September 2025
The Malta Chamber of SMEs welcomes the positive news that direct flights between Malta International...
Company Taxation
12 October 2009
The Commission proposes a revised Code of Conduct for applying the Arbitration Convention to improve prevention of double taxation.
The Commission adopted on 14th September, a Communication based on the work achieved by the EU Joint Transfer Pricing Forum. The Commission and the Forum consider that the elimination of double taxation linked to transfer pricing adjustments is facilitated by constant monitoring of problems occurring in practice.
Such an exercise led to several improvements on the interpretation of the Arbitration Convention's provisions incorporated in the proposed revised Code of conduct, in particular on the reduction of the timeframe for case resolution.
The Commission proposal is the result of a monitoring exercise on the application of the Arbitration Convention (AC). Based on Member States' practical experience it was recognised that the three-year target for resolution of the cases, was proving difficult to achieve.
The revised Code clarifies and provides common interpretation of some provisions of the AC in order to facilitate resolution of many more cases within the three year time frame.
The proposed common interpretation covers the following topics: serious penalties, the scope of the AC (triangular transfer pricing and thin capitalization cases), interest charged/credited by tax administrations when a case is dealt with under the AC, the functioning of the AC (as regards rules about the deadline for the setting-up of the Advisory Commission and criteria for establishing the independence of arbitrators), the date from which a case is admissible under the AC and the inter-action of the AC and domestic litigation.
For the Communication contact Abigail Mamo @ GRTU
