Global Mobility of Individuals - Contribution to OECD's Consultation
At the end of 2025, the OECD launched a public consultation on "Global Mobility of Individuals" and invited input from stakeholders on the tax challenges arising from new ways of working, including remote and cross-border work. Members of the Maastricht Centre for Taxation (MCT) welcome the OECD’s focus on these important issues, recognizing the growing importance of mobility of labour, and have contributed to the consultation.
The submission focuses on the taxation of cross-border and remote work, with particular emphasis on Article 15 of the OECD Model and social security legislation. A central argument is that tax treaty rules and social security legislation continue to operate largely in parallel rather than in a coordinated manner, leading to excessive compliance burdens, salary splitting, and adverse net-income effects for mobile workers.
The members of the MCT, among other things, propose that the OECD develop (optional) provisions to be included in the OECD Commentary or OECD Model to deviate from the place-of-work principle in certain situations, notably, when the employee works for a limited amount of time at home (home-working threshold) or at the employer’s head office (head-office threshold). The relevant bilateral thresholds should be aligned with social security legislation to avoid excessive administrative burdens and legal uncertainty.
The submission also addresses residence issues, including dual residence and rare cases of no residence, risks of low or non-taxation, which can arise when states create favourable regimes or non-tax policies like digital nomad visas, and non-competition clauses in light of modern work arrangements.
Read the submission on "Global Mobility of Individuals".
The MCT looks forward to continuing the discussion on this important topic!
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