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2013

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News Analysis: The Twilight of the International Consensus


The other day, Exxon Mobil Corp. announced that itwould recognize gay marriage for its employees. Thiswas front-page news, right up therewith a New Jersey Supreme Court judge telling the state it had to do the same.


Why? Because Exxon is a politically conservative oil company that makes most of its political donations to Republicans? No, because Exxon is such a huge non-state actor that anything it does is tantamount to a government action. In The Power Elite, C.wright Mills cogently explained how giant multinational corporations had escaped thewrit of national governments.


Exxon is one of theworld's 10 largest multinational corporate groups measured by market value. At the time of thiswriting, nine companies on that listwere American, alongwith half of the top 50. Some of theworld's largest companies pay very little tax anywhere in theworld. But to their home governments, they are often national champions.


Someone else's multinationals are unfairly skipping out on their corporate tax obligations to OECD member and observer countries. Thatwas the genesis of the OECD base erosion and profit-shifting project,which has produced an action plan that is designed to repair and preserve the fragile international consensus in the short run, but may end up upsetting it in the long run. In the long run, the international consensus is dead, and everyone knows it, but BEPS has to be tried and allowed to fail first.

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Profit Shifting: OECD Seeks Feedback from Businesses On Country-by-Country Reporting Proposal


The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has asked the business community for input on how to draft aworkable country-by-country reporting template that requires companies to report their income in each country inwhich they operate.

In a memorandum on transfer pricing documentation and country-by-country reporting, issued Oct. 3, the OECD said taxpayers should be prepared to discuss "which approaches to the reporting of incomewould be most useful to governments and most readily available from existing accounting records" at the organization's Nov. 12-13 consultation in Paris.

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Tax Rates: Multinational's Headquarters Site a Factor Despite Other Tax Planning Decisions: NBER


Despite massive investment in international tax planning designed to flatten difference in taxes across countries, the location of a multinational corporation's headquarters continues to be a major factor in determining itsworldwide effective tax rate, a corporate tax specialist said.

"There appears to be no doubt that there is an enormous amount of tax planning going on, and there also appears to be no doubt that there has not been enough of it towipe out the difference across countries," Doug Shackelford, director of the University of North Carolina's Tax Center in Chapel Hill, N.C., said Oct. 3 at a National Bureau of Economic Research conference on tax policy and the economy.

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Intangibles Intangible-Related Return Concept Requires Special Measures, Business Group Tells OECD


A group of U.S.- and foreign-based multinationals,while vigorously objecting to the proposed concept of "intangible related returns" in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's 2013 revised intangibles discussion draft, has told the organization that adopting such a radical conceptwould require "special measures."

In an Oct. 1 letter, the Transfer Pricing Discussion Group said adopting the concept of intangible-related returnswould "shift" the OECD transfer pricing guidelines to emphasize functions and de-emphasize contracts, funding and risks, thus requiring countries to adopt new legislation and to negotiate new provisions in their tax treaties.

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BEPS: A new approach for taxing multinationals is needed - Part II


With international tax rules firmly in the spotlight, Mirna Screpante, invited tax researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance, takes another look atwhy a new approach for taxing companies is needed, and how this might look.

For the story, go here.

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BEPS: OECD insists it is engaging with developing countries


More than 300 senior tax officials from more than 100 jurisdictions and international organisations met in Paris on September 26 and 27 to discuss solutions to unintended double non-taxation caused by base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS).

For the story, go here.

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France to increase corporate tax in budget


France's 2014 draft Finance Bill has been released.with revenue-raising a clear objective, anti-abuse measures dominate, and companies face a higher tax bill.

For the story, go here.

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Japan Prime Minister Abe Says Corporate Tax Cuts Possible


Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan is considering corporate tax reductions and the elimination of a special reconstruction tax, and is continuingwith plans to implement a consumption tax hike starting next year.

