This is a new Safe Harbour included in the January 2026 OECD Side-by-Side Tax Package (see: Tax Challenges Arising from the Digitalisation of the Economy – Global Anti-Base Erosion Model Rules (Pillar Two), Side-by-Side Package).
Side-by-Side (SbS) Safe Harbour
The SbS Safe Harbour excludes an MNE group from the IIR and UTPR (not QDMTT) where its UPE is located in a qualifying SbS jurisdiction. A qualifying SbS jurisdiction is a jurisdiction that has an eligible domestic tax regime and an eligible worldwide tax regime (generally required to be in place before January 1, 2026) as well as providing a FTC for QDMTTs.
Various conditions are required to be met for a tax system to qualify as an eligible domestic tax system or an eligible worldwide tax regime (eg for an eligible domestic system its statutory nominal CIT rate is at least 20%), however in both cases there must not be a material risk that the GloBE ETR would be below 15%.
Whether a jurisdiction qualifies as a qualifying SbS regime will be determined by the OECD and the jurisdiction will be included in the Central Record (similar to how DMTTs that qualify as QDMTTs etc are). To date only the USA is recognised by the OECD as a qualifying SbS regime.
The SbS Safe Harbour will apply for Fiscal Years from January 1, 2026.
UPE Safe Harbour
The UPE Safe Harbour is similar to the SbS Safe Harbour but only applies to exclude an MNE group from the UTPR on profits located in the UPE jurisdiction. However to qualify a jurisdiction only needs to have an eligible domestic tax regime (not an eligible worldwide tax regime as required for the SbS Safe Harbour).
As with the SbS Safe Harbour, Qualified UPE Regimes will be listed in the OECD Central Record and this Safe Harbour will apply from January 1, 2026.
A guide to Italy’s three-track Pillar Two process: the reporting-entity notification, the DAC9/GIR (Comunicazione Rilevante), and the domestic GloBE Return (Dichiarazione fiscale Globe) with related F24 payments.
A guide to Australia’s Pillar Two filing. It covers the separate local GIR XML filing, the foreign lodgement notification, and the Combined Global and Domestic Minimum Tax Return (CGDMTR), including the Australian IIR/UTPR tax return and Australian DMT tax return. It also flags the main ATO validation rules and the software / API points that matter if you are building or testing a filing process.
A guide to Spain’s three-part Pillar Two workflow: model 240 (group/filing notification), model 241 (GIR-DAC9 information return), and model 242 (top-up tax self-assessment).
On April 7, the Swiss Federal Tax Administration issued Communication-031-E-2026-f and Communication-030-E-2026-f to apply the OECD January 2025 and January 2026 Administrative Guidance
On April 8, 2026, Germany issued a Draft Regulation which included a list of jurisdictions with qualifying status for the purposes of the IIR, UTPR, QDMTT and the QDMTT Safe Harbour.
On April 8, 2026, the Turkish Revenue Administration published draft versions of its Pillar Two Tax Returns/Notifications.
On April 3, 2026, Liechtenstein enacted an amendment to its Pillar Two Regulation (LGBl. 2026 Nr. 114). This includes amendments to the Pillar Two regime including providing for aspects of the January 2026 Side-by-Side tax package.
A guide to Vietnam’s Pillar Two compliance flow: the reporting-entity notification, special tax registration, the GIR information package embedded in the Vietnamese filing package, and the QDMTT and IIR return packages filed through the tax e-filing system.
This guide focuses on Austria’s GIR filing architecture as published by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF): access to FinanzOnline, filing channels, the Austrian national XML overlay on top of the OECD GIR, correction mechanics, and transport/protocol handling for implementation.
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