International
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October 25, 2024
Lebanon, Angola, Others Added To Financial Crime Watch List
An intergovernmental task force on financial crimes added Lebanon, Angola, Algeria and the Ivory Coast to a watch list of countries with weak protections against money laundering and financing for armed groups, the group said Friday.
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October 25, 2024
Argentina Formally Shutters, Replaces Tax Agency
Argentina's president formally dissolved the country's tax agency, the Federal Public Revenue Administration, and established a new agency, following through on an announcement two days earlier to end what he characterized as an oversize entity.
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October 25, 2024
Authorities Bust €113M VAT Fraud Ring Between Italy, China
A sting carried out Friday by the European Public Prosecutor's Office busted a crime ring involving the import of clothing and accessories from China to Italy that hid the goods' origins in order to evade €113 million ($122 million) in value-added taxes, the EPPO said.
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October 25, 2024
Taxation With Representation: Davis Polk, Skadden, Kirkland
In this week's Taxation With Representation, Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp. absorbs Sandy Spring Bancorp, Sophos and Secureworks merge, Wendel Group takes a stake in Monroe Capital LLC, and Acuity Brands Inc. buys QSC LLC.
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October 25, 2024
MVP: Wachtell's Tijana J. Dvornic
Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz's Tijana J. Dvornic led the firm's tax team in representing Lumen Technologies in the largest liability management transaction outside of bankruptcy protections, including addressing over $15 billion of existing debt, earning her a spot as one of the 2024 Law360 Tax MVPs.
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October 25, 2024
Germany's Expected Tax Take For 5 Years Drops €58B
Germany expects to raise €58.2 billion ($63 billion) less in revenue through 2028 than what was forecast in May, according to the country's finance minister, who said that the government allowing employers to pay tax-free bonuses caused uncertainties regarding income tax collections.
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October 24, 2024
IRS To End Automatic Foreign Gift Reporting Penalty
Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Danny Werfel told the UCLA Tax Controversy Conference audience on Thursday that the agency will no longer automatically assess penalties for the late reporting of large foreign gifts, with the announcement eliciting applause from the audience of several hundred tax attorneys and tax professionals.
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October 24, 2024
IRS Forming Transfer Pricing Team To Aid Real-Time Audits
The Internal Revenue Service is establishing a dedicated team to tackle transfer pricing issues that arise in real-time audits of companies participating in its compliance assurance process program, which should allow those issues to be handled more efficiently, an agency official said Thursday.
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October 24, 2024
Nigeria Frees Binance Exec Detained Over Money Laundering
Nigeria's government released a top executive at cryptocurrency exchange Binance whom the government had been holding liable for money laundering charges against the company, the U.S. government and the exchange's CEO said Thursday.
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October 24, 2024
Wyden's Pharma Probe Could Build Case For Int'l Tax Reforms
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden's investigation into the tax planning of major U.S. pharmaceutical companies could help fuel an effort to revamp U.S. international tax laws next year when Congress addresses expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
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October 24, 2024
Politics Blocking Amount B Consensus, OECD Tells G20
Continued delays of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's transfer pricing plan for certain baseline marketing and distribution activities known as Amount B of Pillar One are due to "primarily political" issues as opposed to technical problems, the organization told the Group of 20 on Thursday.
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October 24, 2024
Dutch Gov't Seeks Feedback On Crypto Reporting Rules
The Netherlands is looking for input on a proposal that would implement European Union rules requiring crypto-asset service providers to collect, check and share their users' data with the country's tax authority, the Dutch Ministry of Finance said Thursday.
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October 24, 2024
Aussie Board Seeks Input On Tax Pro Code Update Guidance
The Australian Tax Practitioners Board is looking for feedback on guidance related to six amendments to the country's tax professional code of conduct that were made in response to the PwC document leak scandal, the board said Thursday.
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October 24, 2024
119K Residents Didn't Report Foreign Accounts, HMRC Says
Around 119,000 U.K. residents failed to declare their foreign accounts in fiscal year 2018-19 with HM Revenue & Customs, the British tax authority said Thursday.
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October 24, 2024
Sweden Moves To Suspend Tax Treaty With Russia
Sweden is looking to suspend its double-tax treaty with Russia in response to Russia's cessation of parts of their treaty last year, Sweden's Ministry of Finance said Thursday.
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October 24, 2024
MVP: Sidley's Rachel D. Kleinberg
Rachel D. Kleinberg, a co-leader of the global tax practice at Sidley Austin LLP, headed up a tax team to represent investors in a consortium that led to the $6.05 billion sale of the NFL's Washington Commanders, earning her a spot as one of the 2024 Law360 Tax MVPs.
