International

  • January 29, 2025

    EU Tax Conduct Group Reelects Chair

    The European Union's Code of Conduct Group reelected its chair for a second term to start next week, the Council of the EU said Wednesday.

  • January 28, 2025

    IRS Whistleblower Office Could Survive Trump Purge

    As President Donald Trump pushes to slash federal spending and gut government agencies, the Internal Revenue Service Whistleblower Office may remain largely unscathed since its recent efforts to efficiently reward and protect those who report illicit tax activity could align with the administration's goals.

  • January 28, 2025

    Trump Pledges Tariffs On Semiconductors, Chips, Drugs

    The U.S. will soon place tariffs on foreign-manufactured semiconductors, computer chips and pharmaceuticals in an effort to convince foreign companies to move their manufacturing operations stateside, President Donald Trump told House Republicans at a conference.

  • January 28, 2025

    OECD Details Documents Needed For Int'l Pricing Program

    The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released more details Tuesday on the information that multinational entities must disclose when applying for the group's International Compliance Assurance Program, a multilateral effort to resolve transfer pricing issues.

  • January 28, 2025

    Ukrainian Duo Get 15 Years In $25M Tax Fraud Case

    A Florida federal judge sentenced two Ukrainian men to 15 years in prison after they pled guilty to laundering money from a hotel staffing scheme that the U.S. government said cost it $25 million in taxes.

  • January 28, 2025

    Tax Group Of The Year: Cravath

    Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP helped secure high-profile mergers and acquisitions for major media and communications companies in 2024, having played key roles in Paramount's $28 billion merger agreement with Skydance Media and a separate deal involving Verizon Communications, earning the law firm a spot among the 2024 Law360 Tax Groups of the Year.

  • January 28, 2025

    Argentina To Slash Car Sales Taxes, EV Tariffs

    Argentina will zero out sales taxes on some cars and eliminate tariffs on low-cost electric and hybrid vehicles starting next week, the country's minister of economy said Tuesday.

  • January 28, 2025

    4 Convicted In Lithuania In €10M Cigarette Tax Fraud Ring

    A Lithuanian court convicted four people, including two former customs officers, for their roles in a cigarette smuggling scheme that evaded €10 million ($10.4 million) in import, customs and excise taxes, the European Public Prosecutor's Office said Tuesday.

  • January 28, 2025

    France Probes Binance Over Money Laundering Breaches

    France's public prosecutor on Tuesday opened a criminal investigation into crypto exchange Binance over suspected money laundering and terrorist financing breaches that authorities said may have enabled tax fraud and drug trafficking.

  • January 28, 2025

    EU Authorities Smash €100M Money Laundering Scheme

    A group of more than 20 individuals suspected of running a €100 million ($104 million) money laundering scheme in Europe has been arrested following a two-year investigation by law enforcement authorities in Spain, Cyprus and Germany, an EU agency said Tuesday.

  • January 27, 2025

    Canadian Taxpayer Group Plans To Contest Capital Gains Hike

    A Canadian taxpayers group said it plans to ask the nation's Federal Court to block a proposed increase in capital gains tax that is said has not been approved by the Canadian Parliament.

  • January 27, 2025

    HMRC Can Appeal In Dispute Over UK-Ireland Tax Agreement

    HM Revenue & Customs can proceed with an appeal in its case alleging an Irish company's investment in a U.K.-based company was made to gain tax advantages, the Court of Appeal ruled Monday after hearing arguments.

  • January 27, 2025

    Senate Confirms Bessent As Treasury Secretary

    A bipartisan majority of senators voted Monday to confirm billionaire hedge fund manager Scott Bessent as Treasury secretary, putting in place a key member of President Donald Trump's Cabinet.

  • January 27, 2025

    ITC Says China May Be Dumping Erythritol In US

    The U.S. International Trade Commission has determined that there is a "reasonable indication" that imports of the artificial sweetener erythritol from China are damaging U.S. industry, it announced.

  • January 27, 2025

    Tesla Takes EU To Court Over Electric Vehicle Tariffs

    Tesla is taking the European Union to court over anti-subsidy tariffs the bloc has imposed on imports of electric vehicles from China, Europe's top court confirmed on its website Monday.

  • January 27, 2025

    Transfer Pricing Brought In £1.8B In Tax Last Year, HMRC Says

    U.K. transfer pricing activities brought in nearly £1.8 billion ($2.2 billion) in additional tax revenue in the 2023-24 tax year, HM Revenue & Customs said Monday, an over £150 million increase from the year prior despite a decrease in overall inquiries.

  • January 27, 2025

    Suspected Leader Of €297M VAT Fraud Indicted, EPPO Says

    The suspected ringleader of a €297 million ($312 million) value-added tax fraud ring was indicted two months after the European Public Prosecutor's Office first broke up the scheme, the EPPO said Monday, saying he was indicted in record time for such a complex case.

  • January 27, 2025

    HMRC's Response To Phone Calls Hits Decade Low, Firm Says

    HMRC answered half as many phone calls from taxpayers during the last tax year compared with 2015, with that figure reaching a decade low, a publicly traded British brokerage said Monday, citing documents the firm said it received in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

  • January 27, 2025

    Mike Ashley Wins Data Request Battle With HMRC

    HM Revenue and Customs wrongly withheld personal information from Mike Ashley after the founder of the Sports Direct chain issued a data request following the tax authority's demand for £13.6 million ($17 million) in additional taxes, a London court ruled Monday.

  • January 24, 2025

    Gov't Says Ukrainian Duo Should Get 15 Years For $25M Fraud

    Prosecutors have asked a Florida federal court to sentence two Ukrainian men to 15½ years in prison after they pled guilty to laundering money from a hotel staffing scheme that the U.S. government said cost it $25 million in taxes.

  • January 24, 2025

    Tax Break Doesn't Apply To £1.3M Project, UK Court Affirms

    Investors who sank £1.3 million ($1.6 million) into a children's cartoon show will not qualify for a special tax break because the investment failed to meet at least one of the program's qualifications, the U.K.'s Upper Tribunal affirmed.

  • January 24, 2025

    Reed Smith Brings Back Tax Pro From Amazon In Brussels

    An attorney who specializes in customs, trade and excise tax matters in the European Union and U.K. has rejoined Reed Smith LLP in Brussels after a stint at Amazon, the firm announced.

  • January 24, 2025

    Manchester United Ambassador Liable For Tax On £450K

    An ambassador for the Manchester United Football Club is liable for additional taxes on about £450,000 ($562,000) paid by the club over 16 months, but he successfully appealed assessments on about £1.1 million received during several other years, according to a First-tier Tribunal decision.

  • January 24, 2025

    House Bill Would Repeal Stock Buyback Tax

    The excise tax on stock buybacks would be repealed under legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.

  • January 24, 2025

    UK Gov't Launches Review Of HMRC Loan Charge

    HM Treasury has launched a review into the U.K. tax authority's loan charge targeting individuals who incurred hefty tax bills after signing up for disguised remuneration schemes, a move critics claim has unfairly hit tens of thousands of contractors.

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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