International

  • March 27, 2024

    PwC Hiding Key Details Of Tax Scandal, Aussie Senate Says

    PwC is hiding key details from investigators about its partners marketing confidential drafts of tax laws to top U.S. firms, waited years to review the matter internally and does not appear capable of making substantive reforms, an Australian Senate committee said Wednesday.

  • March 27, 2024

    Czech Transfer Pricing Audits Boost Tax Base By $248M

    An increased focus by the Czech Republic on transfer pricing audits on arrangements to relicense intangible assets and the reselling of advertising services increased the country's tax base by 5.8 billion Czech koruna ($248 million) in 2023, the country's Financial Administration said Wednesday.

  • March 27, 2024

    Treasury Urged To Adjust Shift To Foreign Currency Rules

    The U.S. Treasury Department should let corporations take an aggregate approach regarding certain affiliates that conduct business in foreign currencies when transitioning to new rules for determining taxable income or loss, the American Bar Association's Tax Section recommended.

  • March 27, 2024

    Irish Corp. Tax Revenue Growing, With Risks, Report Says

    While Ireland's corporate tax receipts increased an average of 23% a year since 2014 before stabilizing in 2023, the country should be wary of overrelying on what could be a volatile revenue source, the Parliamentary Budget Office said.

  • March 27, 2024

    VAT Applies To UK Insurer's Prior Service Pact, Court Rules

    Value-added taxes apply to performance fees invoiced to a U.K.-based insurance company by an investment management firm as part of service agreements, a London court said, because those payments occurred outside the duration of the arrangement.

  • March 27, 2024

    Chile Finance Ministry Plans Capital Gains, Dividend Taxes

    The Chilean Finance Ministry and representatives of the country's political parties crafted a proposal during a pre-legislative session that would introduce a 13% capital gains tax as well as a 7% tax on dividends, the ministry said.

  • March 26, 2024

    Adjusting To Amount B's Rules May Bring Growing Pains

    Countries designed a new tax framework known as Amount B to streamline the pricing of certain cross-border operations, but the criteria for determining whether transactions qualify for the regime, which negotiators recently made optional, may complicate the goal of simplicity.

  • March 26, 2024

    German Legislators OK Tax Changes That May Save $3.5B

    Tax changes in Germany will result in as much as €3.2 billion ($3.5 billion) in savings for taxpayers under a bill passed via a compromise in the country's bicameral legislature, its upper house said.

  • March 26, 2024

    Italians Bust €260M Fuel VAT Fraud Ring In Sting

    Authorities in Italy used a sting to bust a crime ring suspected of causing an estimated €260 million ($282 million) in value-added tax damages by using a chain of missing traders to import fuel, the European Public Prosecutor's Office said Tuesday.

  • March 26, 2024

    Ex-Glencore Exec Owes Income Tax On £150M In Dispersals

    Glencore's former head of oil is liable for income tax on nearly £150 million ($189 million) in distributions he received as a profit participation shareholder in the Jersey company because they're considered dividends under U.K. law, according to an Upper Tribunal decision.

  • March 26, 2024

    US EV Subsidies Discriminatory, China Tells WTO

    Domestic production rules for U.S. electric vehicles to qualify for subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act are discriminatory, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday, announcing it had filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization.

  • March 26, 2024

    Decision Postponed On EU Withholding Tax Proposal

    An attempt by European Union finance ministers to agree on a new withholding tax refund law has been postponed from their meeting on April 12, an agenda published Tuesday showed.

  • March 25, 2024

    Philippines Plastic Bag Tax Would Generate $560M, Gov't Says

    A proposed weight-based tax on single-use plastic bags would catch the Philippines up with major economies and generate an estimated 31.52 billion Philippine pesos ($560 million) in its first three years, the country's Department of Finance said Monday.

