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Company Profits Without Borders Spurs Government Scrutiny


by Alison Bennett (Bloomberg)

Policymakers around theworld are stepping up efforts to tighten rules because a growing slice of corporate profits isnt taxed in any country.

Multinational companies can legally structure transactions so they dont pay tax anywhere, creatingstateless income that is coming under attack as countries seek to fill budget gaps. The Obama administration, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and tax officials from other countrieswant to reach a consensus on how to combat the issue,with more than a dozen proposals beingweighed, Bloomberg BNA reported.

For the story, go here.

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Microsoft, IBM Top List of U.S. Tech Firms with Biggest Overseas Profit Hauls


by Jordan Robertson (Bloomberg)

When it comes to the politically inflammatory issue of U.S. companies holding trillions of dollars in profits overseas, two tech firms get the lion's share of attention and blame for the practice: Apple and Cisco Systems.

That's because their chief executive officers, Tim Cook and John Chambers, have been among the most vocal lobbyists for a tax holiday to bring the cash home at a rate lower than the 35 percent currently required by the U.S. government.

Yet Apple and Cisco aren't the biggest hoarders of overseas cash. According to Bloomberg Rankings,which looked at the regulatory filings of the 70 companies in the S&P 500 Information Technology Index and the five in the S&P 500 Internet & Catalog Retail Index, the distinction belongs to Microsoft and IBM.

For the story, go here.

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Q&A: Essential facts about US tax inversions


by Anousha Sakoui (Financial Times)

A tax inversion is a legal transactionwhereby a company becomes the subsidiary of another company in another country and, as a result, the original company becomes subject to the tax laws of the foreign country instead.

These inversions can take different forms. The first casewas a cosmetics company called Helen of Troy in 1993. Incorporated in the US, it created a shell company in the tax haven of Bermuda, and made it the parent company of the US business.

However, following the deal, the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a clampdown against such transactionswhere theywere being carried out purely to avoid US taxes. It issued the first rules against anti-inversion in 1996.

Why arewe still talking about this today, then?

For the story, go here.

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Tax bills help drain US corporate base


By Anousha Sakoui in London and James Politi inwashington (Financial Times)

For Doug Holtz-Eakin an adviser to Senator John McCain during his 2008 presidential campaign the relocation of some of the USs biggest companies to overseas tax domiciles brings back memories of Inbevs takeover of Anheuser-Busch that year.

When the Belgian brewer completed the deal, it not only cut jobs at the American groups headquarters in St Louis, Missouri it turned the operation into a mere US subsidiary of a global group based in Belgium.

When international mergers and acquisitions occur, the headquarters are not in the US, notes Mr Holtz-Eakin. Youre not going to see anyone do inbound headquarter investment [into the US]. I think its a big deal.

For the story, go here.

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US acquirers cut taxes by relocating to Europe after mergers


by Anousha Sakoui in London and James Politi inwashington (Financial Times)

Michigan-based pharmaceuticals group Perrigo has said its acquisition of Irish biotech company Elanwill lead to re-domiciling in Ireland

A growing number of US companies are set to save hundreds of millions of dollars in tax by relocating to Europe after completing takeovers on the continent.

For the story, go here.

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Tax Evasion: Global Scrutiny of Stateless Income Growing Among Officials, Lawmakers, World Leaders


by Alison Bennett (Bloomberg)

The phenomenon of stateless income is growing in prominence on theworld stage,with lawmakers, key officials in the Obama administration, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and tax officials from other countries all throwing a spotlight onwhat is perceived as a growing problem.

For the article, go here. (Subscription required)

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Corporate Tax Reform: Will the Third Time Be the Charm?


by Clint Stretch (Tax Analysts, Tax Notes Today)

Congress has reformed the corporate income tax not once, but twice, since President Reagan called for tax reform in his 1984 State of the Union address. Business leaders contemplating the next corporate tax reform effortwillwant to ask many questions, but at the core there is one essential question:will it be any different this time around?

