International
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June 18, 2025
EU Refers Portugal To Court Over Excise Duty Harmonization
Portugal is three-and-a-half years late in transposing a pair of European Union directives related to excise duties into domestic law, the European Commission said Wednesday, referring the country to the European Court of Justice to face a potential fine, among other announced infringement decisions.
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June 17, 2025
Wyden Vows To Fight For Energy Credits Facing GOP Repeal
The top Senate Democratic tax writer vowed Tuesday to try to protect clean energy tax provisions of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that would face an early repeal under the sweeping tax and budget legislation released by Republicans in the Senate Finance Committee.
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June 17, 2025
AbbVie Can Get Deduction For $1.6B Payment, Tax Court Says
AbbVie can claim a deduction for the $1.6 billion it paid under a merger agreement, the U.S. Tax Court held Tuesday, rejecting the IRS' contention that the payment was a capital loss that raised the pharmaceutical giant's tax bill by $572 million.
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June 17, 2025
Ill. Toy Makers Seek Justices' Early Review Of Trump Tariff Suit
Illinois-based toy makers challenging President Donald Trump's emergency tariffs on Tuesday requested the U.S. Supreme Court consider their case before it is reviewed by the D.C. Circuit, arguing a stay to an injunction is allowing duty collections to continue and is damaging the companies.
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June 17, 2025
DOJ Seeks 5 Years, $10M For Fla. Man Hiding Swiss Accounts
A Miami man who lied to authorities and others for decades about his Swiss bank accounts should pay $10.3 million in unpaid taxes and face a maximum five-year prison sentence based on his plea agreement, the U.S. Department of Justice told a Florida federal court.
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June 17, 2025
Poland Calls For EU Digital Services Tax In Revenue Package
The European Commission should consider previous proposals for a digital services tax regime across the European Union as part of its revenue package, the Polish presidency of the Council of the EU said in a report.
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June 17, 2025
Tax Admins In OECD Group Largely Using AI, Report Says
Of the 54 members of the OECD's Forum on Tax Administration, over 70% are using artifical intelligence in some way to improve services, most often to detect tax evasion and fraud, the OECD said in a report Tuesday.
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June 17, 2025
IRS Updates Prefiling Program For Large Biz, Int'l Taxpayers
The Internal Revenue Service has made several changes to its prefiling agreement program, including updating the guidelines to help large corporate and international taxpayers flag potential issues before submitting returns, the agency said Tuesday.
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June 17, 2025
Swedish Tax Agency Asks For Greater Enforcement Powers
The Swedish Tax Agency is looking to enhance its ability to address tax crimes, it told the country's Ministry of Finance on Tuesday, sharing proposals that would strengthen its law enforcement powers and grant it the power to store biometric data.
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June 17, 2025
Norway Looks To Adopt Updated Pillar 2 Guidance
The Norwegian Ministry of Finance proposed updating its adoption of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's global minimum tax to integrate administrative guidance issued over the past year.
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June 17, 2025
HMRC Challenges Tax Treatment Of Partnership Awards
HM Revenue & Customs told the U.K. Supreme Court on Tuesday that partnership awards allocated to a corporate entity and then distributed to partners should be taxed as if they were allocated to individual members.
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June 16, 2025
US, UK Reach Trade Deal On Cars; Steel Tariffs Still Unresolved
President Donald Trump signed an order Monday enshrining the nation's new trade deal with U.K. governments under which the U.S. agreed to slash tariffs on 100,000 imported U.K. automobiles and auto parts, while eliminating tariffs on certain aerospace products but leaving steel and pharmaceuticals tariffs for future negotiations.
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June 16, 2025
Senate Bill Sticks With TCJA's $10,000 SALT Cap
The Senate Finance Committee's tax portion of the chamber's budget reconciliation bill released Monday follows the House's lead on some provisions while breaking with the lower chamber's hard-won compromises on an increased state and local tax deduction and the phaseout of green energy credits.
