Turkey-Indonesia Tax Treaty Post-MLI

As part of the G20 countries, Indonesia and Turkey have shown their commitments to the OECD/G20 BEPS Project since the very beginning, including the MLI Project. Along with the other 66 jurisdictions, Indonesia and Turkey signed the MLI on 7 June 2017. Indonesia and Turkey already have a tax treaty in force. In its MLI’s position as of 7 June 2017, Indonesia included its tax treaty with Turkey as one of CTAs and vice versa. Therefore, once both countries have completed all the procedural requirements of the MLI, the MLI provisions will have effect on the existing tax treaty. This article is intended to give a picture for the readers on how the MLI impacts the existing tax treaty between Indonesia and Turkey. This article may also serve as a projection on what a synthesised text might look like even though it has not been published yet by the competent authority of either country. For the MLI changes to apply effectively to the Indonesia-Turkey tax treaty, both countries must adopt the same provisions (unless an asymmetrical adoption is allowed in particular cases). The Authors concluded that considering both countries’ positions at this moment, some of the MLI provisions will affect the existing Indonesia-Turkey tax treaty, i.e. Article 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 15, and 16 of the MLI. New provisions to be adapted will contribute to preventing BEPS concerns, e.g. through treaty shopping. The authors then recommend that both countries should also need to revise their domestic laws in order to accommodate new features in treaty post-MLI, for instance, the introduction of PPT rule as GAAR in tax treaty should also be accompanied by a comprehensive set of guidelines for tax authorities and must be administered transparently. Following the intention of both countries to increase the trading volume, the Indonesia-Turkey tax treaty post-MLI will play an important role in the future.