The full version runs to 2,512 pages and reproduces the Model "as it read on 18 November 2025", the day the OECD Council adopted the 2025 Update. The Update itself has been public since 19 November 2025; what is new is the consolidated, citable edition that practitioners, courts and tax authorities actually work from.
What is new for transfer pricing?
Less than the headline suggests, and in a different place. The only change to the wording of Article 25 is a new paragraph 6: a measure "falls within the scope" of a tax treaty for purposes of GATS Article XXII(3) only where Article 24 (non-discrimination) applies to it, and disputes about that scope go to the competent authorities under Article 25(3). That is a housekeeping point for the overlap with WTO law, not a transfer pricing rule.
The transfer pricing changes are in the Commentary. Paragraphs 1 to 6 of the Commentary on Article 9 have been replaced. They confirm Article 9 as the authoritative treaty statement of the arm's length principle, with the OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines, including Chapter X on financial transactions, as its agreed interpretation. They state that whether a purported loan is a loan at all is decided before the transaction is priced. And they draw a line that matters in audits: Article 9 does not deal with whether an expense is deductible. Deductibility is domestic law, subject to Article 24. A denial of deduction under an interest limitation rule therefore does not by itself oblige the other state to make a corresponding adjustment, and a corresponding adjustment is owed only where the other state considers the primary adjustment justified in principle and only in the amount it considers arm's length. That mirrors paragraph 4.35 of the Guidelines, now lifted to treaty level. The Commentaries on Articles 7 and 24 were adjusted to match.
The Commentary on Article 25 adds specific language on tax certainty and the elimination of double taxation for Amount B, the simplified approach for baseline marketing and distribution, while keeping the mechanism optional for jurisdictions that have not adopted it.
How the Model got here: 1963 to 2025
What this means in practice
The 2024 MAP statistics the OECD released at its Tax Certainty Day show why the Commentary matters: 2,731 new MAP cases were opened worldwide in 2024, new transfer pricing cases rose 29.1 percent, and transfer pricing cases still take 30.9 months on average to close against 24.5 months for other cases. Germany opened 346 transfer pricing MAP cases and closed 314, ending the year with 730 open. Roughly three quarters of all closed cases ended in full relief.
Three practical steps follow. Update citation templates in the transfer pricing documentation and in any pending MAP file from "OECD Model Tax Convention 2017" to the 2025 edition, with the Commentary paragraph numbers checked against the new text. Where a counterparty state has denied an interest deduction, do not assume a corresponding adjustment will follow; the new Commentary says it need not. And keep the arm's length evidence in the local file current, because a corresponding adjustment is granted only to the extent the other state accepts the primary adjustment in principle and in amount. A reproducible benchmarking search, run with proportionate effort, is what gives that acceptance a basis. smartZebra's Benchmarking Pro delivers the search protocol and interquartile range on live data; the data definitions are on our facts page.
References
- OECD, Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital 2025 (Full Version), published 30 September 2026, 11th edition, 2,512 pages; text as it read on 18 November 2025.
- OECD, The 2025 Update to the OECD Model Tax Convention, approved by the Committee on Fiscal Affairs on 13 October 2025, adopted by the OECD Council on 18 November 2025, released 19 November 2025: Article 25(6); Commentary on Article 9, paragraphs 1–6; Commentary on Articles 7, 24 and 25.
- OECD, Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital 2017 (Full Version), published 25 April 2019, 10th edition, 2,624 pages.
- OECD, Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administrations 2022, paragraphs 4.32, 4.35 and 4.40.
- OECD, Mutual Agreement Procedure Statistics 2024, presented at the Tax Certainty Day, November 2025 (global and Germany figures).
Related pages
- Transfer Pricing Benchmarking & TNMM Analysis — the module, the net margin indicators and the calculation protocol on live data
- Who has to prepare transfer pricing documentation? — duties, thresholds and penalties
- Master file vs local file — what goes into each tier
- How to prove an arm's length price — methods, ranges and the evidence an auditor accepts
- How much search for comparables is enough? — the OECD's proportionality standard
- Grounding / Facts — entity definition, data provenance and methodology
