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2017

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VAT Fraud Could Be Punishable by 4 Years in Prison Under European Council Directive


Cases of serious VAT fraudwhere damage exceeds ÔøΩ10 million should be considered by member states as an offense against the EU budget and punishable by four years' imprisonment, according to a directive to improve the prosecution of financial crimes thatwas adopted by the EU Council April 25.
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Trumps radical corporate tax plan could slow investment abroad


Planned cuts in US corporation tax could slow the future flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into countries such as the Republic but are unlikely to affect existing US operations here, Irish tax experts believe.

Therewas also considerable relief on Thursday that Donald Trump's proposals to institute a special tax on imports into the US has been placed on the backburner, since thesewere seen as particularly threatening to the Irish economy.
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Global Tax Reporting Conundrum Looms for U.S. Companies


A complexweb of government relationships allowing the Internal Revenue Service to exchange confidential taxpayer informationwill likely have a few holes,with significant reporting consequences for U.S. multinational companies as they approach an Oct. 16 deadline.

The IRS's recently released draft agreements for exchanging U.S. companies' global tax and profit reportswith foreign tax authorities generally follow the OECD template. However, there are a few differences that may make negotiationswith some countries challenging, practitioners told Bloomberg BNA.
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Ireland could lose $4bn in revenue if EU tax plans go ahead, says Ibec


Irelandwould lose up to 50 per cent of its corporation tax base, equivalent to ÔøΩ4 billion in revenue, if EU plans for a consolidated tax base across the bloc come to fruition, Ibec haswarned.

In a submission to a review of Ireland's corporation tax regime, the employers' group calculated that Irelandwould beworst hit of all 28 EU states from the proposed Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB).
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Germany not worried by U.S. corporate tax reform plans: Schaeuble


German Finance Ministerwolfgang Schaeuble is notworried by the prospect of cuts to corporate tax rates in the United States he told German magazinewirtschaftswoche on the sidelines of the IMF andworld Bank spring meetings inwashington.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday promised a big announcement about tax reform shortly and ordered a review of Obama-era tax ruleswritten to discourage U.S. companies from relocating overseas to cut their tax bills.
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Mike Pence assures Trumps tax reform will benefit Australia


US Vice-President Mike Pence assured that the proposed "massive" tax reduction by US President Donald Trumpwould benefit the economy of Australia. The POTUS tweeted on Sunday that "big tax reform" is on theway,with further details to be announced on April 26,whichwill be Thursday in the Down Under.
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Presidential Executive Order on Identifying and Reducing Tax Regulatory Burdens


By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Policy. The Federal tax system should be simple, fair, efficient, and pro-growth. The purposes of tax regulations should be to bring clarity to the already complex Internal Revenue Code (title 26, United States Code) and to provide useful guidance to taxpayers.
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Tax Competition Among Developing Countries Worsens Inequality, IMF and NGOs Say


Developing countries' overreliance on regressive and poorly targeted tax incentives to attract foreign investment has undermined the fairness of their tax systems and exacerbated socioeconomic inequality, according to officials from the IMF and nongovernmental organizations.
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Competitiveness Impact of Tax Reform for the United States


The United States is looking at major business tax reform packages that could boost growth and make it more attractive to keep profits in the United States. In this paper,we specifically model the impact of a variation of two business tax reforms: the House GOP Blueprint Plan promoted by Speaker Paul Ryan, and Plan B,which has a simpler approach.
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Treasury's Mnuchin: We're 'pretty close' to bringing forward 'major tax reform'


The Trump administration is close to bringing forward "major tax reform," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday, days after he tempered expectations for how quickly itwill pass.

Mnuchin,who thisweek backed off of his earlier goal of passing tax reform by August, said thewhite Housewill unveil a plan "very soon." However, the Trump administration previously missed several of its deadlines for releasing its tax plan.
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China Rolls Out Fresh Tax Cuts in Bid to Support Economic Growth

  • By Bloomberg News

Chinawill further ease the tax burden on businesses and individuals, as part of a broader push to boost consumption and support economic growth.

