Vessels and aircraft The economic ownership principle - status on the issue

Transcription

1 Vessels and aircraft The economic ownership principle - status on the issue rdic meeting on Trade in Goods and Services/BoP 2012 Stockholm September 2012 Poul Uffe Dam and Søren Rich >>

2 >> New ownership concept introduced in 2010 New Intrastat and Extrastat regulations introduced a new concept of ownership in 2010 Criteria for recording trade of vessels and aircraft Before 2010: Transfer of legal ownership and registration in national register - ownership of a vessel or aircraft means the fact of a natural or legal person s registration as owner of a vessel or an aircraft. From 2010: Transfer of economic ownership - economic ownership means the right of a taxable person to claim the benefits associated with the use of a vessel or aircraft in the course of an economic activity by virtue of accepting the associated risks. 2

3 >> Background Economic ownership concept was introduced at a late stage in the drafting of the EU regulations The economic ownership was adopted to harmonise the definition with Balance of Payments (BoP) and National Account (NA) but it turned out to be difficult to interpret and implement the economic ownership in the data collection of International Trade in Goods Statistics. Discussion in in Eurostat's Project Group Methods did not materialise in any conclusions and mid-2011 the Task Force Trade in Ships and Aircraft was established. 3

4 >> Task Force Trade in Ships and Aircraft The mandate of the Task Force is to draft a list of transactions to be included in International Trade in Vessels and Aircraft, give guidelines on how to identify transactions to be reported and how to collect data, if relevant, suggest amendments to the legislations. The group consists of experts from both Trade in Goods, BoP and NA. Denmark and Iceland are member of the group. First meeting in Copenhagen September 2011 Second meeting in Rome June 2012 Third and probably last meeting will take place in Cyprus in February

5 >> Economic ownership concept difficult to implement The discussions so far have identified the following issues: Difficult to reach a common understanding of what the BoP and NA manuals are staying on economic ownership and vessels and aircraft, There has especially been some disagreeing on the cut between financial leasing and operational leasing Within the shipping industry the leasing arrangements seems to be more complex (bareboat chartering) and less easy to term financial or operational. Flagging in/out and placement of vessels in foreign registers makes data collection more problematic. 5

6 >> Results so far After less fruitful discussions in Copenhagen, a higher degree of common understanding of what to be recorded was reached during the meeting in Rome however, the final list of what to be recorded has not yet been approved and the room for interpretation of the list will probably be large! In Rome it was accepted that the IAS17 guidelines for how to record vessels and aircraft as assets in business accounts can be used as guidelines for what to be recorded in International Trade in Goods Statistics. 6

7 >> Future work of the Task Force Finalization of the list of transactions to be recorded Drafting of the guidelines on how to identify transactions to be reported and how to collect the necessary data. Addressing the need for looking at the economic ownership concept within other specific movements of goods to be done in Cyprus! 7

8 >> Economic ownership also adopted in other types of goods The change of economic ownership also applies within certain specific goods and movements: Goods delivered to vessels and aircraft Sea products Spacecraft 8

9 DECISION TREE FOR THE DETERMINATION OF CHANGE IN ECONOMIC OWNERSHIP AND RECORDING OF TRANSACTIONS OF SHIPS AND AIRCRAFTS IN TRADE IN GOODS AND TRADE IN SERVICES (IN PROGRESS) Leasing agreement? >> Dry lease? Bareboat/demise Operational leasing? Further investigation required change of economic ownership as the asset is not leaving the accounts of the lessor and not entering the accounts of the lessee ( IAS17)? t include in goods. Include in services (operational leasing services) The company does not follow the IAS17? TFSA criteria. Change of economic ownership? Financial leasing? Change of ownership as the asset is leaving the accounts of the lessor and entering the accounts of the lessee ( IAS17)? Include in goods Wet lease: Short-term leasing, voyage charter, timecharter t Include in goods. Include in services (transportation services) Flagging On open register? change of economic ownership as the asset is not leaving the accounts of the owner ( IAS17)? t included (no transaction) Through legal unit? Change of ownership as the asset is leaving the accounts of the parent company and entering the accounts of the subsidiary where the asset will be registered ( IAS17)? Include in goods General change of ownership (buying and selling)? Include in goods Regarding sales-lease back, the sale should be reported as export/import in trade in goods and the lease back should be reported in goods if the terms are financial lease, otherwise in services. 9

10 >> Potential for rdic cooperation Close dialogue and exchange of guidelines and plans on how to implement economic ownership concept within Vessels and Aircraft Exchange of (micro) data on identified transactions can facilitate the implementation of economic ownership and improve the quality Sweden, rway and Denmark should intensify the cooperation on how to record the transactions by Scandinavian Airlines 10

11 >> The end Thanks for your attention! Søren Rich, Poul Uffe Dam,