International
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October 11, 2024
Taxation With Representation: Davis Polk, Latham, Kirkland
In this week's Taxation With Representation, Rio Tinto agrees to acquire Arcadium Lithium for roughly $6.7 billion, Ares Management Corp. and GCP International reach a $3.7 billion deal, and Butterfly Equity announces plans to buy The Duckhorn Portfolio for $2 billion.
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October 10, 2024
Ukraine's Parliament Hikes Taxes To Fund War With Russia
Ukraine's Parliament announced that it approved several amendments to the country's tax code Thursday that will raise revenues for its war with Russia.
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October 10, 2024
Pillar 2 Carveout Should Cover Some Mobile Items, NFTC Says
The exemption for tangible investments from the global minimum tax known as Pillar Two should include certain mobile assets, such as ships and aircraft, the National Foreign Trade Council recommended.
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October 10, 2024
Ryanair To Scale Back German Flights After Tax Hike
Irish discount airline Ryanair announced plans Thursday to follow through on its threat to cut back service to Germany next summer over tax issues, saying it will cut 12% of its total capacity in the country — equal to 1.8 million seats — and close three bases of operation.
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October 10, 2024
Pfizer Lone Holdout In Senate Pharma Tax Probe, Wyden Says
Pfizer Inc. is the only company to withhold a country-by-country breakdown of its tax planning in the Senate Finance Committee's probe into how Republicans' 2017 tax package reduced the pharmaceutical industry's U.S. liabilities, according to a letter Chairman Ron Wyden released Thursday.
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October 10, 2024
UK Exit Taxes OK When Paid Over Time, Upper Tribunal Says
An exit tax on U.K. trusts leaving the country pre-Brexit interfered with their European Union right to free movement of capital, but is brought into compliance if trusts can pay the tax over at least a five-year period, the Upper Tribunal ruled.
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October 10, 2024
Switzerland Reports Info Exchanges With 108 Jurisdictions
Switzerland's Federal Tax Administration has exchanged information on roughly 3.7 million financial accounts with 108 jurisdictions so far in 2024, the government said Thursday.
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October 10, 2024
Ireland's Finance Bill Sets Out Foreign Dividend Exemption
The Irish government set out its plans for a new participation tax exemption for foreign dividends as part of a finance bill published Thursday.
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October 10, 2024
Algeria Joins OECD Tax Transparency Treaty
Algeria formally joined the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's global tax transparency agreement on combating tax avoidance and evasion by multinational corporations, the OECD announced Thursday.
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October 09, 2024
Australia Floats Debt Reduction Creation Rules Guidance
The Australian Taxation Office published draft guidance Wednesday for the country's new debt deduction creation rules, including the planned compliance approach and a framework for risk assessment.
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October 09, 2024
European Parliament Backs Brazil's G20 Wealth Tax Plan
A majority of the European Parliament supports a 2% minimum tax on billionaires presented by Brazil at the Group of 20 nations meeting, asking the European Union to pursue the topic at the group's November summit, according to joint statements by members of Parliament on Wednesday.
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October 09, 2024
Swiss Council Rejects Funding Pensions With Transaction Tax
Switzerland should not use the revenue generated by its two taxes on financial market transactions to fund the country's pension fund, nor should it create new ones for that purpose, the Swiss Federal Council said Wednesday.
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October 09, 2024
OECD Should Clarify Pillar 2 Safe Harbor Timing, CPAs Say
The OECD should clarify when exactly multinational corporations need to determine whether they qualify for a transitional safe harbor under an international minimum tax agreement, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants recommended in a letter.
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October 09, 2024
UK Gov't Greenlights Film Industry Tax Credit
U.K. film companies will be able to gain over 50% tax relief for their films' costs from a tax credit approved Wednesday by the Labour government.
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October 09, 2024
3M Tax Ruling Must Fall Post-Chevron, Chamber Tells 8th Circ.
The U.S. Supreme Court's ending of the Chevron doctrine calls for overturning a U.S. Tax Court ruling that let the IRS allocate $24 million of income to multinational conglomerate 3M from a Brazilian affiliate, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce told the Eighth Circuit on Wednesday.
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October 09, 2024
Starmer Refuses To Rule Out Payroll Tax Hike
Prime Minister Keir Starmer didn't rule out raising employers' National Insurance contributions, a payroll tax used to fund healthcare and state pensions, during Wednesday's question time.
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October 09, 2024
Election Uncertainty Hampers Companies' Tax Planning
With the November election approaching, businesses are bracing for the potential impact of two very different sets of tax policies, with the resulting uncertainty making long-term tax planning increasingly difficult.
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October 09, 2024
Australia Seeking Large Cos.'s Tax Execs For Advisory Board
The Australian Taxation Office is looking for executives in charge of taxes for the country's largest businesses to join an advisory group focused on improving the Australian taxation systems, the ATO said Wednesday.
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October 09, 2024
Final Treasury Rules Shut Off Inclusion For Repatriated IP
The U.S. Treasury Department adopted final rules Wednesday that shut off an annual income inclusion associated with intangibles for companies in certain situations that have transferred intellectual property back to the U.S. from overseas.
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October 09, 2024
Gov't Warned Over National Insurance Levy On Pensions
About half of U.K. employers would scale back the amount they pay into staff pensions to regulatory minimums if a new tax was applied to contributions, according to a survey by a trade group published Wednesday.
