Simplified Calculations Safe Harbours

General

The December 2022 Safe Harbour and Penalty Relief Guidance provided for a Simplified Calculations Safe Harbour. The aim being to reduce or simplify the number of computations and adjustments an MNE is required to make under the GloBE Rules.

The only simplified calculations that have currently been developed by the OECD are the Non-Material Constituent Entity (NMCE) Simplified Calculations.

A number of jurisdictions already include the Simplified Calculations Safe Harbour in their GloBE legislation (see our Pillar Two GloBE Guides), including:

– Austria

– Bulgaria

– Germany

– Ireland

– Luxembourg

– Romania

– UK

The December 2023 OECD Administrative Guidance provides further information on the NMCE Simplified Calculations (for the Simplified Calculations Safe Harbour).

NMCE Definition

NMCEs are constituent entities of an MNE Group that are not consolidated on a line-by-line basis in the MNE Group’s audited consolidated financial statements solely for size or materiality grounds. It also includes any permanent establishments of these entities (providing the Main Entity is itself an NMCE.)

It should be noted that an entity will only be considered a NMCE if an external auditor has agreed that the entity does not meet the materiality standards and has been excluded from the consolidation process on those grounds.

Where an entity’s revenue exceeds EUR 50 million, the entity will only be an NMCE if its financial accounts are prepared in accordance with an Acceptable Financial Accounting Standard or an Authorised Financial Accounting Standard.

Simplified Calculations

Given the significant practical difficulties MNEs may have in obtaining accurate reporting figures for NMCEs (as they aren’t included in the consolidated accounts), NMCEs can benefit from the following simplifications:

– The GloBE revenue and GloBE income of an NMCE is the total revenue of the NMCE as determined in accordance with the relevant CbC regulations.

– The adjusted covered tax of a NMCE is the income tax accrued as determined in accordance with the relevant CbC regulations (note that this excludes any deferred tax expenses, adjustments for non-current items and provisions for uncertain tax liabilities).

Relevant CbC Regulations are the Country-by-Country Reporting Regulations of the UPE Jurisdiction or of the surrogate parent entity jurisdiction if a Country-by-Country Report is not filed in the UPE Jurisdiction.

If the UPE jurisdiction does not have CbC requirements and an MNE Group is not required to file a CbC Report in any jurisdiction, Relevant CbC

Regulations are the OECD BEPS Action 13 Final Report and the OECD Guidance on the Implementation of Country-by-Country Reporting.

Simplified Tests Under the Safe Harbour

These simplified figures are then used for three tests under the Simplified Calculations Safe Harbour.

How the Safe Harbour Applies