For the article, go here. (Subscription required)

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Economic Analysis: Another Pharmaceutical Inversion to Ireland; More on the Horizon


by Martin A. Sullivan (Tax Analysts, Tax Notes Today)

Another U.S. company has sidestepped the anti-inversion rules of section 7874 and is moving its legal domicile to Ireland. Perrigo Co., a Michigan-based provider of healthcare products, and Elan Corp. PLC, a Dublin-based biotechnology company, jointly announced July 29 that they intend to merge into a new Irish companywith the Perrigo name.

This news follows the May 20 announcement by New Jersey-headquartered Actavis Inc. and Dublin-basedwarner Chilcott that the two companies agreed to combine into a single company called Actavis PLC domiciled in Ireland. As in the proposed Perrigo-Elan deal, the U.S. party in the Actavis-Warner Chilcott deal is significantly larger than its Irish counterpart.

The announcements of these two similar deals are noteworthy because they are only the most visible part of a larger phenomenon. One recent news report described a behind-the-scenes frenzy of mergers and acquisitions activity motivated by U.S. companies seeking to lower their taxes by mergingwith Irish companies. About prospective mergers in the pharmaceutical industry, onewall Street analyst is quoted as saying, "Everyone's trying to find these strategies to lower their tax rates."

For the article, go here. (Subscription required)

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VAT: OECD VAT Guidelines Need Clear Definition Of Permanent Establishment, Businesses Say


by Rick Mitchell (Bloomberg)

Recent draft international guidelines on value-added tax should be revised to clearly definewhat a businessestablishment is for the purpose of applying VAT to services and intangible goods across multinational enterprises, and to clearly explain how the guidelines interactwith existing transfer pricing rules, practitioners, business groups and multinationals said in comments released Aug. 5.

The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development,whose 34 member countries include theworld's advanced economies, released some 31 comment letters regarding the 63-page consolidated version of the draft OECD International VAT/GST Guidelines that it published Feb. 4 and accepted comments on until May 4.

For the story, go here. (Subscription required)

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Ending the Lockout of Overseas Earnings: An Update


by Douglas Holtz-Eakin & Gordon Gray (American Action Forum)

In 2011, the American Action Forum produced an analysis assessing the benefits of corporate tax reform. Among the reforms examined in the paperwas a temporary tax holiday on foreign earning by U.S. multinationals to encourage the repatriation of those funds. In order to inform the current debate, this update reexamines that analysis. At the time, the temporary policywas estimated to produce an increase of $360 billion in GDP and add 2.9 million jobs. Over the past year and a half, some key elements underpinning that analysis have changed. Those changeswould combine to, on net, increase the effect on the economy from a repatriation policy. Based on these revisions, a future repatriation policy could be expected to add $440 billion to GDP and 3.5 million jobs. Of course,with a permanent reform, the pace of the return of fundswould likely be lower and stretch out the timing of these impacts.

The underlying methodology of this update remains consistentwith the initial estimate.

For the report, go here.

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Think-tank urges US to switch to territorial tax system


by James Politi (Financial Times)

US companieswould repatriate as much as $1.6tn or the bulk of the cash they have stashed overseas if America overhauls the treatment of international earnings in a sweeping reform of the corporate tax code, a Republican-leaning think-tank said on Tuesday.

The American Action Forum led by Doug Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office during the Georgew. Bush administration is trying to build the case for the US to switch to a territorial tax system that imposes minimal taxes on foreign earnings.

For the story, go here.

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Tax Treaties: U.S., Belgian Competent Authorities Agree To Authorized OECD Approach to PE Profits


by Molly Moses (Bloomberg BNA Daily Tax Report )

The United States and Belgium have agreed to attribute profits to permanent establishments consistentwith the approach in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's 2010 Model Tax Convention, according to an agreement made public Aug. 6.

For the story, go here. (Subscription required)

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Rodriguez Continues Narrow Interpretation of Subpart F


by Andrew Roberson, David Noren, and Genevieve Tokic

Andrew Roberson, David Noren, and Genevieve Tokic provide observations on the Fifth Circuit's recent decision in Rodriguez v. Commissioner,which upholds a literal application of the rules under subpart F.

For the article, go here. (Subscription required)

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Convenient Myths


by Georgewhite (Tax Analysts, Tax Notes Today)

Georgewhite rebuts the myth that unrepatriated earnings of multinational corporations' foreign subsidiaries are trapped overseas.

