2016

Posted on

How the EU Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive could impact industrial products and services companies investing in Europe

  • By PwC
Member States in the Council of the European Union (EU) recently gave their final approval of the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (ATAD),which targetswhat the EU considers tax avoidance practices that directly affect the function of the internal market and applies to all taxpayers subject to corporate tax in one or more Member States.
Implementation of ATAD likelywill limit tax planning opportunities and increase compliance costs for many industrial products and services multinational companies (MNCs) investing in the EU.

To read more go here

Posted on

Apple Tax Decision Based in Economic Reality: EU Official

The European Commission's state aid enforcement director, facing criticism that the EC is "living in a timewarp" in telling Ireland to retroactively collect $14.5 billion from Apple Inc., challenged tax lawyers and advisers to read the decision,whichwill be redacted and published in a fewweeks.
To read more go here

Posted on

BEPS impact: Indian companies tweak tax planning approach

  • By Press Trust of India
Around 35 percent of businesses in India have changed their tax approach following the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) tax plan, higher than the global average, says a report.

To read more go here

Posted on

A value added tax is not a trade barrier

Donald Trump peddled an economic fallacy in Monday night's Presidential debate by suggesting that Mexico's value added tax, or VAT, gives its producers an advantage over American companies. He said, "Whenwe sell into Mexico, there's a tax – automatic, 16 percent, approximately.when they sell to us, there is no tax."
To read more go here

Posted on

U.S. Failure to Commit to Information Exchange a Problem'

U.S. reluctance to commit to the OECD's international standard for the automatic exchange of banking information is a problem, but that doesn't mean the countrywill be "the next Switzerland," the organization's top tax official told Bloomberg BNA.
For the DTR story, gohere. (subscription required)
To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

State Aid Debate, EU Anti-Tax-Avoidance Package Create Legal Uncertainty

The European Commission's recent state aid ruling involving Apple Inc. is considered a deviation from internationally accepted tax law aswell as a source of legal and tax uncertainty, according to practitioners.

To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

Practitioners Seek Guidance From OECD on Concept of Income Tax

Practitioners have called on the OECD to provide guidance on article 2 of the OECD model tax convention to help countries reach a consensus view of the concepts of tax and of tax on income and capital. Guidance is needed because many countries impose levies or other, similar fees that look like income taxes but may not be creditable under the various article 2 provisions.

To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

McDonald's State Aid Investigation: What the European Commission Got Wrong

Oliver R. Hoor and Keith O'Donnell summarize the European Commission's state aid investigation of McDonald's, analyze the tax treatment of U.S. branches under Luxembourg domestic tax law and tax treaty law, and conclude that no state aid has been granted to McDonald's.
For the TNI special report, gohere. (subscription required)
To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

Luxembourg Government proposes new country-by-country reporting obligations

  • By PwC
The Luxembourg Government on August 2, 2016, lodged a draft law introducing country-by-country (CbC) reporting obligations for Luxembourg entities that are part of a Multinational Enterprise Group (MNE Group). CbC obligations constitute one element of the new three-tiered standardized approach to transfer pricing documentation introduced by Action 13 of the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project.

To read more go here

Posted on

Proposed 2017 Dutch tax package provisions would affect multinationals

  • By PwC
The Dutch Ministry of Finance on September 20, 2016, presented the 2017 Dutch tax package (the 'Tax Package') to the legislature, togetherwith certain other tax measures and documents. The package includes several changes of potential importance to multinational enterprises (MNEs).
To read more go here

Posted on

Tracking People Will Be Key to CbC Reporting, Tax Executives Say

Alston & Bird's Edward Tanenbaum examines changes to the U.S. Model Income Tax Treaty's provisions on permanent establishments and the protocol to the U.S.-Luxembourg income tax treaty that is under negotiation.
For the BNA Insight, gohere. (subscription required)
To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

U.S. Bill Proposes Making Global Tax Reports Public

Publicly traded companieswould be required to post global tax information to the Securities and Exchange Commission under recently proposed legislation.