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October 08, 2024
Germany May Offer Tax Break For 'E-Fuel' Cars, Ministry Says
The German government will consider a motor vehicle tax exemption for cars running only on fuels manufactured with renewable energy, known as e-fuels-only vehicles, the German Ministry of Finance announced Tuesday.
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October 08, 2024
China Pushes Back On Turkish EV Tariffs, Targets EU Brandy
China said Tuesday that it is appealing to the World Trade Organization to halt Turkish tariffs on electric and hybrid vehicles made in the country, and it announced a temporary anti-dumping measure on European Union brandy that follows the bloc's own EV tariffs.
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October 08, 2024
Tire Seller Counts As Importer, Owes $2M Tax, 5th Circ. Says
A Houston truck sales company owes nearly $2 million in excise taxes because it qualifies as the importer of tires that it bought from a Chinese manufacturer, the Fifth Circuit ruled Tuesday in overturning the decision of a Texas federal judge.
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October 08, 2024
Loss Rule Carveouts Raise Challenges In Pillar 2, Official Says
An IRS official flagged administrability concerns Tuesday with potential safe harbors that would, in some cases, carve out an international minimum tax agreement from interacting with long-standing domestic rules aimed at preventing companies from using the same economic loss twice.
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October 08, 2024
Australia Makes Additional Changes To Tax Pro Conduct Code
After industry pushback, delays and further tweaks, Australia's minister for financial services signed into law Tuesday further amendments to the nation's tax professional code of conduct as part of the country's reaction to the PwC document leak scandal.
Expert Analysis
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Lessons From IRS For A New HMRC Whistleblowing Model
Andrew Park at Andersen considers whether the public interest would be better served in allowing the U.K.'s tax enforcers, HM Revenue & Customs, to offer larger and more certain cash incentives to people blowing the whistle on tax misdemeanors — similar to the IRS model for whistleblowers.
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The Benefits Of Competent Authority In Int'l Tax Disputes
Multinational enterprises seeking relief from double taxation in a changing international tax landscape should consider utilizing the competent authority process, which provides both taxpayers and domestic tax regulators an efficient and effective means of dispute resolution, say David Farhat and Eman Cuyler at Skadden.
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How OECD Transfer Tax Initiative Affects Smaller Businesses
Small and midsize enterprises with cross-border transactions need to consider redefining tax strategies and operational models in light of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's base erosion and profit shifting initiative, even though the agency's new tax guidelines are aimed at large multinational enterprises, says Ganesh Ramaswamy at Kreston Rangamani.
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What The New OECD Double-Tax Procedure Statistics Tell Us
Monique van Herksen and Clive Jie-A-Joen at Simmons & Simmons consider the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s recent report on double taxation cases resolved in 2020 under the mutual agreement procedure process, and examine whether the process has improved dispute resolution mechanisms since its implementation five years ago.
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Navigating FCPA Risks Of Minority-Owned Joint Ventures
The U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will likely continue to focus on third-party risks under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, so companies with minority-owned joint ventures should take several steps to mitigate related compliance challenges, say Ben Kimberley at The Clorox Company and Addison Thompson at Covington.
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Questions To Ask If Doing Business In A Corruption Hot Spot
Businesses facing new scrutiny after the U.S. Department of Justice's recently announced task force for combating human trafficking in Central America, the release of the Pandora Papers and continuing fallout from 2019's Panama Papers, should address compliance risks by having employees ask three questions about every transaction, say attorneys at White & Case.
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How The Global Tax Agreement Could Backfire For Biden
If the $3.5 trillion spending package fails, the federal tax code will not conform to the recent 15% global minimum tax agreement spearheaded by the U.S., which would embarrass the Biden administration and could lead to retaliatory tax measures by other nations, says Alex Parker at Capitol Counsel.
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Pandora Papers Reveal Need For Greater Tax Enforcement
The recent Pandora Papers leak is a reminder of the importance of transparency laws and proper funding for enforcement efforts against tax evasion as bad actors increasingly operate in the shadows, says Daren Firestone and Kevin Crenny at Levy Firestone.
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Parsing New Int'l Tax Reporting Rules For Pass-Throughs
Attorneys at Grant Thornton unpack the Internal Revenue Service’s new pass-through entity reporting requirements for international tax matters and the accompanying guidance for penalty relief, and suggest how companies should prepare for what may be the most significant change to the partnership compliance function in decades.
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A Look At Global Tax Enforcement Developments: Part 2
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
Sean Craig at LexisNexis examines recent investigations by the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement and their impact on U.S. taxpayers, as well as the growing significance of transfer pricing disputes and policies for future enforcement.
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A Look At Global Tax Enforcement Developments: Part 1
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
Sean Craig at LexisNexis looks at how international initiatives, such as the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement, are addressing cryptocurrency-related tax evasion, and how the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing demands for governmental welfare programs are driving global tax policy.
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EU Climate Plan Should Involve Taxing Pollution, Not Borders
In order to crack down on greenhouse gas emissions, the European Union proposes to levy carbon emissions at its borders and to overhaul its long-standing energy tax framework, but the latter would hold polluters directly accountable, giving it the better chance for success, says Rebecca Christie at Bruegel.
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Prepare For Global Tax Regime's New Biz Dispute Risks
Companies should take steps to mitigate the business dispute risks of the new international tax framework, which over a hundred countries agreed to in July, as implementing the new regime will be expensive and require substantial organizational restructuring efforts, says Tim McCarthy at Dykema.