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June 16, 2025
The Tax Angle: EITC Audits, UTPR, Energy Credits
From a look at Republicans' efforts to audit the earned income tax credit, complaints about unfair foreign taxation under the OECD's Pillar Two framework and Democrats' push against Republican plans to strip the Inflation Reduction Act's energy credits from the code, here's a peek into a reporter's notebook on a few developing tax stories.
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June 16, 2025
Book Profits Much Higher Than Taxable Income, Paper Says
Companies report about three to four times higher profits on financial statements for investors compared with the taxable income they report to authorities, a phenomenon most prevalent among multinational corporations, which suggests book profits underestimate profit shifting, the EU Tax Observatory said Monday.
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June 16, 2025
G7 Could Raise $214B Yearly From 2% Wealth Tax, Group Says
The Group of Seven countries could raise $214 billion a year if each government imposed a 2% wealth tax on fortunes above $100 million, with the U.S. potentially raising $161 billion by itself, a group of wealthy Canadians said Monday in support of such measures.
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June 16, 2025
Trump Eyes Trade Deal With Canada During G7 Summit Talks
President Donald Trump said at the G7 summit Monday that he would work with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to reach a trade deal, raising the possibility that an agreement could be struck before the multilateral meeting concludes.
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June 16, 2025
Wealth Taxes, End Of Profit Shifting Worth $2.6T, Group Says
World governments could raise about $2.6 trillion annually, more than enough revenue to finance most climate-related needs, if they collectively adopted low-rate wealth taxes beginning with the richest 0.5% and stopped multinational corporations from shifting profits, the Tax Justice Network said Monday.
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June 16, 2025
HMRC Warns Umbrella Co. Employees Of Tax Risks
Employees and contractors of temporary worker agencies known as umbrella companies need to be vigilant to make sure they aren't unwittingly involving themselves in tax avoidance schemes, HM Revenue & Customs said, laying out ways to spot such avoidance issues.
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June 16, 2025
OECD Offers Template For Tax Crime Investigation Guidance
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released standards Monday for jurisdictions to use when creating manuals to guide government agencies through tax crime investigations, with the aim of creating more efficient and effective processes, it said.
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June 16, 2025
Colombian Taxpayers Owe $34M In Foreign Exchange Debts
Nearly 290 Colombian taxpayers have accumulated roughly 142.2 billion Colombian pesos ($34.6 million) in unpaid tax debts related to their foreign exchange transactions, the country's tax authority said, offering possible reductions for their associated penalties.
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June 13, 2025
US-China Trade Talks Resume, Draw Mixed Reviews
Despite the promise of new trade talks held this week by the U.S. and China, the long-term strategic view of many companies remains concern over the obstacles they continue to face, especially if they must diversify supply chains that heavily rely on China.
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June 13, 2025
211K Suspicious Transaction Reports Filed In France In 2024
France's anti-money laundering unit received over 211,000 reports of suspicious financial transactions in 2024, making up the vast majority of the more than 215,000 reports received by the unit, an over 13% increase from the year prior, the country's finance ministry said Friday.
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June 13, 2025
Israeli Businessman Found Liable For $3.2M Over FBARs
An Israeli businessman who was held in contempt of court for dodging discovery requests is liable for $3.24 million in penalties and interest for willfully failing to report his foreign bank accounts, according to a Washington federal court.
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June 13, 2025
UK Businessman Defends Asset Transfer As Tax Strategy
A British businessman denied that he transferred a company to his son to defraud a creditor, arguing it was part of a long-term tax strategy rather than a tactic to avoid repaying £4.7 million ($6.4 million) in debt.
Expert Analysis
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The Pros And Cons Of A 2nd Trump Term For UK Tech Sector
While U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionist stance on trade could disrupt global supply chains on which many U.K. tech firms are reliant, anticipated deregulation could provide fertile ground for investment and growth, and the U.K. tech sector is bracing for a mix of opportunities, say lawyers at Shoosmiths.