At an Oct. 1 Tokyo news conference, Abe said his updated tax plan is part of economic changes aimed at getting Japan out of its severe deflationary state.

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News Analysis: Mining for a Solution to Blocked Income at the Tax Court


3M Co.'s challenge to regulations under section 482 holds the promise of a major development in the evolution of the rules on blocked income. Although the fundamental controversy has been around for several years, 3M's case is the first to address the 1994 revision to the regulations. Over 40 years, the government has lost three cases, including one at the Supreme Court, on related issues.


The controversy in 3M Co. v. Commissioner, No. 005816-13 (T.C. 2013), involves a Brazilian restriction on the payment of royalties from 3M Brazil to 3M. The IRS asserts that those restrictions cannot be taken into account because the requirements of reg. section 1.482-1(h)(2)were not met.

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Tax directors seeking "success under pressure" according to EY's 32nd Annual International Tax Conference survey

  • By Reuters

A new survey announced at EY's 32nd Annual International Tax Conference today brings to life the conference theme "Success under pressure" and explores
the combination of external pressures and internal corporate plans for growth that international
tax and finance executives are managing.

For the release, go here.

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September 2013 Survey of Current Business


Multinational companiesÔøΩboth U.S. and foreignÔøΩare major performers of industrial research and development (R&D) in the United States. For U.S. multinational companies, U.S. parent companies play a dominant role in U.S. R&D activity, accounting for about three-quarters of the domestic R&D performed by all U.S. businesses. Through their U.S. affiliates, foreign multinational companies also play a major role: majority-owned U.S. affiliates account for about 15 percent of U.S. industrial R&D, triple their share of production or employment by all U.S. businesses.

For the report, go here.

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Think Globally, Tax Locally: How Global Tax Laws Could Impact Multinationals


The European Union reached a major milestone in the second quarter of 2013when it officially emerged from its year-and-a-half recession. According to Eurostat, the European Union's statistics office, the 17 countries that use the euro saw economic output grow by 0.3% in Q2 compared to the previous quarter.


Now that the EU's economic output has started to grow, (hopefully) multinational businesseswill get some economic relief. Companies that have been seeing earnings from their European operations decline for the past several months are starting to turn the corner,with growth thatwill drive profitably in these regions again.we're crossing our fingers that the trend continues … but it may not be time to celebrate just yet.

For the story, go here.

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Multinationals beach tax bills in Spanish shells


A rented office overlooking a dusty rail track near Madrid's airportwas until recently theworkplace ofwhatwould appear to be the most productiveworker in all of Spain.

From here a single employee presided over a company that from 2009 to 2011 made ÔøΩ9.9bn of net profits, allwhile earning an annual salary of only ÔøΩ55,000.

The personwasworking for ExxonMobil Spain SL, a holding company for theworld's largest oil group by value,which for several years used a relatively unknown part of Spanish tax law to transfer billions of euros from foreign subsidiaries to the US, helping to significantly reduce its tax bill.

For the story, go here.

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The New Going Dutch

  • By Review & Outlook

Review & Outlook (Wall Street Journal)

The $29 billion merger that America's Applied Materials AMAT +2.21% and Japan'sTokyo Electron 8035.TO -0.73% announced on Tuesday is a rare trans-Pacific marriage inwhich a U.S. firm seems to be the dominant player. As eye-catching, the companies say that their merged entitywill be incorporated not in Japan or in North AmericaÔøΩbut in the tax-friendly Netherlands.


Among OECD countries, the U.S. ranks at the bottomwith a combined statutory federal and state corporate income tax rate of 39.1%, and Japan is next on the dishonor roll at 37%. America is also, er, exceptional for taxing overseas profits,which dissuades companies from bringing back and reinvesting this capital at home.

For the story, go here.

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BMC Software Appeals Tax Court's Decision on Dividends Received Deduction


BMC Software Inc. is appealing a decision by the U.S. Tax Court that the IRS properly reduced a section 965 dividends received deduction the company receivedwhen it repatriated $721 million from outside the U.S. during its 2006 tax year.