For the article, go here. (Subscription required)

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Importance of Location Savings Called Into Question


by Matthew R. Madara (Tax Analysts, Tax Notes Today)

Recent interest in location savings may be misplaced, according to empirical analysis examiningwhether multinational corporations (MNCs) experience increased profitability after entering low-cost jurisdictions. Shanto Ghosh of Deloitte Tax LLP explained on July 31 that preliminary research he has performed to date indicates that few MNCs have a statistically significant increase in profitability after entering into China and India.

Location savings has become an increasingly important transfer pricing issue andwas among several items added to the OECD's discussion draft on the transfer pricing aspects of intangibles. David Ernick of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP said the addition of the new section in the revised draft addressing location savings and other factors is important.whereas the prior draft merely stated that the added factors are not intangibles but are more like comparability factors, the new draft better defines the terms and how to account for them in a comparability analysis, he said.

For the story, go here. (Subscription required)

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News Analysis: Repatriation: Don't Try This at Home


by Lee A. Sheppard (Tax Analysts, Tax Notes Today)

The dirty little secret about multinationals'whinges about reducing residual taxation on repatriation of lightly taxed foreign earnings is that they do findways to repatriate tax free.

But after the Barnes Groupmemorandum decision, hokey repatriation strategies seem more difficult to sustain. Repatriationwas the subject of a panel at the July 30 meeting of the IFA USA Branch New York chapter.

Barnes Groupwas awell-chosen case on the government's part. All kinds of yuck factor evidencewas in court. The accounting firm that planned the dealwas compensatedwith a success fee of a percentage of the amount of tax saved. Therewas a draft opinion letterwith an assumed business purpose. The two tax haven vehicles formed for the transaction had no employees or earnings and ran flat. The judge accused the taxpayer of failing to follow its form.

For the article, go here. (Subscription required)

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Employment Taxes: Multinationals Seek Tax Strategies to Grow Global Workforce, Offset Compliance Burdens


by Lydia Beyoud (Bloomberg BNA)

As multinational corporations increasingly seek to employ a mobile, globalworkforce to support their businesses across developed and developing markets, many companies are encountering a host of difficult tax compliance issues as governmentsworldwide become more tax-savvy, practitioners told BNA.

“There are a host of employer responsibilities and obligations, primarily, but not exclusively, on the tax side that can be daunting to organizations, Gardiner Hempel of Deloitte Tax LLP told BNA July 29. Permanent relocation of employees from their home country to another has been a growing trend, said Hempel, a partner in Deloitte's Global Employee Services practice.

For the article, go here. (Subscription required)

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BEPS Project Not Intended to Eviscerate Arm's-Length Principle, OECD Official Says


by Matthew R. Madara & Randall Jackson (Tax Analysts, Tax Notes Today)

The OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs' base erosion and profit-shifting (BEPS) projectwasn't intended to remove the arm's-length principle from transfer pricing, as the committee recognizes the principle provides a basis for clarity and certainty, according to an OECD official.

The arm's-length principleworks directlywithin a system of legal personality that domestic tax systems depend on to administer tax systems, Michael McDonald, financial economist, Treasury Office of International Tax Counsel, said on August 1 during the 2013 National Association for Business Economics transfer pricing seminar in Arlington, Va.

For the story, go here. (Subscription required)

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New Study: 82 of Top 100 Companies Used Tax Havens in 2012

  • By U.S. PIRG

by U.S. PIRG

The "vast majority" of large companies are avoiding U.S. taxes by using offshore tax havens,with $90 billion in taxes uncollected every year, according to a July 31 report from U.S. PIRG, a federation of state public interest research groups.

For the report, go here.

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News Analysis: Does Revised OECD Intangibles Guidance Signal a Shift?

  • By Lee A. Sheppard

by Jaime Arora, Lee A. Sheppard, and Matthew R. Madara (Tax Analysts, Tax Notes Today)

In its revised discussion draft on transfer pricing aspects of intangibles and itswhite paper on transfer pricing documentation released on July 30, the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration made good on its objective in the action plan on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) to make it easier for tax administrators to look beyond the form of taxpayers' intragroup contracts in the difficult area of transfers of valuable intangibles.