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Corp. Transparency Act's Future Under Treasury's Bessent
The Corporate Transparency Act’s ultimate fate faced uncertain terms at the end of 2024, but new U.S. Department of the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's statements and actions so far demonstrate that he does not intend to ignore the law, though he may attempt to make modifications, say attorneys at Taylor English.
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A Look At A Possible Corporate Transparency Act Exemption
Attorneys at Kirkland offer a deep dive into the application of the Corporate Transparency Act's reporting requirements specifically to U.S.-domiciled co-issuers in typical collateralized loan obligation transactions, and consider whether such issuers may be able to assert an exemption from the CTA's reporting requirements.
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Inconsistent Injury-In-Fact Rules Hinder Federal Practice
A recent Third Circuit decision, contradicting a previous ruling about whether consumers of contaminated products have suffered an injury in fact, illustrates the deep confusion this U.S. Supreme Court standard creates among federal judges and practitioners, who deserve a simpler method of determining which cases have federal standing, says Eric Dwoskin at Dwoskin Wasdin.
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In-House Counsel Pointers For Preserving Atty-Client Privilege
Several recent rulings illustrate the challenges in-house counsel can face when attempting to preserve attorney-client privilege, but a few best practices can help safeguard communications and effectively assert the privilege in an increasingly scrutinized corporate environment, says Daniel Garrie at Law & Forensics.
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Lights, Camera, Ethics? TV Lawyers Tend To Set Bad Example
Though fictional movies and television shows portraying lawyers are fun to watch, Hollywood’s inaccurate depictions of legal ethics can desensitize attorneys to ethics violations and lead real-life clients to believe that good lawyers take a scorched-earth approach, says Nancy Rapoport at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
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Accountant-Owned Law Firms Could Blur Ethical Lines
KPMG’s recent application to open a legal practice in Arizona represents the first overture by an accounting firm to take advantage of the state’s relaxed law firm ownership rules, but enforcing and supervising the practice of law by nonattorneys could prove particularly challenging, says Seth Laver at Goldberg Segalla.
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AI Will Soon Transform The E-Discovery Industrial Complex
Todd Itami at Covington discusses how generative artificial intelligence will reshape the current e-discovery paradigm, replacing the blunt instrument of data handling with a laser scalpel of fully integrated enterprise solutions — after first making e-discovery processes technically and legally harder.
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Unpacking The Legal Foundation Of Trump's New Trade War
President Donald Trump's recent executive orders and proclamations regarding emergencies at the U.S. border are based on statutory powers enabling a president to address extraordinary external threats — and could be used to fend off legal challenges to the tariffs levied on Mexican and Canadian goods, says Chris Zona at Mandelbaum Barrett.
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When Innovation Overwhelms The Rule Of Law
In an era where technology is rapidly evolving and artificial intelligence is seemingly everywhere, it’s worth asking if the law — both substantive precedent and procedural rules — can keep up with the light speed of innovation, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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Imagine The Possibilities Of Openly Autistic Lawyering
Andi Mazingo at Lumen Law, who was diagnosed with autism about midway through her career, discusses how the legal profession can create inclusive workplaces that empower openly autistic lawyers and enhance innovation, and how neurodivergent attorneys can navigate the challenges and opportunities that come with disclosing one’s diagnosis.
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Litigation Funding Disclosure Debate: Strategy Considerations
In the ongoing debate over whether courts should require disclosure of litigation funding, funders and plaintiffs tend to argue against such mandates, but voluntarily disclosing limited details about a funding arrangement can actually confer certain benefits to plaintiffs in some scenarios, say Andrew Stulce and Marc Cavan at Longford Capital.
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5 Ways To Create Effective Mock Assignments For Associates
In order to effectively develop associates’ critical thinking skills, firms should design mock assignments that contain a few key ingredients, from messy fact patterns to actionable feedback, says Abdi Shayesteh at AltaClaro.