Int'l Tax News

By Ryan Finley

In a case that may affect future digital services tax challenges, a new advocate general opinion says that Hungary's progressive turnover tax does not violate the EU's freedom of establishment or state aid laws.

By Andrew Goodall

International discussions for consensus on a solution to tax the digital economy are progressing quickly, according to the OECD's tax chief,who stressed the need for political agreement as soon as possible.

By Carrie Brandon Elliot

Carrie Brandon Elliot describes how the section 267A proposed regulations apply to reverse hybridswhich are not covered by the statute.

By Mindy Herzfeld

In news analysis, Mindy Herzfeld discusses the recent temporary and proposed section 245A regulations that Treasury says are needed to prevent taxpayer abuse of the integrated international tax system put in place by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

By Tom O'shea

Tom O'shea examines the Court of Justice of the European Union's judgment in X GmbH v. Germany, inwhich the Court upheld the application of German controlled foreign corporation rules regarding a Swiss company owned by X GmbH.

By Stephanie Soong Johnston

Although the United Kingdom has missed the deadline to transpose an EU directive setting out a new tax dispute resolution mechanism, it expects to adopt it before the end of the year,with retroactive effect.

By Reuven S. Avi-Yonah and Ajitesh Kir

Reuven S. Avi-Yonah and Ajitesh Kir discuss a recent Indian public consultation document on amending the rules for profit attribution to permanent establishments and askwhether it might indicate a larger movement away from the arm's-length standard toward a unitary tax system.

By Stephanie Soong Johnston

The British crown dependencies' pledges to pass legislation by 2023 to publish their beneficial ownership registers seem like a transparencywin, but U.K. lawmakerswill test those promises before decidingwhether to pass enforcement legislation.

By Annagabriella Colon

The Court of Appeal for Ontario in a 4-1 decision held that Canada's Parliament had the constitutional authority to enact the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act to address matters of national concern.

By Tax Analyst

HM Revenue & Customs has issued the draft Double Taxation Dispute Resolution Regulations 2019,whichwould implement Council Directive (EU) 2017/1852 of October 10, 2017, on tax dispute resolution mechanisms in the EU; interested parties should respond by August 27.

Bywilliam Hoke

Glencore PLC, one of theworld's largest natural resources and commodities firms, said it is reviewing its use of subsidiaries in tax havenswith the intention of consolidating or eliminating as many as possible.

By Jennifer Mcloughlin

A new mechanism designed to facilitate faster resolution of tax disputes between EU member states took effect July 1.

By Stephanie Soong Johnston

Leaders of theworld's biggest economies endorsed the OECD's "ambitiouswork program" to get global agreement on a solution to tax the digital economy by 2020, promising to intensify their efforts to reach that goal.

By Tax Analyst

The European Commission has issued an opening decision for Nike's European tax arrangements, finding that the Netherlands' advance pricing agreements to two Dutch companieswere based on flawed applications of the transactional net margin method and therefore constituted state aid.

By Ryan Finley

Luxembourg's tax administration has released a circularwith guidance on the country's amended patent box regime adopted in 2018, including details on the asset and income eligibility rules and documentation requirements.

By Teri Sprackland

Digital taxation remains the most contentious issue as the EU Council presidency shifts from Romania to Finland,which favors an OECD-led approach.

Bywilliam Hoke

Routing royalty payments through Dutch special purpose entities allowed multinational enterprises to avoid roughly 1.2 billion Euro of tax a year, according to a recently published academic study.

By Amanda Athanasiou

EU tax revenueswere higher in 2017 than in the previous decade, and the tax burden on labor hit a historic high that year, according to a new report on tax trends across the EU.

By Stephanie Soong Johnston

Countries face difficult obstacles as theywork toward a unified approach on the reallocation of taxing rights, but G-20 political leadershipwill be necessary for a global solution in 2020, the OECD's chief said.

By Carrie Brandon Elliot

Carrie Brandon Elliot reviews how the unintended consequences of hybrid regulations can reflect overreach as applied to notional interest deductions and group relief, and incompleteness as applied to inclusions under the global intangible low-taxed income and subpart F regimes.

A panel of tax experts surveyed by International Tax Review say digital services taxes (DSTs) are distortive and must be temporary - but few thought theywere illegal or discriminatory.

