International
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October 31, 2024
Treasury Using Help To Clear Pillar 1 'Logjam,' Official Says
Other executive agencies in President Joe Biden's administration have backed the U.S. Treasury Department in urging negotiators at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to reach a final deal on the international taxing rights overhaul known as Pillar One, a top Treasury official said Thursday.
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October 31, 2024
Australian Tax Collection Up 6% To Nearly AU$611B In 2023-24
Australia collected AU$610.6 billion ($402 billion) in taxes in the 2023-24 tax year, a 6% increase over the year prior and AU$19.4 billion above projections, the Australian Taxation Office said.
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October 31, 2024
OECD Starts Process Of Integrating Thailand As Full Member
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has formally begun the accession process for Thailand to become a full member of the Paris-based body.
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October 31, 2024
Oracle Can't Pause $166M Royalty Cases In Australia
Oracle Corp. can't pause three suits in Australia challenging AU$253.5 million ($167 million) in tax penalties while Irish and Australian authorities conduct a mutual agreement procedure, an Australian judge ruled Thursday, saying a judicial ruling in the cases could affect a wider diplomatic dispute over Australia's royalty taxation.
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October 31, 2024
Scam Promoter Who Cost UK £2.6M In Taxes Is Banned
A man who promoted a tax avoidance scam costing the British government tax agency at least £2.6 million ($3.4 million) has been banned by the government from serving as a director of any company for 10 years, the U.K.'s Insolvency Service announced Thursday.
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October 31, 2024
Exxon Entitled To Interest Deduction On Qatar Deal
Exxon Mobil is entitled to an interest expense deduction on payments to Qatar under a natural gas deal, a Texas federal judge ruled, rejecting the U.S. government's classification of an underlying transaction as a royalty rather than a loan.
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October 31, 2024
Treasury Official Previews M&A Details For Corp. AMT Rules
U.S. rulemakers plan to further address how the country's corporate alternative minimum tax applies to transactions including spinoffs and deals that involve a member of a tax consolidated group, a U.S. Treasury Department official said Thursday.
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October 31, 2024
EU Expected To Close Final Digital VAT Deal Next Week
The European Union is close to a final deal on its plan to bring the bloc's value-added tax rules more in line with the digital economy after representatives reached an agreement in principle, the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the EU confirmed Thursday.
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October 31, 2024
Gov't Urged To Reform Tax Charges On Pension Scam Victims
The government should prioritize reform to ensure that victims of pension scams are no longer hit with massive tax bills, an industry body said Thursday.
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October 31, 2024
5 Convicted In €54M VAT Fraud Of 10,000 Cars
A German court convicted five people for taking part in a value-added tax fraud scheme that involved international trade of more than 10,000 cars that caused €53.7 million ($58.3 million) in estimated losses, the European Public Prosecutor's Office said Thursday.
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October 31, 2024
The 2024 Law360 Pulse Leaderboard
Check out the Law360 Pulse Leaderboard to see which firms made the list of leaders in all-around excellence this year.
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October 31, 2024
Firms' Hiring Strategies Are Evolving In Fight For Top Spot
Competition for top talent among elite law firms shows no signs of slowing down, even amid economic uncertainty, with financially strong firms deploying aggressive strategies to attract and retain skilled professionals to solidify their market position.
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October 31, 2024
11th Circ. Nixes ERISA Claim To John Hancock's $100M Credit
John Hancock Life Insurance Co. had no fiduciary duty to pass on to retirement plans $100 million in foreign tax credits that it had taken from taxes paid on foreign investments, a three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit said in upholding a lower court ruling.
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October 31, 2024
Reeves To Face MPs As Budget Enters Approval Process
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is due to be grilled by senior MPs on Nov. 6 after she presented the Labour government's first Budget for 14 years, which features a £40 billion ($52 billion) tax package that has raised concerns of new pressure on businesses and retirement savers.
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October 30, 2024
Jury Finds Importer Didn't Report $17M On Tax Returns
A Los Angeles jury found an importer of Chinese clothing guilty of skirting more than $8 million in customs duties and failing to report more than $17 million in cash transactions on tax returns, federal prosecutors in California announced Wednesday.