To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

News Analysis: Treasury Offers Few Assurances on Proposed Debt-Equity Regs

In news analysis, Lee A. Sheppard discusses recent Treasury comments regarding the controversial section 385 regulations,which the government has said it isn't planning to capitulate on.

To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

Pascrell Border Tax Proposal Targets Indirect Tax Systems

A senior House Democratic taxwriter plans to introduce legislation thatwould impose a tax on imported goods from countries that fall under an indirect tax system, a proposal similar to the border-adjustable tax policy included in House Republicans' tax reform blueprint.

To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

International Risks Remain Top Priority for Audit Regulator

Perils associatedwith cross-border audits are the highest enforcement priority for the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's enforcement division, director Claudius Modesti said.
To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

Final Report on OECD Action 14 Coming Soon, Official Says

The OECD soonwill release the final report on action 14 of its base erosion and profit-shifting project, detailing the mutual agreement procedure peer review process, according to Achim Pross, head of the International Cooperation and Tax Administration Division of the OECD's Centre for Tax Policy and Administration.

To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

Tracking People Will Be Key to CbC Reporting, Tax Executives Say (1)

In thewake of the OECD's base erosion and profit-shifting project, tracking people and functions in extreme detail has become a central pillar of tax compliance, according to Christian Kaeser, global head of tax at Siemens.

To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

Remarks by U.S. Treasury Secretary Lew at Meeting with Argentine Finance Minister Prat-Gay

  • By U.S. Department of the Treasury
The United States and Argentina are negotiating an income tax treaty thatwould provide for the exchange of tax information, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said at a September 26 meeting in Buenos Aireswith Argentine Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay.

To read more go here

Posted on

Carbon Pricing an Underused Tool to Cut Emissions, OECD Report Says

Governments can use carbon pricing as a tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a cost-effectiveway and transition to low-carbon economieswithout damaging long-term competitiveness, an OECD official said.

To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

Troubled waters - global transparency and controversy in uncertain times

  • By Contributed

Posted on

U.S. Senate's top tax lawmaker targets corporate offshore profits

The U.S. Senate's senior Democratic tax lawwriter says hewill rip up a root of corporate tax avoidance if his partywins Senate control in November, targeting trillions of dollars in tax-deferred profits being held abroad by U.S. companies.
For the Reuters story, gohere.
To read more go here

Posted on

The international profits of US multinationals belong in the United States, a senior tax official at an influential global economic think tank has said.

  • By Independent
Although declining to comment specifically on the Apple case, Pascal Saint-Amans, the director of tax policy at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), suggested the profits of large American technology and pharmaceutical firms should be taxed in the US.

To read more go here

Posted on

OECD official says EU Apple ruling not precedent for future tax cases

  • By WHTC
A multi-billion euro back tax bill handed to Apple by the European Commission should not be seen as a precedent for future tax cases as itwas based on state aid rather than tax law, the OECD official spearheading global tax reform said on Monday.
For thewHTC story, gohere.
To read more go here

Posted on

Irelands corporate tax not under threat, OECD tax chief says

Ireland's 12. 5 per cent corporate tax rate is not under threat from moves to reform the global tax system, the OECD's tax policy chief has said.
On a visit to Dublin, Pascal Saint-Amans said therewas no longer any questioning of the rates set by some countries.
For the Irish Times story, gohere.
To read more go here

Posted on

News Analysis: The Tech Mahindra Case -- Royalties Derived Through a PE

An Indian technical services firm's attempt to avoid Australian tax by relying on a clever, but ultimately unsuccessful, "loop" argument based on the business profits and royalties articles of the Australia-India income tax treaty may emerge as an important precedent on the holistic approach to interpreting tax treaties.

To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

Economic Analysis: Drug Giants Keep Effective Tax Rates Low

In economic analysis, Martin A. Sullivan looks at the tax profiles of nine large pharmaceutical companies and explainswhy their U.S. effective tax rates have been dropping over the last decade.

