Residential Status of a ‘COMPANY’ Based on POEM

Place of Effective Management determines company tax residence; substance of where key management and commercial decisions are made controls the test.

POEM determination requires a two stage primary factor test: identify who actually makes the company's key management and commercial decisions and determine where those decisions are in fact made. Relevant indicators include the substance and location of board and executive committee decision making, the head office and senior management base, habitual residence of decision makers when remote decision making is possible, and the locus of persons exercising authority through circular resolutions. If primary factors are inconclusive, secondary factors such as the place of main activities or where accounting records are kept may be considered.