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October 30, 2024
Pillar 2 Likely To Cast Shadow Over US Tax Bill Talks
The international minimum tax agreement known as Pillar Two won't officially factor into upcoming tax bill negotiations in the U.S. Congress, but the global regime's potential grab at U.S. tax revenue could informally influence policy choices.
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October 30, 2024
Tax Court Stands By Couple's Tax Liability After Remand
An investor couple whose case was remanded by the Sixth Circuit is still liable for over $603,000 in deficient taxes tied to $3 million in claimed losses from a complex foreign-exchange derivative arrangement since their actions were not made with legitimate intentions of turning a profit, the U.S. Tax Court said Wednesday.
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October 30, 2024
GOP Lawmakers Criticize Treasury's Start Of Taiwan Tax Talks
The top tax-writing Republicans in Congress said Wednesday that the U.S. Treasury Department's announcement that it would begin negotiations with Taiwan on a double-tax relief agreement risks undermining legislation to address the issue that is stalled in the Senate.
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October 30, 2024
Canadian Can't Claim $15.8M In Losses From Forex Trades
A Canadian businessman can't claim CA$22 million ($15.8 million) in losses as deductions because the foreign exchange trades generating them were not pursued for profit, the Tax Court of Canada ruled.
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October 30, 2024
South African Parliament To Consider Global Minimum Tax
Qualifying businesses in South Africa would be subject to two parts of the OECD's 15% global minimum tax on large multinational entities making more than €750 million ($815 million) annually under legislation sent to the country's Parliament on Wednesday.
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October 30, 2024
UK's VAT Gap Rises £1.4B In 2023-24, Initial Estimate Says
The gap between the amount of value-added tax the U.K. expected to collect in the 2023-24 tax year and the amount actually collected was an estimated £9.5 billion ($12.3 billion), a £1.4 billion increase over the final estimate for the year prior, HM Revenue & Customs said Wednesday.
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October 30, 2024
UK Capital Gains Hike Casts Shadow Over Gov't LSE Aims
The decision by Chancellor Rachel Reeves to raise the tax paid on gains made when shares are sold could hinder the government's work on making the London Stock Exchange more attractive for stock listings and investors, regulatory experts warn.
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October 30, 2024
Last UK Gov't 'Did Not Share' Spending Info With Watchdog
The independent fiscal watchdog said Wednesday that the last Conservative administration had failed to disclose public spending information, adding that it would have resulted in a "materially different" forecast for government spending if it had been given the data.
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October 30, 2024
Pension Pros Say Shutting Inheritance Tax Loophole Overdue
Retirement industry professionals said Wednesday that the budget announcement by the U.K. government that it would remove a loophole that allowed the transfer of more than £1 million ($1.3 million) of inherited pension wealth without paying inheritance tax was overdue.
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October 30, 2024
Labour Gov't Unveils £40B Tax Boost In First Budget
A £40 billion ($52 billion) tax package unveiled on Wednesday by Britain's new Labour government targets business and investors and aims to plug fiscal gaps with plans including higher levies on payrolls and capital gains.
Expert Analysis
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Big Tax Changes For Multinational Cos. In Budget Proposal
The Biden administration’s fiscal year 2024 budget proposes changes that would materially alter decades-old Internal Revenue Code provisions, requiring a shift in multinational corporations' tax planning strategies comparable to that required after enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, say Xenia Garofalo and Kyle Colonna at Eversheds Sutherland.
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Senate Credit Suisse Report Puts Attention On Banks, Trusts
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.
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Seeking IRS Accountability For Faulty Microcaptive Notice
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.
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Biden Admin. Proposals Both Encourage And Thwart EV Adoption
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.
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The Key Issues Keeping Transfer Pricing A Top Tax Concern
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.
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Curtailing Offshore Tax-Advantaged Investment In China
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.
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Cos. May Want To Wait Out US-EU Green Incentives Fight
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.
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India's Budget Proposals May Ease Entry For Certain Sectors
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.
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High Court Ax Of Atty-Client Privilege Case Deepens Split
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.
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US-India Advance Pricing Resolutions Should Reassure Cos.
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.
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Stock Buyback Excise Tax Guidance A Mixed Bag For SPACs
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.
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The IRS' APA Rulemaking Journey: There And Back Again
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.
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ECJ Fiat Ruling Sets Clear Boundaries For EU State Aid Law
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.