The US Treasury and IRS issued the long-awaited Sec. 385 rules re: debt characterization, documentation and potential impact on a company’s international treasury system and related borrowings/distributions.
There are some exemptions everyone was wanting: foreign-to-foreign transactions, cash pooling (notwithstanding related documentation), in addition to relaxed timing for documentation matched to the timing for filing the US federal income tax return and a transition rule pre-2018. However, there are strict documentation rules re: cash pools, including a trigger for substantially modifying terms of the agreement and other significant changes.
Note, the new rules are in addition to the subjective rules on debt characterization in IRC Sec. 385, further complicating characterization of debt instruments.
EY’s Global Tax Alert provides a comprehensive summary of this latest development, which all multinationals are studying to determine what impact it has for 2016, and future operations.
As treasury operations and tax strategies/planning are ineffective operating in silo fashion, it is also a good time to assess the organizational structure for tax and treasury operations to ensure they are operating as one strategic unit.
Strategizing Multinational Tax Risks 
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