The revised draft may even signal a move away from the arm's-length standard toward formulary apportionment, David Ernick of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP told Tax Analysts, adding that the changes to the transfer pricing rules could be the most significant in a lifetime. However, recent statements by OECD officials indicate that the arm's-length standard remains the foundation of theirwork.

For the story, go here. (Subscription required)

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Transfer Pricing: OECD Releases Revised Intangibles Draft, Along With White Paper on Documentation


Article by Kevin A. Bell (Bloomberg)

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development July 30 released its revised discussion draft on intangibles,which includes extensive changes from the earlier June 2012 draft, and awhite paper on transfer pricing documentation.

According to OECD, revisions to Section Badopt a more transactional approachwhile preserving a clear focus on the importance of functions performed, assets used, and risks assumed.

For the story, go here. (Subscription required)

For the discussion draft, go here.

For thewhite Paper, go here.

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August 2013 edition of PwC's International Tax News

  • By PriceWaterhouseCoopers

International Tax News is designed to help multinational organisations keep upwith the constant flow of international tax developmentsworldwide. Among the topics featured in this month's edition are:

  • New German tax legislation could affect multinationals
  • US Congress considers international tax reform
  • Saudi Arabia's tax treaty application simplified
  • Hong Kong-Jersey double tax treaty enters into force

For the August 2013 issue of International Tax News, go here.

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Testimony of Dr. Laura DAndrea Tyson (before US Congress Joint Economic Committee)


Testimony of Dr. Laura DAndrea Tyson (before US JEC)

Tax reform should lower the corporate tax rate, broaden the base by eliminating tax expenditures, and shift to a hybrid international tax system to improve U.S. competitivenesswithout increasing the deficit, Laura D'Andrea Tyson of the University of California said at a July 31 Joint Economic Committee hearing.

For the testimony, go here.

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UK House of Lords Comm Report: "Tackling corporate tax avoidance in a global economy: is a new approach needed?"

  • By UK House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee

by UK House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee

The UK faces a serious problem of avoidance of corporation tax, due in part to the complexity of the tax regime in the UK, but mainly because the international tax system gives multinational companies opportunities to shift profits between countries inways that reduce their liabilities in the UK. This damages the economy and undermines trust in the tax system.

The UK and the G8 support the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)'s Action Plan to tackle base erosion, published on 19 July 2013. It sets out a two-year programme to address the most egregious forms of tax avoidance. But it is not yet clear how effective the proposed solutionswill be or whether they can be achievedwithin the timescale.

The UK House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee decided to carry out a short inquiry to see how matters stood and to put forward proposals to help to reduce avoidancewhich the Government could adopt itself at the same time as it pursues agreement to reform the OECD framework governing where multinational companies pay corporation tax.

For the report, go here.

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Meaningful Corporate Tax Residence


by Omri Marian (Tax Analysts, Tax Notes Today)

Omri Marian is an assistant professor of law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

This report summarizes some conclusions from a coming Boston College Law Review article inwhich Marian recommends a fresh look at corporate tax residence. Marian argues that the perception of meaninglessness is a result of misguided normative discussion and that it cannot be avoided by adopting a territorial system. In his report, Marian develops a functional model underwhich corporate tax residence tests are designed to support the policy purposes of corporate taxation, and the tests are not independently justified in normative terms. A functional approach suggests that the United States should adopt a corporate tax residence test underwhich domestic corporations for tax purposes are corporationswhose securities are listed for public trading in the United States, orwhose place of central management and control is in the United States.

For the article, go here. (Subscription required)

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Too Much Tax? Move To Ireland, From the Comfort of Your Home.


by Kate Linebaugh (Wall Street Journal)

American companies looking for lower taxes used to move to Bermuda. These days, they are heading to the Emerald Isle. At least in spirit.

"It is certainly a trend in the making," said Reuven Avi-Yonah, director of the international tax program at theUniversity of Michigan's law school.

For the story, go here.

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ACT Statement on President Obamas Comments on Tax Reform

  • By Alliance for Competitive Taxation (ACT)

by Alliance for Competitive Taxation (ACT)

President Obama's corporate tax reform proposal "is another clear sign of growing momentum" for tax reform,which should be revenue-neutral, reduce the corporate tax rate, and shift to a new international tax system, the Alliance for Competitive Taxation said in a July 30 statement.

