OECD presentation not likely to affect wealthy individuals

This Friday’s presentation by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to the G20 is unlikely to have many repercussions on wealthy individuals.

That's according to a tax expert, although UK trade body the CBI is already drafting up businesses' response to the anti-avoidance proposals.

The ambitious OECD plan will propose at least two years of detailed work on about a dozen of the most contentious issues, including the rules on transfer pricing.

The presentation follows public and political pressure - particularly in the UK - regarding the artificial flow of money for tax purposes which has thrown the spotlight on multinational corporations such as Google and Starbucks.

As the presentation is aimed at corporates, George Bull, a senior tax partner at Baker Tilly, said that any change in tax legislation is not likely to effect individuals in any significant way, and it would be a long time before new rules were likely to come into force.

“It may effect expatriate directors of multinational organisations who may no longer need to reside in particular jurisdictions for tax purposes," he claims, "but beyond that, repercussions are unlikely because the presentation is squarely aimed at corporates,".

According to Bull, any change is likely to take a long time: “A wholesale global change like this would have to be subject to consultation and the way that this is likely to be implemented is through changes in treaties between countries which will govern who has the right to arrange tax in different circumstances."

He added: “In some countries this may require a domestic law change so you could be looking at much longer than a period of three years.”