Canada and 67 other countries became signatories and parties to the Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (MLI) on June 7. A further eight countries expressed their intent to sign the convention. The United States has notably, and not unexpectedly, not signed the MLI and has not expressed an intention to do so. The UK and all the other members of the G7 (other than the US) have signed the MLI, as well as all of the members of the G20 (other than Brazil, Saudi Arabia and the US).

Canada currently has 93 comprehensive tax treaties in force and is seeking to amend 75 of those under the MLI. Of the 18 treaty partners in which Canada has not sought to amend the MLI, fourteen are not themselves signatories to the MLI (Algeria, Ecuador, Guyana, Ivory Coast, Kyrgyzstan, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, the UAE, the US, Uzbekistan, Venezuela). The remaining four consist of Kuwait, Armenia, Germany and Switzerland. The Canada-Germany and Canada-Switzerland treaties are, however, under negotiation, and Switzerland has expressly stated that it intends to meet the minimum standards either by way of the MLI or by way of bilateral negotiations.

A Tax Alert prepared by Ernst & Young Canada, and attached below, provides additional details.

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Full text of Tax Alert 2017-1039