Int'l Tax News

The U.K. government is considering toughening up tax rules on activities in the sharing economy, such as rideswith Uber Technologies Inc. or bookings made on Airbnb Inc., in a bid to raise more revenue and create a "level playing field" for businesses. In a consultation document publishedwednesday, the Treasury said it is reviewing how value-added tax is applied in the sector, because traditional businesses are more likely to be hit by the levy compared to thosewhich are more digitally focused.

WASHINGTONÔøΩA Trump administration regulation that cut the tax bills of companies such as Philip Morris International Inc. and Sealed Air Corp. could be poised for reversal in 2021 as the Biden administration tries to deliver on its campaign promise to raise taxes on corporations.The rule,which gives some corporations a path out of a U.S. minimum tax on foreign earnings, has drawn criticism from progressives, including Sen. Ronwyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee.

The EUwants to resolve trade conflictswith the United States andwork together on taxation of the digital economy, according to the European Commission's new transatlantic agenda.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digitalization of the global economy, but Canada's Department of Finance said it has a plan for taxing digital giants even ifwork at the OECD fails to produce a consensus.

The EU might adopt a digital tax thatwould be compatiblewith a future OECD solution, a European Commission official said.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said he believes all the elements are there to reach an international agreement on digital taxation and a corporate minimum tax, and his German counterpart also appeared hopeful.

While the incoming Joe Biden administration may be contemplating changes to recent Tax Cuts and Jobs Act guidance, competing pressures and procedural hurdles mean that modifications to some high-profile rules are far from guaranteed.

France hopes to get clarification from the incoming Biden administration about the U.S. position on digital taxation ahead of a key European Council meeting in March 2021, a French finance ministry source said.

Francewill restart collection of its digital services tax as global tax reform talks miss a key 2020 deadline, but a U.S. lawmaker says the United Stateswill defend itself against the DST and similar taxes.

Boris Johnson has raised the prospect of business tax cuts next year in an attempt to revive the Covid-ravaged British economy, even as chancellor Rishi Sunak looks to increase taxes to repair the public finances.

Although countries missed their original deadline to reach agreement on a global tax reform, leaders of G-20 countries vowed to stickwith the project, urging continuedwork toward an agreement by mid-2021.

The Biden administration could help reset negotiationswithin the OECD framework on a two-pillar international tax reform proposal and provide clarity onwhat the United States' negotiating position really is, OECD and government officials said.

Nana Ama Sarfo looks at potential beneficial ownership reform under the incoming Biden administration.

Mindy Herzfeld likens the solutions for taxing the digital economy offered by international organizations to George C. Parker's famous con involving selling pieces of the Brooklyn Bridge to unknowing tourists.

The coronavirus pandemic has sped up theworld's digital transition in business, education, and tax administration, but bureaucratic challenges remain for taxation of digital economic activity, say young tax professionals.

French tax authorities have begun demanding millions of euros from US technology groups as they push aheadwith a new digital services tax that has enragedwashington.

The U.S.will soon issue the results of probes into Austria, Italy and India's decisions to tax local revenue of Internet companies such as Facebook Inc.,which could pave theway for retaliatory tariffs, people familiarwith the situation said. Determinations on the three countries are due because all of them have instituted so-called digital services taxes -- or levies on local sales of companies such as Alphabet Inc.'s Google -- this year, said the peoplewho couldn't be identified because the information is private. There may also be findings on Indonesia, U.K. and Turkey, one of the people said.

A rift between European Union leaders over the bloc's next budget threatens to derail a decision on budgetary revenues that for the first timewould include EU-wide taxes. Agreement on the so-called own resources decision,which sets out how the EUwill fund its budget from 2021-2027, has been stalled by the governments of Hungary and Poland,which are unhappy at some of the conditions other countrieswant to attach to disbursement of EU funds.

