结合国际经典案例探讨“受益所有人”认定问题

Identifying the‘Beneficial Owner' by Referring to International Classic Cases

"受益所有人"的概念最早起源于英美法系,在上世纪70年代,被OECD引入了税收协定范本,并逐渐发展成为一种防止跨国企业滥用税收协定、套取税收利益的反避税机制。然而,长期以来国际上对"受益所有人"概念一直缺乏统一、清晰的定义,各国在实践中对受益所有人的理解也不尽相同。本文通过介绍国际上关于"受益所有人"问题的经典案例,并结合中国目前的国际税务实践,对受益所有人认定标准问题进行了探讨。

The term of‘beneficial owner＇ is originated from common law. It was introduced to the model convention by OECD in the 1970 s, and gradually developed into an anti-tax avoidance mechanism of preventing multinational companies from treaty shopping and extracting tax benefits. However, there is a lack of a clear and unified definition concerned the concept of beneficial owner and in practice the concept has been applied differently in different tax jurisdictions. This paper introduces international classic cases related to beneficial owners and discusses the standard for identifying the beneficial owner by combining with China＇s current international tax practice.