The Causes of Currency Turmoil in the Emerging Economies
By Yuefen LI
Many emerging economies and developing countries are facing strong economic headwinds. Currency depreciation pressure is mounting for some countries. Argentina and Turkey are coping with currency crises, massive capital outflows and hyperinflation. To say their crises are completely self-inflicted is not correct. The exogenous shocks have played an important role. Other emerging economies and developing countries as a whole should be vigilant and try to defend their currencies and maintain financial stability. It is also high time to try to fix the flaws in the international financial system.
Exchange of Information: Indian Experience, Developing Country Implications
By Jahanzeb Akhtar
Exchange of tax-related information between countries is a critical tool for addressing information asymmetries between governments and taxpayers that facilitate tax evasion/avoidance. However, the existing system of information exchange has been essentially designed and implemented by the OECD, without the participation of developing countries. This policy brief thus discusses India’s experience with implementing information exchange for tax and other purposes, with lessons being drawn for other developing countries grappling with base erosion and profit shifting.
Interaction of Transfer Pricing & Profit Attribution: Conceptual and Policy Issues for Developing Countries
By Dr. Vinay Kumar Singh
Till 2010, model tax conventions treated profit attribution to permanent establishments and transfer pricing under different articles, and profit attribution under Article 7 allowed sales to be taken into account both in the direct accounting method as well as the indirect apportionment method. However, the revised Article 7 in the 2010 update of the OECD Convention approximated profit attribution with transfer pricing and omitted the option of apportionment, thereby undermining sales and contributions made by market jurisdiction to business profits. When a tax treaty retains Article 7 based on the UN Convention or the earlier OECD Convention, Contracting States can take sales into account and also opt for apportionment. Developing countries need to fully understand these implications of Article 7 in their tax treaties, and opt for informed choices for transfer pricing and profit attribution to permanent establishments, including apportionment that takes sales into account.
Digital economy is a given, as much as industrialization was inevitable on invention of means of incorporating steam and later fossil fuel and electric power into manufacturing. It is not a matter of being for or against it. It is about what kind of digital economy we should have. A development agenda for digital economy needs to be articulated, based on a narrative that takes proper account of developing country interests. (more…)
There are increasing warnings of an imminent new financial crisis, not only from the billionaire investor George Soros, but also from eminent economists associated with the Bank for International Settlements, the bank of central banks. The warnings come at a moment when there are signs of international capital flowing out of some emerging economies, including Turkey, Argentina and Indonesia. Some economists have been warning that the boom-bust cycle in capital flows to developing countries will cause disruption, when there is a turn from boom to bust. All it needs is a trigger, which may then snowball as investors in herd-like manner head for the exit door. Their behaviour is akin to a self-fulfilling prophecy: if enough speculative investors think this is the time to move back to the global financial capitals, then the exodus will happen, as it did in previous “bust” phases of the cycle. (more…)
Collaboration or Co-optation? A review of the Platform for Collaboration on Tax
By Manuel F. Montes and Pooja Rangaprasad
The Platform for Collaboration on Tax (PCT), launched in April 2016, is an effort to intensify cooperation on tax issues among the staff of the OECD, IMF, World Bank and the United Nations. The PCT’s stated objectives include the production of joint outputs, strengthening interactions between standard setting, capacity building and technical assistance and sharing information. PCT has since produced toolkits on issues such as tax incentives, transfer pricing, and taxation of offshore indirect transfers. The PCT also held its first global conference in February 2018 at the UN where a concluding ‘conference statement’, negotiated among the four secretariats, was produced.
Renewed crises in emerging economies and the IMF ‒ Muddling through again?
As recognised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the global financial safety net including international reserves, Fund resources, bilateral swap arrangements, regional financing arrangements is “fragmented with uneven coverage” and “too costly, unreliable and conducive to moral hazard”. Given the aversion of emerging economies to the IMF and unilateral debt standstills and exchange controls, the next crisis is likely to be even messier than the previous ones. Some countries may seek and succeed in getting bilateral support from China or some reserve-currency countries according to their political stance and affiliation. In such cases, crisis intervention would become even more politicised than in the past and a lot less reliant on multilateral arrangements. By failing to establish an orderly and equitable system of crisis resolution, the IMF may very well find its role significantly diminished in the management of the next bout of crises in emerging economies. In other words, multilateralism, however imperfect, could face another blow in the sphere of finance after trade.
Transfer Pricing: Concepts and Practices of the ‘Sixth Method’ in Transfer Pricing
Many developing countries are particularly concerned with problems of transfer pricing in the extractive industries, which are often significant components of their economies. Similar to other sectors, profit attribution may be highly dependent on the valuation of commodity exports. For this reason, a number of developing countries have adopted the ‘Sixth Method’, following the Argentine experience. This method aims to establish a clear and easily administered benchmark and avoid the need for subjective judgment and discretion.
Taxation has been a key tool in improving Ecuador’s Gini coefficient. Ecuador has improved how it manages tax collection and implemented domestic anti-fraud regulations and international mechanisms concerning aspects such as transfer pricing and tax havens. These measures have helped to increase the tax base, which has had a positive impact on the redistribution of wealth and equality. The increase in the tax base has also led to more social investments in health care, education, the road infrastructure, etc.
