Study On "Beneficial Owner" Of International Tax Treaties

The purpose of introducing the concept of beneficial owner to internationaltreaties is to prevent the treaty shopping of international transnational taxpayers.After introducing the concept of beneficial owner, the OECD Model Tax Conventionon Income and on Capital tried to defined the definition of "beneficial owner"several times, but it did not achieve it. The Model Tax Convention gave severalexplanation of applying the "beneficial owner", but there are still many problems inpractice. Countries like the United States and Netherland have the "beneficialowner" related regulations in their domestic law system, and explain how to judge a"beneficial owner" logically in the form of cases. The regulations and cases haveinstructed the practice of these countries.China national taxation bureau explainedhow to judge an application is a "beneficial owner" or not in Guoshuihan file No.601of2009and public announcement No.30of2012. The file and the publicannouncement have played a positive role in guiding the practice, but there are stillsome problems in explaining the "beneficial owner". We should learn from othercountries and improve it constantly.This thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter is about the mainintroduction of beneficial owner system, it includes the historical origin anddevelopment of beneficial owner system, The fundamental aim of establishing beneficial owner system and the concept of beneficial owner. The second chapter isabout the regulations in China laws and regulations and the practice of beneficialowner system in China. From this chapter we can get the current situation ofbeneficial owner in China. The third chapter is about the regulations and practice ofbeneficial owner system in foreign countries. From this chapter we can learn thedifferences between China and foreign countries in beneficial owner system, and atthe same time we can learn other countries’ strong points to offset our weakness.Thefourth chapter is about the existing problems in China’s regulations and thesuggestion on improvement.The significance of this thesis is to perfect the "beneficial owner" system inChinese law, hoping that the regulations of Chinese law can meet the requirement ofinternational law,guide the practice of our country better and improve the uniformityand consistency of Chinese practice, at the same time confirming the positivesignificance of the Guoshuihan file No.601of2009and the public announcementNo.30of2012.The innovation of the thesis is mainly reflected in the following aspect: In theprocess of judging a multinational taxpayer is a "beneficial owner" or not, Chineselaw should pay attention to protect transnational taxpayers’ rights. When it is difficultto judge an applicant is a "beneficial owner" or not, law should presume theapplicant is in goog-will except that there is the opposite evidence and legalprocedures have confirmed.