Friction at the Border - Recent Cross Border Developments

At a recent conference of international pension lawyers in Athens, Greece, a panel comprised of Peter Schonewille with the European Commission in Brussels, Koen Van Duyse of TiberGhien, a Belgian tax boutique, and David Powell of the Groom Law Group in Washington, D.C., compared how the OECD model tax treaty, various EU state tax treaties and the US model tax treaty operate with respect to mobile executives and cross-border pension pooling of assets.  The deduction of contributions, the tax exemptions for the pension schemes and trusts themselves, and the tax treatment of distributions were addressed, as well as the growing importance of the EU tax nondiscrimination requirements and the effect of the US extraterritorial tax system for its citizens.  Prospects for a truly cross-border pension plan, utilizing pooling of liabilities as well as assets, were also discussed.  The extensive PowerPoint presentation for the panel is attached.