Int'l Tax News

Calls are mounting for tax reform in Germany as its multinational companies are increasingly investing in the United States. Recent U.S. tax reform has set up a business-friendly environment that German automotive, pharmaceutical, and mechanical firms in particular just can't resist, according to Carsten Brzeski, chief economist at ING-DiBa in Frankfurt.

Intel subsidiary Altera Corp. and the IRS are gearing up for another tax showdown as the two parties and their supporters filed myriad briefs to try again towin over a federal appeals court.

European Union finance ministers decided on Tuesday to allow lower sales taxes on e-books and other digital publications and to align them to reduced levies applied to paper versions of books and magazines.

The new concepts of virtual, or digital, permanent establishment and its tax treatment are creating a challenge on a global scale. Part 2 in this series looks at the steps being taken by the European Union to address the challenges presented by the digital permanent establishment.

Businesses in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are having to look again at their operation designs, as they continue to struggle under a fledgling value-added tax regime.

The Netherlands plans to trim a tax break that lets foreignworkers in specialized fields receive 30 percent of their salary tax-free. The length of the benefitswill change to five years from eight years, retroactively, soworkers more than five years into existing agreementswill be immediately cut off on Jan. 1, 2019.

Israel lacks legally binding regulations for resolving multinational cross-border tax disputes, a gap the OECD and practitioners hopewill be addressed in guidance coming next year.

The Medtronic dispute involves the transfer pricing methodology and the allocation of income between Medtronic and its Puerto Rican subsidiary relating to intercompany licensing of intangible property for the manufacture of medical devices and leads by the subsidiary. This paper addresses the IRS deficiency notice in the amount of $1.4 billion, Medtronic's challenge and victory in the tax court, and the overturn in appealswith focus on the need for strict adherence to the tax regulations.

Corporations doing debt-for-debt exchanges in tax-free spinoffs are getting more certainty from IRS guidance that standardizes theway they can ask for private rulings on the deals.

In a brief for the Third Circuit, a partnership argued that section 956(d) regulations are invalid and urged the court to reverse a Tax Court decision that upheld the validity of the regulations and held that the partnership had income inclusions taxable as ordinary income from two controlled foreign corporations that guaranteed U.S. obligations.

In this article, the authors discuss a recent decision from the Court of Justice of the European Union that found that Germany's anti-treaty-shopping rule violates EU law. They also review the history of the provision and offer advice to taxpayers in light of the new ruling.

In this article, the author discusses draft tax legislation thatwould implement several changes to Canada's Income Tax Act. The proposals include antiavoidance rules that target the use of tracking shares to avoid foreign accrual property income, provisions involving controlled foreign affiliate status, alleviating rules for some corporate divisions, amendments to the cross-border surplus stripping rules, and other changes thatwould affect international business taxation.

While no presidential candidate is expected to secure a majority in Brazil's upcoming election, analysts saywhoever prevails in a subsequent runoffwill have few easy tax options available to dealwith a faltering economy.

Chinese authorities have determined that film star Fan Bingbing committed tax evasion and have ordered the country's most famous actress to pay fines totaling CNY 479 million (around $70 million).

A proposal by members of Italy's ruling coalition to provide tax incentives to residents purchasing the heavily indebted country's sovereign bonds could lead to challenges that the tax breaks violate EU law.

The U.K. Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) in Union Castle Mail Steamship Company Ltd v. HM Revenue & Customs, [2018] UKUT 316 (TCC), affirmed that a £39.1 million accounting losswas nondeductible for tax purposes, finding that a subsidiary's issue of shares to its parent is subject to the arm's-length principle because U.K. transfer pricing rules contain no implicit exemption for capital transactions.

A subsidiary's issue of shares to its parent is, like any other related-party transaction, subject to the arm's-length principle because the U.K. transfer pricing rules contain no implicit exemption for capital transactions.

A taxpayer seeking to overturn a Tax Court decision about regs' validity on the taxation of controlled foreign corporations' loan guarantees is shying away from attacking the court's interpretation of U.S. Supreme Court administrative law precedent.

Shawn Gallagher of American International Group Inc. noted the company's agreementwith a Coalition for American Insurance letter on the base erosion antiabuse tax, asserting that any guidance related to ceding commissions for inbound reinsurance should be consistentwith the treatment provided to similar services or other costs in other similar arrangements and industries.

Mayer Brown LLP, on behalf of Chubb, has asked to meetwith Treasury on the pending base erosion antiabuse tax rules and inbound reinsurance to discuss issues regarding the treatment of losses or claim payments and ceding commissions paidwhen the reinsurance is issued by a U.S. taxpayer.

