2018

Karen Sowell of the New York State Bar Association Tax Section has submitted a report on proposed transition tax regulations (REG-104226-18) under section 965, addressing the double counting rule, refunds for taxpayers making the section 965(h) election, clarification of the domestic passthrough entity, and many other aspects of the regs.

The IRS is standing by its refund policy for overpayment of the transition tax in the face of strong practitioner criticism, though the agency admits that the issue is not yet closed.

The IRS is nearly finished drafting proposed regulations setting the groundwork for implementing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act's international provisions,which have gained international recognition as a possible model for consensus anti-profit-shifting measures.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said his governmentwould reconsider plans to scrap its dividend tax in a major political climbdown only hours after Unilever dropped plans to move its headquarters to the Netherlands. Rutte,who had argued that getting rid of the 15 percentwithholding tax on dividendswas vital for the country's business climate, said his government must reconsider its entire package of tax reforms.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act's reduction in corporate income tax rates has revived the popularity of C corporation entity structures, but practitionerswarned Thursday there is no one-size-fits-all choice for every business.

Failing to participate in the global digital tax debatewould be a mistake the USwould regret, say a senior tax executive and former Microsoft tax counsel.

A bloc of Eastern European states said Friday that theywere supporting the European Union's temporary digital tax. The statement of finance ministers from the so-called Visegrad Group signals a core of support for the controversial tax,which has divided European Union member states since the continent's executive arm, the European Commission, proposed the idea in March.

Tax administrations need to harmonise their tax filing and data requirements to give taxpayers a better chance of complying, say in-house practitioners and tech aficionados.

A financial services firm's French branch shouldn't be allowed to deduct VAT for transactions undertaken for its London headquarters thatwouldn't be deductible in both the United Kingdom and France, an advocate general has recommended.

An OECD-U.N. program created to strengthen tax auditing capacity in developing countries has reported yet another year of good progress, helping tax administrations claw back more than $400 million in additional tax revenues to date.

Despite Trump's import taxes, US trade gap rises for third straight month to $53.2 billion in August.

Nearly 100 non-EU countrieswould have to require multinational companies to report their taxes and profits on a country-by-country basis under proposed criteria for the bloc's tax haven blacklist.

Japanese automakers doubt the viability of U.S-Japan bilateral advance pricing agreements saying the IRS has become increasingly aggressive in its audits, and rather seek legal relief through U.S. courts. APA negotiations between the U.S and Japan are set to take place in mid-October.

Multinational corporations scrambling to meet IRS filing deadlines have more time to make basis adjustments under the new transition tax.

Law professors are on the IRS's side in a federal court case involving Intel subsidiary Altera Corp., as the agency and company prepare for a second round of arguments in the highlywatched tax case. Legal professors from around the country urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to keep its original ruling and accept the IRS's 2003 regulation that requires domestic companies to sharewith their foreign units the cost of stock compensation granted to employees.

Britainwill unilaterally implement a digital service tax if there is nowider international agreement soon on how to tax theworld's biggest internet companies, finance minister Philip Hammond said on Monday.

The new concepts of virtual, or digital, permanent establishment and its tax treatment are creating a challenge on a global scale. Part 1 in this series looks at the latest initiatives being taken at domestic and OECD levels.

Australiawants feedback on plans to tax large digital businesses, as part of government efforts to ensure online companies are taxed as fairly as businesses based in the country.

Calls are mounting for tax reform in Germany as its multinational companies are increasingly investing in the United States. Recent U.S. tax reform has set up a business-friendly environment that German automotive, pharmaceutical, and mechanical firms in particular just can't resist, according to Carsten Brzeski, chief economist at ING-DiBa in Frankfurt.

Intel subsidiary Altera Corp. and the IRS are gearing up for another tax showdown as the two parties and their supporters filed myriad briefs to try again towin over a federal appeals court.

European Union finance ministers decided on Tuesday to allow lower sales taxes on e-books and other digital publications and to align them to reduced levies applied to paper versions of books and magazines.

The new concepts of virtual, or digital, permanent establishment and its tax treatment are creating a challenge on a global scale. Part 2 in this series looks at the steps being taken by the European Union to address the challenges presented by the digital permanent establishment.

Businesses in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are having to look again at their operation designs, as they continue to struggle under a fledgling value-added tax regime.

The Netherlands plans to trim a tax break that lets foreignworkers in specialized fields receive 30 percent of their salary tax-free. The length of the benefitswill change to five years from eight years, retroactively, soworkers more than five years into existing agreementswill be immediately cut off on Jan. 1, 2019.