The structure of value-added taxwill be simplified, from four brackets to three, and the rate for products including natural gas and agricultural itemswill be cut to 11 percent from 13 percent starting July 1, officials at a State Council meeting led by Premier Li Keqiang decidedwednesday, according to a statement.
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OECD Global Forum Shifting Focus to Application of VAT Guidelines to E-Commerce


With the publication of the VAT/goods and services tax guidelines addressing the allocation of taxing rights for cross-border e-commerce transactions, the OECD Global Forum on VAT used its recent conference to change its focus from developing the guidelines to assisting governments and businesseswith their implementation, according to an OECD official.
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Practitioners Support New Hong Kong Chief Executive's Tax Reform Plan


Market participants havewelcomed Hong Kong Chief Executive-elect Carrie Lam's tax reform proposal to boost the local economy and enhance Hong Kong's tax regimewhen other jurisdictions are pushing for lower tax and more incentives to attract foreign investment.

Lam,whowon the election on March 26, put tax reform at the top of her agenda. She proposed two main changes: a two-tier profit tax system and super tax deductions of 200 percent for research and development. Lamwill take office July 1.
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EU to Propose VAT Overhaul to Combat $63 Billion Fraud


The European Commissionwill propose a major overhaul of the European Union's value-added tax rules in September in an effort to fight fraud associatedwith the tax, costing governments as much 60 billion euros ($63 billion) a year.

"The European Commission has today proposed that the fight against cross-border VAT fraud be taken up as an EU priority to combat serious and organized crime," said European Taxation Commissioner Pierre Moscovici in an April 12 statement. "It is no longer acceptable to put our heads in the sand, pretending that this problem does not exist."
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Strong Tax Administration Roots Out Evaders and Boosts Productivity, IMF Says


Strong tax administration can reduce the prevalence of tax-cheating by underperforming firms, leading those firms to go out of business and make room for tax-compliant firms to gain more market share and increase productivity, according to a new report from the IMF.

The IMF's April 2017 Fiscal Monitor, released on April 13, focuses on how policymakers can upgrade the tax system to boost productivity, primarily through removing barriers that give rise to "resource misallocation," or the poor use of existing domestic resources in a country,which can reduce the total output from existing capital and labor. Those barriers can block productive firms from growing and allow unproductive companies to survive.
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OECD Challenges Include BEPS Implementation, Beneficial Ownership, Saint-Amans Says


After successfully organizing the OECD's base erosion and profit-shifting project and common reporting standard (CRS), Pascal Saint-Amans said recently that two of the most important challenges facing the international tax community are fully implementing BEPS and bringing more transparency to the issue of beneficial ownership.
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A Tax Systems Perspective on Recent Global Tax Initiatives


Two major global tax initiatives by the G-20 and the OECD use tax systems instruments to reduce personal tax evasion and corporate tax avoidance. Those initiatives, the automatic exchange of information (AEOI) and the base erosion and profit-shifting project, have substantial implications for the efficiency, revenue capacity, and distributional consequences of national tax systems.
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BEPS and the New International Tax Order


Nations across theworld are currently engaged in a coordinated international effort, ostensibly to curb excessive tax avoidance by theworld's biggest multinational companies. This Article contends, however, that the most likely impactwill be to entrench a monopoly held by a small number of rich countries over the policymaking processes that created the tax avoidance problem to beginwith.
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News Analysis: Britain as the World's Tax Policeman?


The British government is just not getting the joke. Herewe are, nearly 100 years after the end ofworldwar I and the end of sterling as the reserve currency, and the British still don't appreciate that they no longer have a naval empire.

In the brief guidelines that the European Union recently sent the United Kingdom for Brexit negotiations, Spain managed to get a clause about Gibraltar, a three-square-mile Iberian peninsula that has been a British overseas territory since 1713. The guidelines state that Spainwould have to consent to Gibraltar's status upon Brexit. The British read this statement as a suggestion that Spain should have joint sovereignty over Gibraltar. The Spanish government rubbed it in by stating that itwould not veto a separate application by Scotland to join the EU.
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Rio Tinto backs Australian governments corporate tax cut plans


Rio Tinto, one of Australia's biggest companies, has urged the government to face down its political opponents and cut company taxes or risk being left behind by low-tax rivals and the US.
The intervention by one of Australia's biggest companies follows an explicit call by the government of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for businesses to help sell its flagship economic reform policy to a sceptical public ahead of next month's budget.
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News Analysis: 'Design Your Own' Cross-Border Corporate Tax System