A global OECD tax agreementwill most likely include a list of digital tax measures implemented by countries like the U.K. and France that must be removed, a senior official said. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development hopes the incoming Biden administration may help unlock talks, Pascal Saint-Amans, director of the OECD's Center for Tax Policy and Administration, said Monday during an online conference hosted by the University of Oxford. But supportwill hinge on the removal of unilateral measures to collect digital services taxes, he said.

Governments should cut fossil fuel subsidies and implement other measures to diversify their tax bases to raise revenue after the pandemic, the OECD said. "Low oil prices make increasing the cost of emitting carbon and other pollutants via raising carbon taxes, fuel taxes or other mechanisms such as emissions trading and eliminating fossil fuel subsidies especially timely," the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Developmentwrote to Group of 20 leaders, in a report published Sunday.

Regarding "Car Makers Keen on Electric Push" (Business News, Nov. 10): It is true thatwe can do better than our current patchwork of state and federal auto regulations. Yet no matter how many electric vehicleswe put on the road, more is needed to reduce our carbon emissions.we need to incentivize a gradual transition to clean-energy sources throughout our entire economy.

President-elect's tax plans likely hinge onwhether Democrats canwin two January runoffs in Georgia.

Private equity funds are asking Treasury to help them avoid a tax hit on offshore income. Treasury isworking on finalizing rules thatwould allow companies already paying at least 18.9% in taxes offshore to opt out of taxes on two types of offshore incomeÔøΩglobal intangible low-taxed income (GILTI) and Subpart F income.

Choosing to earn a living from home once the pandemic ends is a privilege that you should pay for, according to strategists from Deutsche Bank AG's research arm. "Working from homewill be part of the 'new normal'well after the pandemic has passed," the strategists led by Luke Templemanwrote in a note. "We argue that remoteworkers should pay a tax for the privilege."

From NATO to climate change, the relationship between the U.S. and Europe is in dire need of a reboot after four years of President Donald Trump's abrasive "America First" policies.TechnologyÔøΩcovering 5G networks, digital taxation, privacy rules, cross border data flows and moreÔøΩmay not be the most obvious place to start fixing a transatlantic security alliance formed before the dawn of the Internet. But as Joe Biden heads to thewhite House, it's arguably the most urgent, if difficult.

President-elect Joe Biden's Treasury Department is facing a narrowwindow if itwants to put its stamp on an OECD-led effort to overhaul global tax rules in 2021. The OECDwants to get nearly 140 countries to agree to a plan by next summerÔøΩwhichwon't leave much time for Treasury staffers to take on their new roles after Biden takes office Jan. 20, firm up the U.S.'s negotiating position going forward, and engage in the talks.

Agreements between countries on taxes targeting revenue, rather than profits, are acceptable under international law, the top United Nations tax official said Monday. "Bilateral negotiations can take time but they also have a more immediate signaling function on treaty possibilities and on domestic law legitimacy," said Michael Lennard, chief of international tax cooperation in the U.N. Financing for Development Office.

The OECD is asking the business sector for ideas to simplify a key element of its proposed solution for taxing the digital economy, but the taskwon't be easy, OECD and business representatives said.

With many concerned about the foreign tax credit regs' revised definition of foreign income tax, the IRS is asserting that the changewas not simply a response to digital services taxes.

The OECD's global corporate minimum tax proposal might deescalate the race to the bottom on tax among countries, but it could spark intense competition on nontax factors like labor costs, a trade union group has said.

The OECD's blueprint for modernizing international taxes to address the digital economy proposes a hierarchy of market-sourcing methods ÔøΩ including steps involving reasonable approximation ÔøΩ that closely resemble the model approach developed by the U.S. states.

A Biden administration is likely to signal a return to multilateralism, giving hope to some countries and business groups that negotiations on an international tax reform dealwill turn a corner toward agreement by mid-2021.

With Joe Biden's election, his campaign's international tax proposals are getting more attention from the tax community.while the proposals have led to some eye-popping revenue estimates, many questions remain regarding details and implementation.

