Compatibility of the recent OECD proposals with Germany's tax dispute resolution mechanism

The OECD has made proposals aimed at improving the mutual agreement procedure (MAP) process and has released a draft "Manual on Effective Mutual Agreement Procedures" which, when finalized, will provide tax administrations and taxpayers with basic information on the operation of the MAP and identify the best practices for MAPs without, however, imposing a set of binding rules on the OECD countries. This article summarizes the OECD proposals, compares them with the existing arbitration clauses in a few of Germany's tax treaties, analyses the compatibility of the proposals with German domestic tax law, and explores the extent to which they could be incorporated into German law.