This publication includes three recent reports of the Committee on Fiscal Affairs that resulted in changes to the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and Capital (those changes were included in the update adopted by the Council of the OECD on 28 January 2003).

The first report, "Restricting the Entitlement to Treaty Benefits", considers how to address situations where it would seem inappropriate to grant the benefits of tax treaties.

The report on "Treaty Characterisation Issues Arising From E-Commerce: Report Adopted by the Committee on Fiscal Affairs" is largely based on the report previously adopted by a Technical Advisory Group set up by the OECD to examine the characterisation of various types of electronic commerce payments under tax conventions.

The last report, "Issues Arising Under Article 5 (Permanent Establishment) of the Model Tax Convention" deals with a number of issues related to the application and interpretation of the permanent establishment definition found in Article 5 of the OECD Model Tax Convention. It provides the background for changes made to the Commentary on that Article through the update.

(These three Reports will also be included in the next update of Volume II of the Model Tax Convention which is available in loose-leaf format.)  less