The Institute of International Bankers, following up on a meetingwith Treasury and a July 24 letter, has requested specific guidance on how the base erosion antiabuse taxwill apply to foreign banking organizations regarding interest on debt issued to complywith regulatory rules, excess interest, and effectively connected income.

Companiesworried about the potential for public country-by-country reporting to confuse or mislead people should consider using explanatory notes to clarify the data, an HM Treasury official said.

Financial Secretary to the Treasury Mel Stride reiterated the U.K. government's commitment to both reducing the corporation tax rate to 17 percent and tackling the tax fairness issue posed by large and digital businesses.

The European Commission needs to end nearly two years of discussions and implement the common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB), an international corporate tax group said.

The concept of "user involvement" cited as the basis for digital tax proposals in the EU and elsewhere generally shouldn't create taxing rights under the OECD's guiding principle of aligning taxationwith value creation.

The U.S. corporate tax rate reduction iswidely seen as having improved the global competitiveness of U.S. corporations, but there are concerns that its benefits could be upended if the ratewere to rise again.

Driverless cars. Just a few years ago the concept seemed preposterous. But mention the idea to any 20-something and you're likely to hear enthusiastic anticipation. The younger generation trusts that technologywill provide durable answers to life's inconveniences.

In an effort to encourage inbound investment, the Chinese government has expanded a measure exempting some overseas investors fromwithholding tax on profits generated in China.

An advisory boardwarned Germany's Ministry of Finance against approving the European Commission's digital services tax (DST) proposal, saying itwould be incompatiblewith German law and could spark double taxation and international tax competition.

After decades of court decisions accepting taxpayers' use of questionable comparable transactions for transfers of unique intangibles, the recent Medtronic decision represents an acknowledgement of the strict conditions for applying the comparable uncontrolled transaction method.

The IRS and Treasury have issued a fourth notice under section 965, providing relief for U.S. shareholders considering basis adjustment elections for deferred foreign income corporations and earnings and profits deficit foreign corporations.

The three-judge panel hearing the appeal in Altera v. Commissioner threw a curveballwhen it askedwhether the company's challenge of the 2003 cost-sharing regulations is barred by the statute of limitations.

A recent controversy over a federal oversight board's authority to approve tax agreements between Puerto Rico's government and mainland companies highlights the issue ofwhether the debt-ridden island should be taxing the companies more aggressively.

The decision that Luxembourg could allow double nontaxation of McDonald's profitwithout violating state aid rules suggests that the European Commission may be reconsidering the expansive interpretation of state aid that defined prior high-profile cases.

Unilever faces mounting opposition from U.K. fund managers over its plan to consolidate its headquarters in the Netherlands.

U.S. taxpayerswith foreign business operations in branch form are at risk of losing valuable foreign tax credits, and the options available to Treasurywill create complications of their own.

U.S. companies are putting savings from the corporate tax cut to use, but only a fraction of it is flowing to employees'wallets, new data show. In the months after the December tax-code overhaul that lowered the corporate rate to 21% from 35%, dozens of companies such aswalmart Inc.and FedEx Corp. announced one-time bonuses andwage increases for hourlyworkers. Those moves earned praise from the Trump administration as evidence the cutswere quickly reaching many Americans.

Dutch Labour MEP Paul Tang has declared that the corporate tax system needs an overhaul amid proposals for a digital tax, but some businesses oppose his vision and expect nothing to change.

Australian Tax Office guidance on a new diverted profits tax indicates the governmentwill apply the levy only in limited circumstances.

Adoption of the new revenue recognition standard under ASC 606 could present companieswith many unexpected tax technical and technology implications.with the new standard now beginning to take effect for public companiesÔøΩand just a year away for othersÔøΩit is important to understand the likely tax impact of adoption, including potential transfer pricing implications.

Final regulations on the new tax on global intangible low-taxed incomewill be released by June 2019, an Internal Revenue Service official says; rules for the opportunity zone tax incentive should be released in the next fewweeks; and the IRS'sworkwith companies in its Compliance Assurance Process is informing its progress dealingwith complexities of the new repatriation tax.

South Korea has joined the OECD's discussion on taxation of digital economy companies but isn't prepared to reveal its hand yet on how it plans to tax them.

New tax rules requiring Amazon.com Inc.,walmart Inc.'s Flipkart Group and others toweed out evasion on their platforms are "unfair" and could hurt online businesses, India's e-commerce industry says. A new provision to tax sales on e-commerce platformswill go into effect Oct. 1, obligating operators of online marketplaces like Amazon to collect on the payments made to businesses selling on theirwebsites.

EU finance ministers are set to take the bloc's tax rules further into the digital age by allowing reduced value added tax on ebooks and other digital publications.