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BEPS: A new approach for taxing multinationals is needed


by Mirna Screpante (International Tax Review)

Mirna Screpante, invited tax researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance, exploreswhether a new approach for taxing multinationals is needed in light of recent studies into base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS).

For the story, go here.

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ABA Meeting: U.S. Remains Opposed to Separate PE Rules for Digital Economy


by Andrew Velarde (Tax Analysts, Tax Notes Today)

The United States continues to oppose creating permanent establishment rules for the digital economy thatwould differ from the general PE rules, Treasury officials said September 20.

"There is no clear reasonwhywe need to have separate rules for PEs in a digital economy that are different from the rules in the regular economy," Douglas Poms, attorney-adviser in the Treasury Office of International Tax Counsel, said at the U.S. Activities of Foreigners and Tax Treaties session of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation meeting in San Francisco. "We are really pushing that question,whywe need special rules for digital."

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ABA Meeting: IRS Is Concerned About Sandwich Structure Unwinds Using Spins


by Amy S. Elliott (Tax Analysts, Tax Notes Today)

Transactions used by multinationals to unwind so-called sandwich structures -- inwhich either a foreign entity is sandwiched between two U.S. entities or the otherway around, and the entity at the bottom of the structure is spun off to the parent -- raise policy concerns if the entity to be spun had been recently acquired, an IRS official said September 21.

"There are policy concerns presented in a number of different fact patterns," Daniel McCall, special counsel, IRS Office of Associate Chief Counsel (International), said at the Corporate Tax session of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation meeting in San Francisco. "There are concerns in the cross-border areawhen foreign distributing or U.S. distributing distributes a recently purchased company."

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Permanent Establishments: U.S. Officials Blast Virtual PE' Concept, Saying VAT Might Capture Online Sales


by Alex M. Parker (Bloomberg)

Practitioners and Treasury Department officials challenged the French government's proposal for a virtual permanent establishment—based on the idea that Internet sales alone might create a taxable presence for a foreign corporation.

“The U.S. opposes proposals to address the digital economy by adopting territoriality principles such as a virtual permanent establishment, said Brett York, attorney-adviserwith the Office of International Tax Counsel at Treasury, during a panel discussion Sept. 20 at the American Bar Association Sections of Taxation and Real Property Fall CLE Meeting in San Francisco.

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Transfer Pricing: Bay Area Practitioners Say Focus on U.S. Outbound Intangibles' Transfers Is Misguided


by Alex M. Parker (Bloomberg)

A group of San Francisco tax practitioners—allwith firms in tech-heavy sectors—expressed significant skepticism about legislation aimed at curbing tax evasion being considered on Capitol Hill.

Speaking at a panel Sept. 19 at the annual American Bar Association Sections of Taxation and Real Property Fall CLE Meeting in San Francisco, several practitioners questioned some of the basic premises of the current discussion on tax evasion—including the idea that the primary issue today is valuable intellectual property being transferred outside the U.S.

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Profit Shifting: EU Policies Cost Developing Nations Billions in Tax Losses, Claim NGOs

  • By Concord Europe

by Concord Europe (from Bloomberg BNAwebsite)

The European Union is failing to complywith its treaty obligations to developing nations as EU and multinational corporations continue to evade billions of dollars in taxes each year, said a group of nongovernmental organizations.

A report by CONCORD, an association of European NGOs, analyzed how some EU policies negatively affect developing countries in the areas of financing for development, food security, natural resources and climate change. The analysis found that developing countries lost up to $569 billion in 2010 due to profit shifting by transnational corporations, amounting to a loss of at least $100 billion a year in tax revenue.

For the story, go here. (Subscription required)

For the report, go here.