Imagine a country that has an opportunity to design its tax system from scratch. It could consider all options and then implement a system uniquely tailored to its particular economy. Itwould face none of the political obstacles that comewith changing a system already in place. Norwould it be constrained by the rules of a membership organization like the EU orwTO. The Seasteading Institute's "Floating Island Project" may present that opportunity by the end of the decade.
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Activists Urge EU to Engage With Developing Countries on Transparency


Developing countries should be allowed a greater voice in tax transparency measures through U.N. involvement and should be given more support for capacity building so they can be included in automatic exchange of information, Alvin Mosioma, founding executive director of Tax Justice Network-Africa, told a European Parliament committee.
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The search for second passports and offshore havens


For the past year or so, members of the political class around theworld have been sticking nationalist badges on to the lapels of their dark suits. The international rich and their money, though, are ever more actively looking for an additional country they can call home, or at least residence.
The search for second passports and offshore havens is beginning to take on a last-helicopter-out-of-Saigon urgency as capital controls, tax reporting and visa procedures tighten up around theworld.
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Ending Tax Haven Abuse


The focus of today's forum, Offshore Multinational Corporate Tax,was the subject of perhaps a dozen hearings of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI),when I alongwith Tom Coburn (and later John McCain)were Chairman and Ranking members of that Subcommittee.

Intensive bipartisan investigationswhich preceded those hearings disclosed tax loopholeswith no economic justification,which allowed for tax avoidance by highly profitable corporations of hundreds of billions of dollars of taxes.
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Americans abroad lobby for tax changes


Advocates for U.S. citizens living abroad see a big opportunity in the GOP's push for tax reform.

A number of fiscally conservative groups are pushing for the repeal of an Obama-era offshore tax law that they say has ensnared Americans residing overseas. Some groups alsowant tax reform to include a move to residency-based taxation.
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U.N. Committee on Tax Cooperation Proposes Changes to Model PE Article


Proposed changes to article 5 of the U.N. model tax convention relating to permanent establishments adopt significant portions of the OECD's model treaty and commentary to help address base erosion and profit shifting, according to a report released by the U.N.'s Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters.
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The Destination-Based Cash Flow Tax: International Considerations


The GOP blueprint released in June 2016, A Betterway: Our Vision for a Confident America, presents the most significant tax reform in the United States since the Tax Reform Act of 1986. The blueprintwould lower the corporate tax rate (from 35% to 20%), shift to a territorial tax system, and introduce a destination-based cash flow taxwith border adjustments (the "DBCFT").
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CCCTB Should Promote Competitiveness, European Commission Official Says


Although business-friendly measures are often unpopular, the common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB) proposals balance antiavoidance ruleswith measures that promote competitiveness in the EU, according to Uwe Ihli, the European Commission's head of section for corporate tax directives and CCCTB.
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PANA Committee Extends Investigation 6 Months


The European Parliament's Committee of Inquiry Into Money Laundering, Tax Avoidance and Tax Evasion (PANA)will have another six months to investigate the ramifications of information released a year ago by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists on secret bank accounts in Panama.
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German related-party royalty proposal conflicts with BEPS agreement, OECD tax official says


Tax experts at a German parliamentary hearing heldwednesday expressed support for the aim of draft law thatwould deny tax deductions for some royalty payments made by multinationals to related companies. Many, including an OECD tax official, noted difficulties applying the draft law in practice, though, and suggested that the proposal be revised.
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Likely U.S., U.K. Opt-Out on BEPS Change Hints at Complications


The OECD's multilateral tax treatywas supposed to provide a smoothway for countries to rapidly implement the international BEPS project's most important changes, but speakers at a recent conference suggested some bumps may lie ahead.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is due to hold a signing ceremony in June for jurisdictions that last November adopted the text of the multilateral instrument,which it saidwill cover countries' adherence to the four minimum standards for the OECD project to combat global tax base erosion and profit shifting. Beyond that, a "flexible approach"will allow countries to select options for some individual treaty provisions.
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Focus BEPS Work on Practical Results, Not Participation: Stack


The OECD effort to rebuild the global tax system should focus on practicalwork that benefits the international tax community rather than trying to get as many countries as possible around the table, a former Treasury official said.