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October 24, 2024
Charles Russell Brings On Tax Specialist From Sheridans
Charles Russell Speechlys LLP hired a partner from Sheridans as part of expanding its London tax practice to support its strategy focused on private capital, the firm said.
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October 24, 2024
Mining Eligible In Final Regs For Energy Manufacturing Credit
The U.S. Treasury Department's final rules released Thursday on a valuable tax credit for manufacturing key components and materials used in clean energy technologies allow producers to take into account the costs to mine and extract critical minerals.
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October 23, 2024
IRS To Split Pass-Through, Energy Credit Work Into 2 Units
The IRS is planning to split up its Pass-Throughs and Special Industries office into two separate divisions, including one that will focus in part on energy credits enacted under the 2022 landmark climate law, an agency official said Wednesday.
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October 23, 2024
COST Urges Justices To Hear IBM, Disney Appeals Of NY Tax
New York's method of taxing IBM and The Walt Disney Co.'s royalties received from foreign affiliates resulted in an unconstitutional discrimination against interstate commerce that warrants U.S. Supreme Court scrutiny, the Council on State Taxation told the justices Wednesday.
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October 23, 2024
Microsemi's Fines Mostly Adhered To Rules, Tax Court Says
The Internal Revenue Service obtained the proper written approval of penalties on most of the tax code violations it brought against semiconductor manufacturer Microsemi but left room for doubt on two penalties, the U.S. Tax Court said.
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October 23, 2024
ECJ Won't Call Off Clawback Of Portugal's Tax Breaks
The European Court of Justice declined to overturn a European Commission decision that Portugal must claw back tax breaks provided in a free trade zone to companies with no local economic activity, as those breaks violated the bloc's state aid rules, according to a judgment issued Wednesday.
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October 23, 2024
Australian Greens Support Digital Tax On Tech Cos.
The Australian Greens party recommended that the country's government pursue a digital services tax similar to those in France and Canada as a way to make companies such as Meta pay their "fair share."
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October 23, 2024
EU Tax Nominee Vows Corp. Tax Simplification, Pillar 1 Work
The nominee to serve as the European Union's next tax commissioner pledged to simplify corporate rules and affirmed his support for the reallocation of taxing rights known as Pillar One in remarks to the European Parliament.
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October 23, 2024
ABA Tax Section Pushes IRS To Narrow Pillar 2 Regulations
Proposed regulations outlining when foreign taxes under the Pillar Two international minimum tax agreement trigger U.S. rules against benefiting twice from the same economic loss should be narrowed to limit their applicability, the American Bar Association Tax Section told the IRS.
Expert Analysis
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Reserved Investor Fund Would Plug Gap In UK Finance Market
The reserved investor fund recently proposed by HM Treasury has the potential to be a welcome tax-efficient addition to the U.K.’s canon of products for real estate investments, with attractive features for companies and, in particular, large asset managers, say lawyers at Herbert Smith.
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The Reciprocal Tax Bill Is A Warning Shot At Pillar 2
A bill recently introduced in the House of Representatives to reciprocally tax countries deemed to have imposed discriminatory taxes on U.S. citizens and businesses takes aim at countries implementing the global minimum tax treaty known as Pillar Two, with which the U.S. has not complied, says Alan Cole at the Tax Foundation.
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What Tax-Exempt Orgs. Need From Energy Credit Guidance
Guidance clarifying the Inflation Reduction Act’s credit regime, expected from the U.S. Department of the Treasury this summer, should help tax-exempt organizations determine the benefits of clean energy projects and integrate alternative energy investments into their activities, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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How Foreign Info Return Penalty Case May Benefit Taxpayers
The U.S. Tax Court's recent decision that the Internal Revenue Service cannot penalize taxpayers for failing to file foreign corporation information returns may give similarly situated taxpayers an opportunity to also avoid penalties, provided they protect their rights before the decision is overturned or mooted by legislation, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.
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The Nuts And Bolts Of IRS Domestic Content Tax Credit
Recent IRS guidance provides specifics on how renewable energy projects can qualify for bonus tax credits by meeting U.S. domestic content rules, but also creates a qualification framework that will be complicated for project developers to navigate, say Scott Cockerham and Wolfram Pohl at Orrick.
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Taxing The Digital Economy: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
U.S. tech companies should watch for important developments in international taxation, including the resolution of Apple's decade-old state aid case, growing frustration with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's global tax plan and adoption of the digital services tax instead, says Joyce Beebe at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.
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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.