For the release, go here.

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US PIRG: "Offshore Shell Games -- The Use of Offshore Tax Havens by the Top 100 Publicly Traded Companies"

  • By U.S. PIRG

by U.S PIRG

Many large U.S.-based multinational corporations avoid paying U.S. taxes by using accounting tricks to make profits made in America appear to be generated in offshore tax havens countrieswith minimal or no taxes. By booking profits to subsidiaries registered in tax havens, multinational corporations are able to avoid an estimated $90 billion in federal income taxes each year. These subsidiaries are often shell companieswith few, if any employees, andwhich engage in little to no real business activity.

This study reveals that tax haven use is ubiquitous among the largest 100 publicly traded companies as measured by revenue.

For the report, go here.

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As The Simpler Taxes for America Tour Comes to Pennsylvania, Americas Business Leaders Detail Benefits for Keystone State

  • By Business Roundtable

by Business Roundtable (website)

Tax reform that reduces corporate tax rates and modifies international tax rules to stimulate investmentwould help Pennsylvania's economy, Business Roundtable said in a July 29 release on the tax reform tour visit to the state by Houseways and Means Committee Chair Dave Camp, R-Mich., and Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus, D-Mont.

For the release, go here.

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Tax Evasion: The OECD's Base Erosion Action Plan and Developing Countries


by Michael C. Durst (Bloomberg Daily Tax Report)

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released its recommendations July 19 for global efforts to counter the much-publicized phenomenon ofbase erosion and profit shifting (BEPS).

Although the OECD's membership consists of countrieswith advanced economies, the OECD has taken efforts to consultwith representatives of developing countries, and its report makes special note of the damage that base erosion inflicts on developing economies.

Base erosion is indeed a serious problem for many developing countries, and the OECD is correct in highlighting this fact. Much economic activity in developing countries takes place in the informal sector,where the resulting income is largely immune from taxation. Therefore, an especially large proportion of developing countries' potential revenue base tends to consist of income generated by multinational enterprises' business in the countries.

For the report, go here. (Subscription required)

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Australia keen to lead way on BEPS issues


by Matthew Gilleard (ITR)

Australia is gearing up to try and achieve meaningful outcomes on action to tackle base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) during its chairmanship of the G20 next year.

For the story, go here. (Registration required)

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Quick Deliverables Possible From BEPS Action Plan, Practitioner Says


by Randall Jackson (Tax Analysts, Tax Notes Today)

Aspects of the OECD's base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) action planwill help accelerate the creation of deliverables, answering the charge that the need for domestic legislationwill prevent the action plan from facilitating real change, Manal Corwin of KPMG LLP said in a July 26webcast put on by her firm.

For the story, go here. (Subscription required)

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Tax Reform: Tax Reform Could Be Fueled by OECD BEPS Action Plan, KPMG Practitioners Say


by Alison Bennett (Bloomberg)

Tax reform in the United States could be fueled by the action plan to curb base erosion and profit shifting recently unveiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, KPMG LLP practitioners said July 26.

“The OECD report could form a basis for U.S. legislation, Hank Gutman, principal-in-charge of KPMG's Tax Legislative and Regulatory Services group, said on awebcast sponsored by KPMG.

For the story, go here. (Subscription required)

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IRS pursuing 'stateless income' tax enforcement: official


by Patrick Temple-West (Reuters)

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is pursuing tax enforcement cases against companies over the issue of "stateless income," a senior agency official said onwednesday in a reference to corporate profits that are not taxed by any country.

Erik Corwin, an IRS deputy chief counsel, said therewere international tax disputeswith companies, "most involving consequences of complex restructurings designed either to create stateless income or to affect a tax efficient repatriation."

For the story, go here.

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Tax Evasion: OECD's BEPS Plan Proposes New Groups On Digital Economy, Aggressive Tax Planning


by Rick Mitchell & Alison Bennett (Bloomberg)

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released an action plan July 19 proposing a new task force on taxation of the digital economy and aworking party on aggressive tax planning, as part of the action plan itwill present to finance ministers from theworld's leading economies to reduce abusive base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS).