To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

News Analysis: Hope Springs Eternal for the CCCTB

In news analysis, Marie Sapirie examines how a proposal by the European Commission to consolidate a corporate group's profits and losseswould affect U.S. companies.

To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

A More Subjective Permanent Establishment Standard

Todd Izzo, Cassie McCormick and Maggie Reilly of Deloitte Tax examine the more subjective permanent establishment standard embodied in recent OECD base erosion and profit shifting guidance, aswell as implications for multinational groups. "Businesseswill need to react, and may need to alter their legal structure, information reporting systems, andwarehouse and logistic arrangements to address these important changes," the authorswrite.

To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

Panel Explores Role of Human Rights Considerations in Tax Policy

Tax professionals have certainly played a role in the shortcomings of the international tax system, but the degree towhich human rights should be considered in designing a more appropriate structure remains uncertain, according to a panel of law professors.

To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

First regional meeting of the Inclusive Framework on BEPS for Latin America and the Caribbean Montevideo (Uruguay), 21-23 September 2016

  • By OECD

57 delegates from 10 countries and 8 organisations gathered in Montevideo for the 1st regional meeting of the Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit shifting (BEPS) after its launch in Kyoto on 29 June-1st July 2016. This meetingwas the first of a new series of events thatwill offer participants from different regions in theworld the opportunity to feed their views and provide their input into the Inclusive Framework on BEPS.

To read more go here

Posted on

Effective Carbon Rates

  • By OECD

To tackle climate change, CO2 emissions need to be cut. Pricing carbon is one of the most effective and lowest-costways of inducing such cuts. This report presents the first full analysis of the use of carbon pricing on energy in 41 OECD and G20 economies, covering 80% of global energy use and of CO2 emissions. The analysis takes a comprehensive view of carbon prices, including specific taxes on energy use, carbon taxes and tradable emission permit prices. It shows the entire distribution of effective carbon rates by country and the composition of effective carbon rates by six economic sectorswithin each country. Carbon prices are seen to be often very low, but some countries price significant shares of their carbon emissions. The 'carbon pricing gap', a synthetic indicator showing the extent towhich effective carbon rates fall short of pricing emissions at EUR 30 per tonne, the low-end estimate of the cost of carbon used in this study, sheds light on potentialways of strengthening carbon pricing.

To read more go here

Posted on

International Corporate Tax Law… Enters a Period of Unprecedented Change

  • By Bloomberg
We are entering into a period of unprecedented change and increasing complexity in international tax law. Multinationalswill need to monitor the tax position in each country and each bilateral tax treatywith extreme care.

To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

Exclusive: Thailand considering tougher tax collection rules for internet, tech firms

Thailand is studying plans to toughen tax collection rules for internet and technology firms like Alphabet Inc's Google, the head of the Revenue Department told Reuters, as the tax affairs of these firms comes under growing scrutiny in Southeast Asia.

To read more go here

Posted on

News Analysis: Coordination or Competition? a BEPS Score Card

Mindy Herzfeld reviews the broad criticisms of the OECD's base erosion and profit-shifting project and suggests that tax policymakers should considerwhether the project's original goals can be accomplished in a more effective, less disruptive manner.

To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

Switzerland Proposes to Exempt Intragroup Interest From Withholding

In an effort to encourage Swiss multinationals to perform group financing and cash pooling activities locally, Switzerland's Federal Council has proposed exempting interest on intercompany balances from its 35 percentwithholding tax.
For thewWTD story, gohere. (subscription required)
To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

South Africa publishes revised tax Bill for comments

South Africa's National Treasury has revised its earlier proposals concerning interest-free loans to trusts and restricted equity shares (for employee share schemes), and amended provisions for several tax incentives.

To read more go here

Posted on

Tax havens: The Brazilian listing procedure and the recent list adjustment

  • By ITR

Jurisdictionswith nil, low, favourable and benefitted tax rules have played an important role in shaping today's globalised environment, providing efficient structures and even permitting abusive and shamed transactions. To face this scenario, countries have imposed burdensome taxation for transactions involving tax havens, among other initiatives.