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Transfer Pricing: Treasury Officials: BEPS Should Focus On Stateless Income, Not Reallocating Income


by Alex M. Parker (Bloomberg)

The U.S. government thinks discussions about base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) should focus narrowly on double nontaxation, orstateless income, rather than looking at allocation issues that could lead to a fight between source and residence countries, two Treasury officials said.

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Economic Analysis: Can the United States Compete Without a VAT?


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

A new paper from economists at the OECD is filledwith facts and figures about the evolution of theworld's tax systems since the onset of the financial crisis. Five years after the failure of Lehman Brothers, most countries' tax-to-GDP levels are recovering from the initial shock.

In 2011 (the latest year comprehensive data are available) average revenueswere only 1.2 percentage points of GDP below 2007 levels. Average projections for 2014 exceed pre-crisis levels (Pierre LeBlanc, Stephen Matthews, and Kirsti Mellbye, "The Tax Policy Landscape Five Years After the Crisis," OECD Taxationworking Paper No. 17, Sept. 4, 2013).

For the article, go here. (Subscription required,)

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ABA Meeting: Tech Company Tax Directors Defend International Tax Structures


by Amy S. Elliott (Tax Analysts, Tax Notes Today)

The international structures used by high technology companies based in Silicon Valley and the surrounding area to reduce their effective tax rates are not improper, a panel of corporate tax directors said September 19.
"I don't think any of us feelwe're doing anything that's immoral," said Alan Sankin of Dolby Laboratories Inc. at a Transfer Pricing session of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation meeting in San Francisco. Dolby's decisions are based on the tax laws, and it and other companieswould respond if the rules changed, Sankin said. "At the moment, these are the laws and it'swithin our judgment and the best interests of our shareholders to use those," he said.

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Business Community Questioning BEPS Project Motives, Former Treasury Counsel Says


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

Several issues surrounding the OECD's base erosion and profit-shifting project remain unclear and have raised concerns among the business community, according to David Ernick of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, former Treasury associate international tax counsel and U.S. delegate to OECDworking Party 6.
Speaking on his own behalf September 19 in New York at the Global Transfer Pricing Forum sponsored by the International Tax Review, Ernick said several people asked himwhy the OECD is undertaking the BEPS initiative andwhat it expects the project to achieve. The myriad subjective, undefined terms used throughout the action plan are a chief concern, he said.

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Hodge denounces corporate tax reform


by Vanessa Houlder (Financial Times)

A senior MP has attacked the government's reform of international corporate tax rules for creating a loophole that allows companies to pay less tax in the UK.

Margaret Hodge, chair of the cross-party Public Accounts Committee, said the new rules, designed to stop the artificial diversion of profits to tax havens, contained anabsurd loophole thatwould encourage companies to minimise their UK tax liability.

For the story, go here.

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Government accused of double standards over tax avoidance


by Vanessa Houlder (Financial Times)

After months of championing the global crackdown on tax avoidance by multinationals, the UK government is facing mounting scrutiny at home and abroad over its own aggressive approach to tax competitiveness.

Thisweek, Margaret Hodge, the Labour MPwho has campaigned against corporate tax avoidance, attacked aloophole in reforms thatwould allow companies to cut their UK tax bills by hundreds of millions of pounds.

For the story, go here.

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Special Report: How a German tech giant trims its U.S. tax bill


by Tom Bergin (Reuters)

In July 2012, then-U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner traveled to an island off the German coast to meetwolfgang Schaeuble, Germany's finance minister. Schaeublewas on vacation, but Geithner visited to discuss the euro zone crisis. Talk also turned to a long-running bugbear of Schaeuble's: corporate tax avoidance.

For the story, go here.

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Practitioners Concerned About Possible Disregard of Arm's-Length Standard for BEPS


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

A proposal under the OECD project on base erosion and profit shifting that may depart from the arm's-length standard for the transfer pricing of intangibles has practitioners concerned that the standard may be undermined to solve a problem that has not been proven to exist.