Among a range of actions, the plan calls for a variety of changes to transfer pricing guidelines to prevent tax evasion, and it says OECDwill devise rules to require taxpayers to disclose aggressive tax planning arrangements. A key focus of the action plan is a crackdown onharmful tax practices,with an emphasis on compulsory, spontaneous exchange of information on rulings related to preferential regimes.

For the article, go here. (Subscription required)

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Tax Evasion: Top U.S. Officials Praise OECD Action Plan As Step to Avoid Base Erosion, Profit Shifting


by Alison Bennett

Top U.S. officials praised an action plan unveiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development July 19 as an important step to address base erosion and profit-shifting.

Both Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said July 19 the action plan is a key step in preventing cross-border tax avoidance.

For the article, go here. (Subscription required)

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G20 sharpens attack on international corporate tax avoidance


by Vanessa Houlder (Financial Times)

Finance ministers from the Group of 20 leading nations plan to launch a new phase of the international crackdown on corporate tax avoidance thisweek even as UK business leaders arewarning their government to resistradical new solutions to profit shifting by multinationals.

For the story, go here.

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US blocks crackdown on tax avoidance by net firms like Google and Amazon


by Simon Bowers (The Guardian)

France has failed to secure backing for tough new international tax rules specifically targeting digital companies, such as Google and Amazon, after opposition from the US forced thewatering down of proposals thatwill be presented at thisweek's G20 summit.

For the story, go here.



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OECD Proposes Plan for Crackdown on Companies Tax Avoidance


by Jesse Drucker & Rainer Buergin (Bloomberg)

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development proposed a blueprint for cracking down on tax-dodging strategies used by companies such as Google, Apple, and Yahoo!.

German Finance Ministerwolfgang Schaeuble called the OECD's plan amajor step. The proposal aims to develop rules over the next two years preventing companies from escaping taxes by putting patent rights into shell companies, taking interest deductions in one countrywithout reporting taxable profit in another, and forcing them to disclose to regulatorswhere they report their income around theworld.

“It's a matter of justice and fairness that multinational companies pay their fair contribution to national budgets, Schaeuble told reporters today before a meeting of Group of 20 finance chiefs and central bankers in Moscow.withoutfair burden sharing, in the endwewill destroy even a global, open economy, he said.

For the story, go here.

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OECD unveils global crackdown on tax arbitrage by multinationals


by Vanessa Houlder (Financial Times)

Plans for a global crackdown on tax arbitrage markinga turning point in the history of international co-operation on taxationwere unveiled on Friday at the meeting of G20 finance ministers in Moscow.

Thewide-ranging action plan on tacklingbase erosion and profits shifting has been drawn up by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for the G20 in response to sustained criticism of the low tax rates paid by some multinational companies such as Google.

Pascal Saint-Amans, the top tax official at the OECD, said the initiativewould force up tax rates for multinationals that organise their affairs so they paid little tax. He said:They know the golden age ofwe dont pay taxes anywhere is over.

For the story, go here.

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America Goes It Alone on High Corporate Taxes


by Mieko Nakabayashi and James Carter (Wall Street Journal)

What happenswhen the international economy changes but tax policy does not? That is a central question facing the United States and Japan,which have the highest corporate tax rates in the industrializedworld. The need for action is acute, and emerging trends in global commerce demonstrate the need for tax policies that alignwith those trends.

A recent analysis by Thomson Reuters of business acquisitions showed that at least 484 U.S. firms,with a value of more than $43.6 billion, have been acquired by foreign interests this year alone. One factor in these acquisitions is the differentways inwhich nations impose corporate income taxes.

When a company is sold, the price is established by myriad factors, one ofwhich is the tax structure facing the buyer. Corporations based in countrieswith taxes lower than in the U.S. can offer a higher price because of a smaller tax liability after acquiring the new firm. Inwhich countries do companies have the built-in advantage over American firms in a bidding process? The answer is simple. All of them.

For the story, go here.

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G-20 Backs Plan to Curb Tax Avoidance by Large Corporations


by Andrew E. Kramer & Floyd Norris (New York Times)

Theworld's richest economies for the first time endorsed a blueprint on Friday to curbwidely used tax avoidance strategies that allow some multinational corporations to pay only a pittance in income taxes.