  • March 25, 2024

    Nigeria Charges Binance With Tax Evasion, Says Exec Fled

    Nigeria's tax authority filed criminal tax evasion charges against Binance, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, and two of its executives, one of whom escaped custody Monday, according to state-owned media.

  • March 25, 2024

    €92M Cross-Border Fuel VAT Fraud Case Under Investigation

    Authorities are investigating three Italian citizens based around the world for their roles in a value-added tax fraud scheme involving oil sales that led to an estimated €92 million ($99.7 million) in damages, the European Public Prosecutor's Office said Monday.

  • March 25, 2024

    Offshore Payments Aren't Taxable Services, UK Court Rules

    Two U.K. residents aren't liable for taxes tied to certain payments from an affiliated offshore company to a third-party foreign corporation, a British appeals court ruled Monday, finding the underlying transactions didn't amount to services that would trigger taxation.

  • March 25, 2024

    EU Court Asked To Rule On VAT On Transfer Pricing Payment

    A Romanian appellate court asked the European Union's Court of Justice to rule on whether payments to a Belgian parent company from a Romanian associated company to align profits under OECD transfer pricing guidelines fall within the scope of value-added tax, a document published Monday showed.

  • March 25, 2024

    PwC Australia Hires New Chief People Officer Amid Scandal

    PwC Australia hired a new chief people officer as part of the firm's plan to rebuild trust following its scandal involving the leak of Australian government documents, the firm announced Monday.

  • March 25, 2024

    EU Report Praises Dutch Efforts To Stop Tax Avoidance

    Recent efforts in the Netherlands to tackle corporate tax avoidance are working, according to a report from the European Commission published Monday, which added that a new measure taking effect this year would help make the Netherlands less attractive for tax avoidance practices. 

  • March 22, 2024

    Businessman Indicted Over Hiding Of $20M In Swiss Accounts

    A Brazilian-American businessman accused by the government in a criminal complaint of hiding $20 million from the Internal Revenue Service over 35 years by using Swiss bank accounts was indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami and charged with tax evasion, according to a Florida federal court.

  • March 22, 2024

    UN Needs To Clarify Path For Tax Framework, Dutch Say

    The United Nations' ad hoc committee tasked with determining a global tax framework must clarify the goals of its project "as soon as possible," the Netherlands' government said in a letter that included suggestions on how the body could proceed.

  • March 22, 2024

    Holland & Knight Hires Caplin & Drysdale Member In DC

    Holland & Knight LLP has boosted its Washington-based tax team, hiring a Caplin & Drysdale Chtd. member who first joined his former firm 25 years ago from the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

  • March 22, 2024

    EU Leaders OK Sending Russian Assets' Revenue To Ukraine

    European Union leaders expressed support for a proposal to transfer the net income from frozen and immobilized Russian state assets to EU funds for rebuilding Ukraine and buying arms for that country, according to a statement issued Friday.

  • March 22, 2024

    UK Tax Avoidance Scheme Promoter Fined £900K

    A Liverpool-based company that promoted a tax avoidance scheme to medical professionals must pay a £900,000 ($1.1 million) penalty, according to a tribunal ruling published by HM Revenue and Customs on Friday.

  • March 22, 2024

    US Unlikely To Move On Hungary Tax Treaty, Official Says

    Hungary's low corporate tax rate and other policies will likely prevent the U.S. government from resuming negotiations on a stalled 2010 tax treaty after terminating its existing Hungarian treaty in early 2023, an IRS official said Friday.

Expert Analysis

  • Senate Credit Suisse Report Puts Attention On Banks, Trusts

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    The Senate Finance Committee's recent finding that Credit Suisse violated a plea agreement struck over its role in enabling offshore tax evasion has important ramifications for banks and trusts, including how they onboard, document and report on transactions relevant to U.S. reporting requirements, say Will Barry and Ian Herbert at Miller & Chevalier.