Speaking at a September 18 session of the Practising Law Institute's International Tax Issues 2013 program in Chicago, Thomas M. Zollo of KPMG LLP said the case for BEPS has been made through the questioning of executives from successful companies that have achieved low effective tax rates. However, "a full view of the playing field"would show that numerous companies have entered into cost-sharing arrangements that have notworked out aswell, he said.

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CTJ: "FedEx Responds to CTJ, Avoids the Tough Questions about Its Taxes"

  • By Citizens for Tax Justice

by Citizens for Tax Justice

As Senator Max Baucus and Congressman Dave Camp, the chairmen of the tax committees in the Senate and House, took their tax reform road show to the FedEx headquarters in Memphis lastweek, CTJ released a short report and op-ed concluding that the company had paid just 4.2 percent of its profits over the previous five years in federal corporate income taxes. FedEx's Corporate Vice President for Tax, Michael D. Fryt, respondedwith an op-ed of his own that took issuewith CTJ but avoided the actual issue raised.

For the report, go here.

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Tax Policy Bulletin: Momentum behind the Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting

  • By PriceWaterhouseCoopers

by PwC

Leaders of the G20 countries publicly endorsed outline proposals to address BEPS during their summit in St. Petersburg on 4/5 September 2013. Responding to a report presented to them by Angel Gurria, OECD Secretary-General,which included progress on the challenges originally set by them, the G20 encouraged swift time frames for further development and implementation.

For the Bulletin, go here.

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OECD Official Addresses Concerns Surrounding BEPS


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

The OECD's base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project is designed to maintain the ability to eliminate double taxation and ensure that tax is properly attributed to jurisdictionswhere value is created, according to Pascal Saint-Amans, head of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration.

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Inversion Projects' Progress, or Lack Thereof


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

The anti-inversion statute, section 7874, doesn'twork verywell at its stated goals, and Congress hasn't bothered to fix section 163(j), the ineffectual interest-stripping rule. And there's not awhole lot the IRS can do about it, except treat the departed corporations the sameway it treats real foreign parents.

Thatwas the implicit message of the September 18 International Tax Institute Inc. lunch in New York,wherewillard Taylor, now an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law, hosted John Merrick, special counsel to the IRS associate chief counsel (international), and Lew Steinberg of Credit Suisse Group AG.

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BEPS Seen as Area of Both Consensus and Conflict


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

Although the United States still faces significant challenges enacting tax reform, the issue of base erosion and profit shifting is a rare case inwhich there is consensus among U.S. and foreign tax authorities, according to Eric Solomon of Ernst & Young LLP, a panelist at the Practising Law Institute's International Tax Issues 2013 program in Chicago.

"Issues about base erosion are here to stay," Solomon said during a September 18 session on international tax reform. Hewas joined on the panel by Robert Stack, Treasury deputy assistant secretary (international tax affairs),who said the United States faces challenges in its engagement on BEPS.

For the article, go here. (Subscription required)

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Profit Shifting: Base Erosion, Profit Shifting Concerns Driving Tax Overhaul Agenda, Official Says


by Michael Bologna (Bloomberg)

Multinational corporations need to prepare for a paradigm shift in theway they honor their tax obligations around the globe, despite the political and technical obstacles emerging as nations draft multilateral accords permitting them to limit base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS), a U.S. Treasury Department official said.

Robert Stack, deputy assistant secretary for international tax affairs in Treasury's Office of Tax Policy, pointed to a long list of complexities thatwill confront the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's BEPS action plan. Stack said that countries have different motivations and vested interests to protect, potentially hampering progress. Closer to home, Stack pointed to disagreements over BEPS's potential role in congressional negotiations aimed at overhauling the tax code.

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Why the European Councils challenge does not mean the end of the road for the FTT


by Matthew Gilleard - ITR

After lastweek's legal opinion from the European Council stated that part of the residence principle of the proposed European financial transaction tax (FTT) is incompatiblewith European law, some proponents feared theworst. But the end is not necessarily nigh.