To read more go here

Posted on

Egypt introduces VAT regime

Egypt has published the VAT Act, replacing the general sales tax (GST)with a VAT regime. Among a host of new rules, the law introduces new compliance provisions for non-residents that provide goods and services to Egyptian businesses or individuals.

To read more go here

Posted on

Experts See Brexit's Reporting Effects Beyond Currency Swings

Great Britain's voluntary, still-pending exit from the European UnionÔøΩBrexitÔøΩhas causedwell-known swings in the value of the British pound, but it also has implications in accounting for derivatives and risk-reducing hedges, cash-flow forecasts, employee pensions and deferred taxes, PricewaterhouseCoopers accountants say.
To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

Future Inversions Will Be Mergers of Adults,' Attorney Says

Inversions are growing up.
Instead of a large U.S. company swallowing a smaller foreign company and moving overseas, each corporation gets a say in how the deal proceeds, a tax attorney said.
To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

IRS Working on Country-by-Country Reporting Form

Work is underway on the form and instructions for the country-by-country voluntary reporting regimen set up in response to the OECD's broad international taxation project, an IRS official said.

To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

Saint-Amans to EU: Stick to Current Transfer Pricing Standard

The European Commission shouldn't try to create its own transfer pricing standards in investigatingwhether companies received favorable tax treatment from governments in the European Union, the OECD's top tax official said.

To read more go here

Posted on

OECD finalizing BEPS multilateral instrument, concerned about EU state aid tax probes

Officials are putting the finishing touches on the multilateral instrument (MLI) to implement the OECD/G20 base erosion profit shifting (BEPS) measures, keeping it on track to be finalized this fall, senior OECD officials said September 22.
For the MNE Tax story, gohere.
To read more go here

Posted on

What Europe's tax grab from Apple should teach Sen. Warren

Public confidence in big business ranks below every major institution in the United States except Congress, according to Gallup. So it comes as little surprise thatwhen the European Commission ruled recently that Apple had struckwhat the commission characterized as an unfair tax dealwith Ireland and should have to pay back $14.5 billion, manywere quick to view the case as typically craven trickery by an unscrupulous multinational.

To read more go here

Posted on

Are U.S. Anti-Tax Inversion Rules Unconstitutional?

That's the question a group of attorneys representing multinational corporations recently raised at a Treasury Department hearing on the proposed changes to U.S. tax law.
For the Forbes article, gohere.
To read more go here

Posted on

Inversions Will Continue Until Lawmakers Fix Americas Competitiveness Problem

America has the highest corporate tax rate in the developedworld.we do not possess "one of the highest" corporate rates. Our corporate rate is number one.
America is also one of the few countrieswith aworldwide taxation system rather than a territorial system.

To read more go here

Posted on

Public comments received on the discussion draft on Branch Mismatch Structures under Action 2 of the BEPS action plan

  • By OECD

On 22 August 2016, interested partieswere invited to provide comments on a discussion draft (French version available here) on Branch Mismatch Structures under Action 2 (Neutralising the Effects of Hybrids Mismatch Arrangements) of the BEPS Action Plan. The OECD is grateful to the commentators for their input and now publishes the comments received.

To read more go here

Posted on

Selecting Transfer Pricing Comparables After Medtronic

In this article, the authors look at the recent Tax Court opinion in Medtronic, highlighting the perils of selecting thewrong comparables and using thewrong functional analysis.
For the Tax Notes viewpoint, gohere. (subscription required)
To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

Vestager, Predecessor Reject Apple State Aid Decision Criticism

The European Commission's competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, on September 21 defended the commission's recent decision ordering Ireland to recover over ÔøΩ13 billion in illegal state aid from Apple Inc., a move that has been sharply criticized by both the Irish and U.S. governments.

To read more go here Subscription Required

Posted on

The EU Anti-Tax-Avoidance Directive

Sandy Bhogal discusses the EU anti-tax-avoidance directive and theways inwhich it overlapswith the recommendations in the OECD's base erosion and profit-shifting project.

To read more go here Subscription Required

Member Companies

Back to top