While feedback on the International Compliance Assurance Program (ICAP) has been overwhelmingly positive, unsurprisingly,the first pilot did encounter some teething problems.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday approved four bilateral tax treaties, rejecting an effort by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to include more privacy protections for Americans in the agreements. The committee approved by voice vote tax treatieswith Spain, Switzerland, Japan and Luxembourg and voted down Paul's proposed amendment to the bilateral treatywith Spain thatwould have raised the standard the U.S. government must meet to request or share taxpayer information under the agreement.

Businesses are getting helpÔøΩbut not everything theywantedÔøΩas the Treasury Department addresses one of the biggest corporate frustrationswith the 2017 tax law. Under a new rule proposed earlier this month, Treasurywould make it easier to escape a minimum U.S. tax thatwas supposed to hit only companieswith low foreign taxes but also ended up affecting those operating in high-tax countries. Once the rule is final, U.S.-based companies could choose to have subsidiarieswith tax rates of at least 18.9% excluded from that minimum tax.

The OECD's Achim Pross says his ultimate aim is to expand the International Compliance Assurance Programme (ICAP), but companies may be disappointed to learn that it could be a relatively slow process.

By Jennifer Mcloughlin

The European Commission fell short in swaying support for its decision that Hungary's progressive advertising tax violated EU state aid rules.

By Emily L. Foster

Congress should contemplate legislation to address policy issues regarding the 2017 tax law's international tax regime, pending the release of tax return data and the OECD's proposal on minimum taxes, according to a congressional staffer.

By Elodie Lamer

France and Germany have proposed a method for the "mutualization" of financial transaction tax revenues thatwould ensure that each of the 10 participating countrieswould get at least ÔøΩ20 million.

By Andrew Goodall

The United Kingdom government has appealed against the European Commission's decision that an exemption from the U.K. controlled foreign company rules for intragroup interest granted a selective advantage and constituted state aid.

By Stephanie Soong Johnston and Teri Sprackland

France's Senate and National Assembly have ironed out compromise legislation for a digital services tax,which includes a provision seeking clarification onwhether the European Commissionwould raise state aid issues.

By Annagabriella Colon

Congress may step in to reevaluate and limit the constitutional authority it has been sharingwith the executive branch regarding tariffs, and Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., said he expects bipartisan support for a restriction.

By Elodie Lamer

Both the European Parliament and the EU Council cannot agree internallywhether to further discuss the need for minimum effective taxation.

By Tax Analyst

Treasury has released a draft slide presentation submitted by Procter & Gamble for discussion purposeswith an OECDworking group.

By Tax Analyst

Treasury has released an individual's alternative proposal for the treatment of pre-2018 net operating loss taxpayers, asserting that the current section 59A regulations place otherwise identically situated taxpayers in significantly different economic positions for base erosion antiabuse tax purposes solely through the presence or absence of a net operating loss.

ByTax Analyst

Treasury has released an individual's comments that address issues under proposed foreign derived intangible income and global intangible low-taxed income regulations (REG-104464-18) regarding person and foreign use requirements in some situations and the foreign use exploitation rule.

By Jennifer Mcloughlin

U.S. officials selected the prospective effective date for a proposed high-tax exclusion under the global intangible low-taxed income provision to allow time to test the exception.

By Jennifer Mcloughlin

U.S. officials selected the prospective effective date for a proposed high-tax exclusion under the global intangible low-taxed income provision to allow time to test the exception.

By H.David Rosenbloom

The IRS and Treasury's change of approach in newly proposed regs navigating partnerships under the global intangible low-taxed income provision could result in significantly less income inclusions for some taxpayers.

By H.David Rosenbloom

The proposed regulationswould allow domestic shareholders of a CFC to elect to exclude from gross tested income amounts that have been subject to foreign tax at an effective rate that exceeds 90 percent of the U.S. rate.

By H.David Rosenbloom

Reaching an agreement on a financial transaction tax (FTT)would serve as a "political and institutional laboratory," said EU Tax Commissioner Pierre Moscovici, noting itwould mark the first tax directive adopted through enhanced cooperation.

By H.David Rosenbloom

the author examines two cases regardingwithholding tax exemptions on dividend and interest payments recently resolved by the Court of Justice of the European Union.