  • Seeking IRS Accountability For Faulty Microcaptive Notice

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    Like the taxpayers in Standard Insurances v. U.S. seeking to expand earlier wins in microcaptive insurance cases that limit IRS use of improperly obtained information, others should consider ways to hold the agency accountable and provide incentive for it to follow the law going forward, says Joshua Smeltzer at Gray Reed.

  • Biden Admin. Proposals Both Encourage And Thwart EV Adoption

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    While the Biden administration has been aggressively focused on promoting electric vehicles from the start, its recently issued guidance on EV tax credits and its restrictive new auto emissions proposal create a sense of implementation whiplash that may frustrate manufacturers and consumers, says Levi McAllister at Morgan Lewis.

  • The Key Issues Keeping Transfer Pricing A Top Tax Concern

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    Several challenges preventing a global economic reemergence from the pandemic era are making practitioners reevaluate commonly used transfer pricing models, and embrace new technologies and ways of doing business, say Farnaz Amini and Sophia Castro Jurado at Marcum.

  • Curtailing Offshore Tax-Advantaged Investment In China

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    The U.S. government's plans to establish a new outbound investment regime hold the potential to arrest Chinese companies' increasing use of offshore, tax-advantaged locations to raise capital, says David Plotinsky at Morgan Lewis.

  • Cos. May Want To Wait Out US-EU Green Incentives Fight

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    As the European Union considers measures to compete with the Inflation Reduction Act's incentives for U.S. production of clean tech, and EU and U.S. officials discuss a possible compromise, companies in the green sector should consider taking a wait-and-see approach to investment decisions, says Todd Thacker at Goldberg Segalla.

  • India's Budget Proposals May Ease Entry For Certain Sectors

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    India’s recently released budget includes proposals to facilitate doing business in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City and moderate thousands of compliance requirements, opening up new opportunities for foreign businesses in the digital infrastructure, manufacturing and renewable energy sectors, say Mukesh Butani and Seema Kejriwal at BMR Legal.

  • High Court Ax Of Atty-Client Privilege Case Deepens Split

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent dismissal of In re: Grand Jury as improvidently granted maintains a three-way circuit split on the application of attorney-client privilege to multipurpose communications, although the justices have at least shown a desire to address it, say Trey Bourn and Thomas DiStanislao at Butler Snow.

  • US-India Advance Pricing Resolutions Should Reassure Cos.

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    The United States' and India's tax authorities' recent resolution of a significant number of pending advance pricing agreements should reduce taxpayer uncertainty, reassure companies of the nations' good working relationship and improve India's investment environment, say Miller Williams and Caroline Setliffe at Eversheds Sutherland.

  • Stock Buyback Excise Tax Guidance A Mixed Bag For SPACs

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    Recent IRS guidance on the new stock repurchase excise tax includes a welcome exception for publicly traded special-purpose acquisition companies but does not exclude redemptions in connection with a de-SPAC transaction, and further guidance is needed to clarify ambiguities around the exception's application, say Olga Bogush and Evgeny Magidenko at ArentFox Schiff.

  • The IRS' APA Rulemaking Journey: There And Back Again

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    Attorneys at Dentons examine recent challenges in which taxpayers successfully argued Internal Revenue Service rulemaking was invalid under the Administrative Procedure Act, how tax exceptionalism and U.S. Supreme Court regulatory deference prompted such challenges, and similar challenges the agency will likely face following this line of cases.

  • ECJ Fiat Ruling Sets Clear Boundaries For EU State Aid Law

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    The European Court of Justice's recent landmark decision in Fiat v. Commission limiting the commission’s attempts to circumvent the lack of EU powers in the area of tax law has important implications in EU state aid law and beyond, say Andreas Reindl and Pietro Stella at Van Bael.

  • Unpacking The Interim Guidance On New Stock Buyback Tax

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    The U.S. Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service's recent notice on applying the newly effective excise tax on stock repurchases provides much-needed clarity on the tax's scope, which is much broader than anticipated given its underlying policy rationale, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.

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