A workshop held by representatives of a number of developing countries on 10 and 11 December 2014 looked at ways to gain maximum benefit from participation by developing countries in the OECD action plan on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS). Developing country representatives are to participate in the BEPS technical working groups and need to ensure that the results of the project are in line with developing country needs.

This will be best achieved if there is coordination between the developing country tax policy and administration officials, making use of central points for contact and pinpointing priority actions to enable effective engagement with the project.

Developing countries need to balance the sometimes conflicting requirements of attracting foreign direct investment into key industries while ensuring that foreign enterprises are tax compliant and that tax collection is strong enough to ensure sustained development. The results of the BEPS project should therefore be geared towards practical policies that are easy to implement. The policy implementation should be accompanied by adequate support to raise awareness of the policy within the tax administration.

Regional networks of tax administration officials are to be set up and will cooperate with relevant international and regional bodies. Toolkits will be prepared in respect of relevant areas of BEPS and the related issues regarded as significant by developing countries. Such issues include the wasteful use of tax incentives and the need to make available quality data for comparability studies in transfer pricing analyses.