The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project has focused on income attributed to intangibles with an objective of curtailing perceived artificial profit shifting by multinational firms. A key part of this effort is a renewed emphasis on the concept of “economic substance.” Economic substance standards require companies to have people functions (i.e., employees) in jurisdictions for companies to be able to report profits related to intangibles in such jurisdictions. Our analysis suggests that an emphasis on economic substance tied to people functions can have a significant impact on the scale as well as the location of economic activity (i.e., employees dedicated to the creation and use of intangibles). Furthermore, the likely implications on economic activity can be highly unfavorable for high-tax jurisdictions. Viewed from a US perspective, this new international environment provides an explanation for the international provisions adopted as part of the US tax reform of 2017.

中文翻译：

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无形资本国际税收的实质要求：一把双刃剑？

经济合作与发展组织的基础侵蚀和利润转移项目侧重于无形资产的收入，目的是减少跨国公司感知到的人为利润转移。这项工作的一个关键部分是重新强调“经济实质”的概念。经济实质标准要求公司在司法管辖区设有人员职能（即雇员），以便公司能够报告与这些司法管辖区的无形资产相关的利润。我们的分析表明，强调与人的职能相关的经济实质会对经济活动的规模和地点（即致力于创造和使用无形资产的员工）产生重大影响。此外，对经济活动可能产生的影响可能对高税收管辖区极为不利。从美国的角度来看，这种新的国际环境为作为 2017 年美国税制改革一部分而采用的国际规定提供了解释。