For the article, go here.

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A Territorial Tax System Would Create Jobs and Raise Wages for U.S. Workers


by Curtis S. Dubay (Heritage Foundation)

Sinceways and Means released its draft legislation on international reform almost two years ago there has been a steady drumbeat of criticism that has for the most part gone unchallenged. This paper pushes back on those criticisms and makes three crucial points.

For the paper, go here.

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The Faltering Financial Transaction Tax and the Future of Wall Street


by Jeremy Scott (Tax Analysts Blog)

The financial meltdown in 2008was supposed to change how banks andwall Streetwere regulated and taxed. The idea that tradingwas too volatile and that bankswere engaged in numerous risky transactions caught hold. Therewas a growing belief that financial institutions and investment firms should help fund the cost of future bailouts. However, five years later little has changed. The United States got the Dodd-Frank Act, a heavilywatered-down regulation package, and some of the European Union pushed aheadwith a financial transaction tax. But Treasury and the SEC are struggling to implement the former, and the latter has run afoul of the complicated European legal framework.

For the blog post, go here.

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European Union: European Commission Insists FTT Discussions Continue Despite Council's Legal Concerns


by Joe Kirwin (Bloomberg)

European Taxation Commissioner Algirdas Semeta insisted that negotiations to finalize the terms of the European Union financial transactions tax should continue even though the Council of Ministers legal service concluded that a key principle that defineswhowill be required to pay the levy violates EU single market rules.

Speaking Sept. 14 at the conclusion of a meeting of EU finance ministers in Vilnius, Lithuania, Semeta also insisted thatworkwithin the EU to complete the revision of the EU cross-border savings tax directive should not be delayed towait for the completion of a global standard on information exchange for bank accounts as agreed aweek earlier by the Group of 20 nations in Russia.

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Profit Shifting: OECD's BEPS Project Must Remain Focused on Stateless Income, Stack Says


by Kevin A. Bell (Bloomberg)

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's base erosion and profit shifting project must remain focused on addressing the problem of stateless income if the project is to have a chance of success, a U.S. Treasury official said Sept. 13.

Robert Stack, deputy assistant secretary for international tax affairs, said if the BEPS project veers from this objective and seeks instead to rebalance source and residence taxation rights, the project likelywill fail.

For the story, go here. (Subscription required)

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Tax Credits: Foreign Corporate Joint Ventures: Foreign Tax Credit Planning


by Lowell D. Yoder (Bloomberg)

U.S. multinationals commonly enter into foreign joint ventureswith foreign companies; one important tax consideration is the application of the foreign tax credit ruleswith respect to income derived from the joint venture.

When the foreign joint venture is a corporation, planning into status as a controlled foreign corporation (CFC) can be beneficial.

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BEPS and the Law of Unintended Consequences


By Kartikeya Singh and Aparna Mathur (Tax Analysts, Tax Notes Today)

This article discusses possible economic implications and ramifications of recent positions on transfer pricing taken by the OECD in its project on base erosion and profit shifting.

For the article, go here. (Subscription required)

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Japan to Consider Corporate Tax Cut in Stimulus Package


By Andy Sharp and Takashi Hirokawa (Bloomberg)

Japan is considering a reduction in corporate taxes as part of a planned package to cushion the economy from raising the national sales levy, Economy Minister Akira Amari said.

Paring income taxes is another option,while a lower priority, Amari told reporters in Tokyo. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier this month instructed officials to compile a plan by the end of September to counter the blow from a scheduled 3 percentage point bump in the consumption tax in April, to 8 percent.

For the story, go here.

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Dutch tax avoidance crackdown sparks debate


By Matt Steinglass in Amsterdam and Jamie Smyth in Dublin

A Dutch initiative to crack down on tax avoidance by multinational corporations is being fiercely resisted by the business community,with the American Chamber of Commerce in the Netherlandswarning it could drive US corporations to move their European headquarters out of the country.