The OECD's so-called inclusive framework for implementing the four minimum standards of the international project to fight base erosion and profit shifting has brought in many countries that aren't members of the OECD,which launched the BEPS project, or even of the Group of 20 nations,which endorsed BEPS outcomes, Robert Stack, a former U.S. deputy assistant Treasury secretary for international tax policy, noted March 27. The G-20's members account for about 85 percent of the global economy, he said.
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OECD: More Transfer Pricing Drafts, Final VAT/GST Guidelines Coming


Additional drafts of revised and new transfer pricing guidancewill come out in mid-2017, and final value added tax and goods and services tax guidelineswill be published in April, according to OECD tax officials. The officials gave updates on otherwork related to the base erosion and profit-shifting project, the G-20 mandatedwork on tax certainty, and automatic information exchange.
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Brexit: Paving the Way for Greater European Tax Harmonization?


Harmonization lies at the core of many of the European Union's governing principles: could Brexit be the catalyst for greater harmonization among the remaining Member States?

This article explores recent attempts at European harmonization, assessing Franco-German drives for closer cooperation and integration on tax; analyzing the European Commission's latest re-launch of the common consolidated corporate tax base ("CCCTB"); and looking atwhether the U.K.'s decision to leave the European Union ("EU")will be a catalyst for greater EU harmonization among the remaining Member States.
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Tax Certainty Now on G-20 Radar for Follow-Up Work, OECD Tax Chief Says


G-20 finance ministers have responded favorably to the OECD and IMF's joint report on tax certainty, according to the OECD's tax chief,who added that the OECDwill engagewith countries bilaterally to discuss the results of the business survey onwhich the report is based.
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European Banks Book $27 Billion Profit in Tax Havens, Oxfam Says


Europe's largest banks routed 25 billion euros ($27 billion) through tax havens in 2015, about a quarter of their profit, amid an international crackdown on corporate tax avoidance, according to a report by Oxfam International.

The 20 biggest lenders paid no tax on 383 million euros of profit posted in seven tax havens that year,while booking 4.9 billion euros of earnings in Luxembourg, more than the U.K., Sweden and Germany combined, Oxfam and the Fair Finance Guide International said Monday. The studywas based on data released under new European Union regulations requiring banks to report earnings on a country-by-country basis.
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EU Panama Papers Probe Head: U.S. Tax Loopholes Must Be Closed


The European Parliament's special Panama Papers investigative committee concluded its four-day "fact-finding" visit to the U.S.with its chairman calling on the U.S. to close its tax loopholes.

In a March 24 telephone interview at the conclusion of the U.S. visit, the committee's chairman, German lawmakerwerner Langen, told Bloomberg BNA that EU members "have made appeals to the U.S. federal government and Delaware that there needs to be a clampdown on anonymity by introducing beneficial ownership registers."
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Special Tax Zones and the WTO


Since the SCM agreementwas enacted in 1995, the global leadership in the field of STZs has shifted from the OECD to thewTO.

ThewTO general agreement includes a broad set of policy goals that goes beyond trade relationships, but its legal framework has been systematically narrowed to the task of assuring market access, non-discrimination, and fairness in trade. Other relevant issues that has impacts on trade, such as for example harmful tax competition or tax base erosion, has not been sufficientlyweighted and has been treated as secondary items.
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A Global Treaty Override? The New OECD Multilateral Tax Instrument and Its Limits


The new OECD Multilateral Instrument to amend tax treaties (MLI) is an important innovation in international law. Hitherto, international economic lawwas built primarily on bilateral treaties (e.g., tax treaties and BITs) or multilateral treaties (thewTO agreements). The problem is that in some areas, like tax and investment, multilateral treaties proved hard to negotiate, but only a multilateral treaty can be amended simultaneously by all its signatories.
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Analysis of tax developments worldwide - March 2017 edition


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:
- Israeli budget reduces corporate tax rates and expands corporate tax incentives
- Portugal's 2017 state budget law
- Further increase of the Austrian research premium
- The US IRS Rev. Proc. 2017-23, Process for filing form 8975, country by country report
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$500 Billion Lost to Profit Shifting Worldwide, TJN Says


Profit shifting by multinational companies moving funds out of higher-tax jurisdictions is taking $500 billion a year out of tax coffers globally, according to figures released by the Tax Justice Network (TJN) March 22.