Israel lacks legally binding regulations for resolving multinational cross-border tax disputes, a gap the OECD and practitioners hopewill be addressed in guidance coming next year.

The Medtronic dispute involves the transfer pricing methodology and the allocation of income between Medtronic and its Puerto Rican subsidiary relating to intercompany licensing of intangible property for the manufacture of medical devices and leads by the subsidiary. This paper addresses the IRS deficiency notice in the amount of $1.4 billion, Medtronic's challenge and victory in the tax court, and the overturn in appealswith focus on the need for strict adherence to the tax regulations.

Corporations doing debt-for-debt exchanges in tax-free spinoffs are getting more certainty from IRS guidance that standardizes theway they can ask for private rulings on the deals.

In a brief for the Third Circuit, a partnership argued that section 956(d) regulations are invalid and urged the court to reverse a Tax Court decision that upheld the validity of the regulations and held that the partnership had income inclusions taxable as ordinary income from two controlled foreign corporations that guaranteed U.S. obligations.

In this article, the authors discuss a recent decision from the Court of Justice of the European Union that found that Germany's anti-treaty-shopping rule violates EU law. They also review the history of the provision and offer advice to taxpayers in light of the new ruling.

In this article, the author discusses draft tax legislation thatwould implement several changes to Canada's Income Tax Act. The proposals include antiavoidance rules that target the use of tracking shares to avoid foreign accrual property income, provisions involving controlled foreign affiliate status, alleviating rules for some corporate divisions, amendments to the cross-border surplus stripping rules, and other changes thatwould affect international business taxation.

While no presidential candidate is expected to secure a majority in Brazil's upcoming election, analysts saywhoever prevails in a subsequent runoffwill have few easy tax options available to dealwith a faltering economy.

Chinese authorities have determined that film star Fan Bingbing committed tax evasion and have ordered the country's most famous actress to pay fines totaling CNY 479 million (around $70 million).

A proposal by members of Italy's ruling coalition to provide tax incentives to residents purchasing the heavily indebted country's sovereign bonds could lead to challenges that the tax breaks violate EU law.

The U.K. Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Chamber) in Union Castle Mail Steamship Company Ltd v. HM Revenue & Customs, [2018] UKUT 316 (TCC), affirmed that a £39.1 million accounting losswas nondeductible for tax purposes, finding that a subsidiary's issue of shares to its parent is subject to the arm's-length principle because U.K. transfer pricing rules contain no implicit exemption for capital transactions.

A subsidiary's issue of shares to its parent is, like any other related-party transaction, subject to the arm's-length principle because the U.K. transfer pricing rules contain no implicit exemption for capital transactions.

A taxpayer seeking to overturn a Tax Court decision about regs' validity on the taxation of controlled foreign corporations' loan guarantees is shying away from attacking the court's interpretation of U.S. Supreme Court administrative law precedent.

Shawn Gallagher of American International Group Inc. noted the company's agreementwith a Coalition for American Insurance letter on the base erosion antiabuse tax, asserting that any guidance related to ceding commissions for inbound reinsurance should be consistentwith the treatment provided to similar services or other costs in other similar arrangements and industries.

Mayer Brown LLP, on behalf of Chubb, has asked to meetwith Treasury on the pending base erosion antiabuse tax rules and inbound reinsurance to discuss issues regarding the treatment of losses or claim payments and ceding commissions paidwhen the reinsurance is issued by a U.S. taxpayer.

The Institute of International Bankers, following up on a meetingwith Treasury and a July 24 letter, has requested specific guidance on how the base erosion antiabuse taxwill apply to foreign banking organizations regarding interest on debt issued to complywith regulatory rules, excess interest, and effectively connected income.

Companiesworried about the potential for public country-by-country reporting to confuse or mislead people should consider using explanatory notes to clarify the data, an HM Treasury official said.

Financial Secretary to the Treasury Mel Stride reiterated the U.K. government's commitment to both reducing the corporation tax rate to 17 percent and tackling the tax fairness issue posed by large and digital businesses.

The European Commission needs to end nearly two years of discussions and implement the common consolidated corporate tax base (CCCTB), an international corporate tax group said.

The concept of "user involvement" cited as the basis for digital tax proposals in the EU and elsewhere generally shouldn't create taxing rights under the OECD's guiding principle of aligning taxationwith value creation.