The Netherlands, Ireland and Luxembourg are facing a European Commission inquiry over tax practices that critics say allow multinationals to lower their tax bills by billions of euros. This month the Netherlands responded to rising criticismwith a plan to tighten conditions for so-called letterbox companies, shell companies that multinationals establish largely for tax purposes.

For the story, go here.

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Adobe shows its creativity with Ireland tax base


by Jamie Smyth (Dublin) (Financial Times)

Adobe Systems is a pioneer in creativity. Since the 1980s its software has facilitated a desktop publishing revolution.what is lesswell-known is that its creativity extends to its tax structure,which enables the US software company to avoid paying tens of millions of dollars in corporate taxes every year.

By establishing two companies registered in low-tax Ireland, Adobe slashed its tax bill on $2.1bn profits earned outside the US over the three years to the end of December 2012 to $144m, giving it an effective tax rate of 6.9 per cent. During this period the company paid $527.1m in US federal taxes on $1bn in profits an effective tax rate of 52 per cent.

Adobe is one of hundreds of technology and pharmaceutical companies, including Apple, Google and Abbott Laboratories,which funnel non-US sales through Ireland to cut their tax bills. Controversy over these tax avoidance strategies has prompted the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to call for an overhaul of global tax rules.

For the story, go here.

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European Union: European Commission, Council Clash On Legal Basis for Financial Transactions Tax

  • By European Union

Top legal advisers at two EU institutions have started a dispute overwhether the controversial financial transactions tax—known as the Tobin tax—is completely legal.

On Sept. 11, the Brussels-based European Commission rebutted a leaked opinion from the legal services of the Council of Ministers,which found a crucial part of the FTT to be incompatiblewith the European Union Treaty.

“We strongly disagreewith the Council legal service's opinion on the FTT.we expect the member states to not just follow the Council legal service's views unquestioningly, but to assess them critically against the Commission's robust legal analysis of this proposal, Emer Traynor, the commission's spokeswoman, said in a statement.

For the article, go here. (Subscription required)

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OECD Transfer Pricing Documentation Draft Shows Naivete, Practitioner Says


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OECD - The Tax Policy Landscape Five Years after the Crisis


by Pierre LeBlanc, Stephen Matthews, & Kirsti Mellbye (OECD-France)

The height of the economic and financial crisis is nowwell past, but its aftermath remainswide-ranging,with many OECD countries still someway from restoring strong and sustainable economic growth. Even before the Great Recession OECD economies faced a range of challenges, most notably from globalisation, but also other challenges such as climates change, growing inequality and population ageing. Against this background, this paper discusses how tax policies have responded to fiscal and macroeconomic developments over the past five years and these longer-term structural economic developments.

For the paper, go here.

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Europe financial transaction tax hits legal wall


By Alex Barker in Brussels

Europe's plan for an expansive financial transaction tax hit awall after the top legal adviser to finance ministers concluded it exceeds national jurisdiction,infringes on EU treaties andis discriminatory to non-participating states.

The unusually blunt paper from the EU Council legal service, obtained by the Financial Times, deals a heavy blow to a European Commission proposal to introduce a $35bn eurozone levywith global reach.

For the article, go here.

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Looking into sweetheart tax deals


By Jamie Smyth in Dublin, Matt Steinglass in Amsterdam and Vanessa Houlder in London (Financial Times)

Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg have long been suspected ofwooing multinationals through tax deals. But Brussels preliminary inquiry intowhether some of the tax deals are in contravention of EU state aid rules, adds political pressure at a critical juncture for the countries already under pressure from international efforts to tackle tax avoidance.

The European Commission's move to issue questions to the three member states about their tax relationshipwith individual companies, including Apple and Starbucks, follows recent publication of an action plan by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development,which is designed to close corporate tax loopholes that have enabled companies to save tens of billions of euro in tax over the past decade.

For the article, go here.
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