Article 10 of the OECD Model Rules defines an entity as either:
– a legal person (except an individual); or
– any arrangement that prepares separate financial accounts.
Note that the First Set of OECD Administrative Guidance also excludes government agencies (both central and local government) that carry out government functions.
The first limb above would generally catch foundations, whilst the second would catch trusts.
This means that trusts and foundations are squarely within the Pillar Two rules and could be a low-taxed entity, an intermediate entity/partially owned parent entity or even an ultimate parent entity (UPE).
Under Article 1.4.1 of the OECD Model Rules, a UPE for the Pillar Two rules is:
Whether a trust is a UPE is an important consideration as (1) in many cases the UPE is required to apply the income inclusion rule to account for top-up tax and (2) the definition of an MNE group hinges on the relationship between the group companies and the UPE.
For instance, take this scenario:
Determining if the trust was the UPE could result in all companies then potentially being within the scope of the Pillar Two rules (subject to any specific exclusions etc). Aside from the application of Pillar Two to the group, the trust could then be liable to account for top-up tax.
This in itself could create issues.
The definition of a group in the Pillar Two rules relies on accounting principles so that there is a group if there is a requirement to prepare consolidated financial statements.
Whilst a trust or foundation may not usually have to prepare consolidated financial statements under an accounting standard, the Pillar Two rules go further.
Article 10 of the OECD Model Rules states that if no consolidated financial statements are prepared a deeming provision applies so that the entity must prepare hypothetical consolidated financial statements as if it was required to prepare them in accordance with an Authorised Financial Accounting Standard that is either an Acceptable Financial Accounting Standard or another financial accounting standard.
As such, a trust or foundation would need to determine if it would be required to prepare accounting standards under an accounting standard.
This would again depend on accounting principles.
Under IFRS for instance, there is a requirement to consolidate if the trust or foundation possesses power over the parent entities, has exposure to variable returns from its involvement with them and has the ability to use its power over them to affect its returns.
Insurance Investment Entities are subject to special treatment under the Pillar Two GloBE Rules. Read our analysis of the key provisions.
On March 20, 2025, the Swedish Ministry of Finance issued a draft law to amend the Global Minimum Tax Act. The draft law is open for consultation until May 26, 2025. The purpose of the draft law is to implement the provisions of the June 2024 OECD Administrative Guidance into domestic law.
On March 18, 2025, the government approved a draft bill on the amendment of Liechtenstein’s Global Minimum Tax Act (‘the bill’). The bill is intended to implement domestically the OECD provisions for the exchange of information in the GloBE Information Return (GIR) under the multilateral agreement between competent authorities on the exchange of GloBE information (GIR MCAA).
On March 6, 2025 a Decree of the Italian Ministry of Finance on Notification Requirements for Global Minimum Tax purposes was published in the Official Gazette. This provides more details on the double filing relief notification under Article 51(4) of Legislative Decree December 27, 2023, no. 209 (the Global Minimum Tax Law).
The Pillar Two Rules include specific provisions for tax transparent entities to avoid artificially low effective tax rates and significant top-up tax, particularly for tax transparent UPEs.
Centralized HR/payroll companies are frequently used by MNE groups but raise specific issues in relation to the Pillar Two GloBE Rules. In particular, the impact of using a centralized function and the nature of recharges could have an impact on the substance-based income exclusion of group entities.
Jurisdictions that apply a territorial basis do not tax foreign source income. This raises some interesting issues in the application of the Pillar 2 rules.
On February 20, 2025, Gibraltar issued the Income Tax (Allowances, Deductions, and Exemptions) (Amendment) Rules 2025 to allow in-scope MNEs to just be taxed under the Global Minimum Tax Act, and not the Income Tax Act.
In this article we look at the interaction between deferred tax on bonus depreciation and the substance-based income exclusion on investments in tangible assets.
This website is not affiliated with or related to the OECD. We provide independent insights and analysis on the OECD Two-Pillar Solution
© 2025 OECDPillars
All Rights Reserved