A new U.S. administration could ease tensionswith Europe and pave theway for consensus on global digital taxation and a better EU-U.S. trade relationship, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

In this article, the author examines the 2018-2019 increase in cross-border mergers and acquisitions, saying thatwhile a range of factors likely affects the volume of outbound and inbound M&A in any year, the data support the notion that the 2017 tax reform legislation improved the attractiveness of the United States as the tax domicile for multinational enterprises.

Theworld's tax policy leaders are currently engaged in debate overwho should tax the income streams producedwith the help of cross-border regulatory coordinationÔøΩthe cooperative surplus over the gains that, in a counterfactualworld,would be available if investmentswere confined to the domestic economy. To the extent there everwas a coherent relationship between consensus tax policy norms and the distribution of cooperative surplus, that relationship is now hopelessly skewed by real life factors, chief among them the rapid advancement of innovative technology that transcends physical boundaries of all kinds.

German and French officials onwednesday stepped up theirwar ofwordswith the large tech companies,which they say don't pay enough tax. The EU has previously failed to gain consensus on how to tackle taxation of the digital economy. The 27-nation bloc's individual members have often taken contrasting positions during negotiations at the OECD that involve nearly 140 countries.

The just-released Report on Pillar One Blueprint incorporates comments from multinationals and the U.S. request for a safe harbor. Glenn DeSouza identifieswhat's new and important in this release and using public domain information on Apple illustrates how Amounts A, B, and the newly-introduced safe harborwould apply.

Multilateral talks on digital taxation have made more progress than expected, according to German Finance MinisterOlaf Scholz.

Robert Goulder examines recent EU state aid challenges and the implications for digital services taxes.

Although theOECDtook great care to ensure that the economic impact assessment of its pillar 1 and pillar 2 proposalswas reliable, observers differ on some of the key assumptions underlying theOECD's estimates.

Businesses are saying tax uncertainty appears to beworsening ÔøΩ and theOECD'swork on base erosion and profit shifting and the taxation of the digital economy are important factors, according to new research.

IfBill Morneau, Canada's former finance minister, becomes the nextOECDsecretary-general, one of his prioritieswill be getting countries to agree on a common approach for updating global tax rules for the digital age.

Nana Ama Sarfo looks at the OECD's suggestion for a pillar 3 focused on developing country issues.

In news analysis, Martin A. Sullivan examines how the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act's reduction in the corporate tax rate affected tech companies, noting that inwhat is a reversal of fortune, many of those that had been most aggressive previously at shifting profits have generally gained least from the TCJA.

Intellectual Property (IP) migration represents a significant challenge to tax administrations, often involving significant tax revenue. In the Amazon case regarding the transfer of its IP from the US to Luxembourg, the Court rejected the valuations of both parties (US $255 million versus US $3.5 billion) and determined that the "arm's length" valuation should be US $779 million instead. This "loss-loss" decision highlights how the traditional transfer pricing regime has struggled to tackle IP migration structures. On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, despite strong objection from businesses, Australia introduced a comprehensive statutory reconstruction regime empowering its tax administration to disregard intra-group transactions, and it is possibly theworld's first country to do so.

Karnik Gulati, of Coinmen Consultants, discusses a significant casewhereby the India Tax Tribunal reignites the doused fire regarding dividend distribution tax (DDT) and considers the fundamental questionÔøΩis DDT a tax on companies or shareholders?

Karnik Gulati, of Coinmen Consultants, discusses a significant casewhereby the India Tax Tribunal reignites the doused fire regarding dividend distribution tax (DDT) and considers the fundamental questionÔøΩis DDT a tax on companies or shareholders?

The global tax community is in a battle of time andwill to come upwith aworkable solution for taxing multinationals in the digital economy. But the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, United Nations, and unilateral legislative initiatives are narrowly focused on the scope and mechanics of implementing this new "tax" regime thatwould satisfy most stakeholders.

As the OECD continues its efforts to find agreement on an international digital tax framework, Annalise Foong of Future-Moves Group provides a view on the challengeswhich lie ahead.