The Home Office as a Permanent Establishment – Implications of the 2025 Update of the OECD Model Commentary

The OECD Model Commentary underwent comprehensive changes in November last year. In the new version, the commentary on the home office as a permanent establishment is of particular interest:

• A permanent establishment can exist only if working from home at least facilitates the company’s business activities.
• A fixed place of business requires a certain degree of permanence in terms of both location and duration.  The duration requirement is met only if a person works at least 50% of the time at home for the company within twelve months.
• In future it will also depend on whether there is an economic reason for the person to work from home. Cost cutting or flexible working hours are not, by themselves, sufficient for this purpose. 

The webinar will look at the impact of these updates for Germany, Denmark, Spain and Poland (which has voiced its reservations regarding the application of the new criteria). What you can expect:

• An explanation of what’s changed
• An analysis of the extent to which the new commentary deviates from the previous financial administration interpretation in different countries
• An evaluation of the effects this will have on future and past assessment periods. Is the new commentary to be applied statically or dynamically?
• An appraisal of how Germany’s narrow interpretation on home-office permanent establishments may affect treaty-based tax exemptions where Austria or Czechia would regard such arrangements as constituting a permanent establishment. 

Our speakers will examine these aspects in detail with practical case studies, leading into a time for discussion.

Organisator: Flick Gocke Schaumburg + Bech-Bruun + Crido + Garrigues