Article 26 of the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital

Abstract

This chapter explains Article 26 of the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital. Canada has over ninety double tax conventions (DTCs) in force that contain an article modelled on Article 26, and the United States has over sixty. As explained in Chapter 6, both Canada and the United States generally reserve the use of DTCs for countries with more complex economies and rely on the use of tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs) for tax havens and smaller jurisdictions. Chapter 6 also explains problems with Canada’s international tax policies surrounding the use of DTCs and the relationship between DTCs and the “exempt surplus” rules in the Canadian foreign affiliate tax regime. Additionally, this chapter examines Article XXVII on exchange of information (EOI) in the Convention between Canada and the United States of America with respect to Taxes on Income and on Capital. A theme of this book is evaluating how well TIEAs and EOI work to combat tax evasion. This chapter refers to an important battle between the United States and Switzerland over the use of the EOI Article in the Convention between the United States of America and the Swiss Confederation for the Avoidance of Double Taxation with respect to Taxes on Income to obtain information on US tax cheats with undeclared bank accounts at UBS. The challenges faced by the United States in obtaining taxpayer information on undeclared American account holders evidence important international tax policy issues regarding the efficacy of EOI as a stand-alone tool to combat tax evasion. In pursuing this information from the Swiss, the United States faced legal challenges discussed in detail in Chapter 5. Moreover, the United States faced economic, political, and historical challenges in dealing with Switzerland over EOI. These multiple challenges underscore a key policy problem in dealing with tax havens to combat tax evasion. One of the themes of this research is that these policy challenges continue to be ignored by the OECD and, more recently, by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes and the G20 in favour of solutions that seek tax harmonization in the form of treaties and model agreements. Finally, this chapter explains the procedures used by both Canada and the United States to obtain information from and exchange information with other governments.