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Preventing avoidance of permanent establishment statustax administrations, with both instruments now being used as tools tochallenge some of the commissionaire and fragmentation structures.As they are not helpful for either party, conflicts in the PE field andtransfer pricing areas also demonstrate the need to find a satisfactorysolution for tax administrations and taxpayers. In part, BEPS is aboutfinding a consensus that currently does not exist. But that may be avery difficult task if only very limited movements in the direction ofsource countries (as proposed in the OECD Public Discussion Drafton BEPS Action 7) are accepted.3.4.4 More recent works (2011-2012) by OECD on Article 5 and PEsIt will be recalled that prior to the adoption of the OECD Action Planon BEPS, the OECD published two drafts (2011 84 and 2012 85 ) on theconcept of PE. They provided clarification on a vast array of issues,some of them closely related to Action 7. The reaction to these documentswas not positive from the business perspective, 86 but from aBEPS viewpoint it was not satisfactory either as the legal independenceof group companies was reinforced. This facilitated tax strategies withrespect to business restructuring and supported the continued defenceof the traditional understanding of anti-abuse and transfer pricingrules to combat the fragmentation of activities, without really changingthe threshold for taxation at source or the formal interpretation ofit in the Commentary on Article 5 of the OECD Model Convention.It can even be said that an attempt had been made to halt aggressiveinterpretations by some tax administrations of some forms of businessrestructuring or fragmentation. It seems that this work will continueafter the final document on Action 7 is released, but it will likely reflectthe limited move in favour of source countries envisaged in Action 7.84OECD, Interpretation and Application of Article 5 (Permanent Establishment)of the OECD Model Tax Convention (Paris: OECD, 2011).85OECD, Revised Proposals Concerning the Interpretation and Applicationof Article 5 (Permanent Establishment) of the OECD Model Tax Convention(Paris: OECD, 2012).86See R. Collier, “BEPS Action Plan, Action 7: Preventing the ArtificialAvoidance of PE Status,” supra note 11, 640-641, where it is reported thatthere were concerns about lowering the PE threshold and a feeling that thebright-line test for PEs was being diluted.367