It could be years before any changes take place in national tax laws and big corporations and other interest groups are sure to lobby heavily to preserve their tax breaks. But the proposalwas the most concrete response yet to the intensifying pressure on governments around theworld to address the issue.

For the story, go here.

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G-20 to target global tax loopholes


by Howard Schneider (Washington Post)

Topworld economic officials are expected to agree thisweekend on a major push to tighten global tax laws, touching offwhat could be a sensitive debate as nations vie to protect their favored industries and maintain tax breaks they've used to court investment.

In theory, the 40-pagework plan to be endorsed by the Group of 20 economic powers in Moscow is about shaping the international tax system so it reflects how global companies now operate - and ensures that the Apples and Amazons pay a fairer share of tax in the nationswhere they do business.

But the more detailed discussion thatwill follow over the next two years or so, as countries try to develop changes to tax laws and treaties, could take on far more political tones.

For the story, go here.

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G-20 Nations Fully Endorse OECD Action Plan on Tax Evasion


by Theophilos Argitis & Scott Rose

Group of 20 nationsfully endorse the ambitious and comprehensive plan presented by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to a statement published in Moscow today.

“Ensuring that all taxpayers pay their fair share of taxes is a high priority in the context of fiscal sustainability, promoting growth and the needs of developing countries to build capacity for financing development, the G-20 said after a two-day meeting of finance chiefs.

For the story, go here.

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Treasury Officials Set Expectations for BEPS Action Plan


by David D. Stewart (Tax Analysts, Tax Notes Today)

Treasury officials on July 22 attempted to allay fears about the scope of the OECD's base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) action plan by stressing that recommended changes to the international tax systemwould be incremental and targeted at unintended consequences of the current system.

Speaking during a Deloittewebcast on the recently released BEPS action plan, Henry Louie, deputy to the Treasury international tax counsel for treaty affairs, said the United States does not see the BEPS project as a "wholesale rethinking of international tax principles" but rather as a targeted approach to areas of international taxation that don'twork as designed.

For the story, go here. (Subscription required)

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G-20 Finance Ministers Endorse OECD Action Plan on BEPS and Automatic Information Exchange


by Kristen A. Parillo (Tax Analysts, Tax Notes Today)

G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors on July 20 said they "fully endorse" the OECD's action plan on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) aswell as the OECD's proposed global model for multilateral and bilateral information exchange.

In a communiqué released at the conclusion of their July 19-20 meeting in Moscow, the finance ministers and central bank governors said that ensuring that all taxpayers pay their fair share of taxes is a high priority in the context of fiscal sustainability, economic growth, and the needs of developing countries. "Tax avoidance, harmful practices and aggressive tax planning have to be tackled," theywrote.

The G-20 meeting participants expressed their approval of the "ambitious and comprehensive" BEPS action plan presented to them by the OECD on July 19.

For the story, go here. (Subscription required)

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The Taxation of Cloud Computing and Digital Content


by David J. Shakow (Tax Analysts, Tax Notes Today)

In this report, Professor David J. Shakow describes the problems cloud computing poses for tax systems. He shows how current law is applied to cloud computing and identifies the difficulties in doing so.

For the report, go here. (Subscription required)

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Joint Action for Efficient and Fair Taxation


by Angel Gurria (Secretary-General of the OECD)

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría addressed the G-20 finance ministers' meeting in Moscow on July 20, touting the OECD's base erosion and profit shifting action plan and automatic information exchange proposal as solutions to factors that undermine the fairness and integrity of global tax systems.

For the speech, go here.

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Nuts & Bolts of Corporate Tax Reform


by Stevewamhoff (Citizens for Tax Justice)

Lawmakers should repeal deferral of taxes on corporations' offshore profits and reject proposals for a territorial tax system or repatriation holiday to increase revenue from progressive sources, Citizens for Tax Justice said in a July 19 presentation on corporate tax reform.

For the presentation, go here. (Subscription required)

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It's not just Google...


by Tom Bergin

More than half the top U.S. tech firms minimise tax bills by using structures that some governmentswant to change. Itwon't be easy.

For the report, go here.
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