The biggest dollar losses are in the United States, but multinationals' tax avoidance strategies have an especially high impact on theworld's poorest countries because their economies are smaller and the revenue lost is a much larger percentage of both the GDP and the total amount of tax revenue, according to the TJN report issued March 22.
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How to Create a Winning Game Plan for International Taxation


A complex matrix of treaties and multi-country agreements govern international trade. Similarly, there's no single international law governing international taxation.with no global authority to set aworldwide standard, each country is free to set its own standards. The resulting patchwork of national rules and regulations makes international tax planning and compliance more than a little complicated. Companies must carefully structure operations and define a strategy for each country in order to maximize legal tax advantages.
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EU Lawmakers Visit IRS, Delaware as Tax Haven Concerns Mount


The European Parliament's Panama Papers investigative committee is preparing for a "fact-finding" visitwith counterparts in the U.S. Congress, aswell as officials from the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service.

The European Union lawmakers' four-day U.S. trip,which begins March 21,will include a visit to Delaware for meetingswith representatives of the state Legislature and members of the Delaware departments of finance and state, to probe issues such as bank account maintenance and company beneficial ownership rules.
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Indonesia tax amnesty nets $330 billion - now for reform


Southeast Asia's biggest economy this month iswinding up one ofworld's most successful tax amnesties,with at least 745,000 taxpayers declaring more than $330 billion of assets so far.

President Jokowidodo has cited higher tax revenue as the key to boosting infrastructure spending and growth. But if the amnesty is to avoid being just a one-offwindfall, Indonesia needs to improve a tax collection ratiowell below many of its peers, international agencies and local officials have said.
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EU Council Lawyers Raise Concerns Over Reverse-Charge Mechanism Proposal


The European Commission, during a March 21 meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council, advised member states to suspend technical talks on criteria to allow the application of a general reverse charge mechanism until the lawyers of the EU Council clarify some aspects of the draft plans.
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OECD/IMF report on tax certainty

  • By OECD/IMF

This report explores the nature of tax uncertainty, its main sources and effects on business decisions and outlines a set of concrete and practical approaches to help policymakers and tax administrations shape a more certain tax environment.
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Hammond Says U.K. Spending Cuts Possible to Offset Tax U-Turn


U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond suggested he may have to make spending cuts in his autumn budget to fill the gap in public finances createdwhen hewas forced to scrap his plan to raise insurance taxes for the self-employed.

Hammond,whowas lambasted by many in his own party for seeking a tax change viewed as a breach of the Conservative manifesto, told reporters at the G-20 finance ministers meeting in Baden-Baden, Germany, that the money pledged to education reform, social care and business tax reliefwould have be found elsewhere. Taxes covered by the Tory Party's tax lockwould not be touched, he added.
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Spain's Inditex Sets Retailer Trend in Brushing Off Border Tax


Whetherwith cropped jeans or cropped tops, following global fashion trends is an important part of the business model for Inditex SA, theworld's largest clothing manufacturer and retailer by market capitalization.

On tax matters, however, the Arteixo, Spain-based company has broken the trend of retailerswith U.S. operationswarning about the Republican Party's border-adjustment tax plan.
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Germany Pushes Back on Border-Adjustable Tax Proposal


Germany is pushing back forcefully against a House proposal for a border adjustability tax,with German Federal Finance Ministerwolfgang Schäuble arguing against the proposal.

Speakingwith reporters March 15, Schäuble contended that the U.S. could not "unilaterally" impose a border-adjustable tax. "Iwould not advise it," he said.
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OECD Official Previews Upcoming Guidance


Grace Perez-Navarro, deputy director of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, hinted March 9 atwhat to expect from upcoming guidance regarding the OECD's base erosion and profit-shifting project -- particularly on profit splits and profit attribution to a permanent establishment.

During a panel discussion of BEPS actions 7-10 at the Pacific Rim Tax Institute in Redwood City, California, Perez-Navarro said thatwhile she doesn't expect dramatic changes in the upcoming draft on profit splits, therewill be further clarification onwhen they are the most appropriate method, and more examples. The new draftwill describe not onlywhen profit splits should be applied, but also how they should be applied, Perez-Navarro said.
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