2018

The U.S. corporate tax rate reduction iswidely seen as having improved the global competitiveness of U.S. corporations, but there are concerns that its benefits could be upended if the ratewere to rise again.

Driverless cars. Just a few years ago the concept seemed preposterous. But mention the idea to any 20-something and you're likely to hear enthusiastic anticipation. The younger generation trusts that technologywill provide durable answers to life's inconveniences.

In an effort to encourage inbound investment, the Chinese government has expanded a measure exempting some overseas investors fromwithholding tax on profits generated in China.

An advisory boardwarned Germany's Ministry of Finance against approving the European Commission's digital services tax (DST) proposal, saying itwould be incompatiblewith German law and could spark double taxation and international tax competition.

After decades of court decisions accepting taxpayers' use of questionable comparable transactions for transfers of unique intangibles, the recent Medtronic decision represents an acknowledgement of the strict conditions for applying the comparable uncontrolled transaction method.

The IRS and Treasury have issued a fourth notice under section 965, providing relief for U.S. shareholders considering basis adjustment elections for deferred foreign income corporations and earnings and profits deficit foreign corporations.

The three-judge panel hearing the appeal in Altera v. Commissioner threw a curveballwhen it askedwhether the company's challenge of the 2003 cost-sharing regulations is barred by the statute of limitations.

A recent controversy over a federal oversight board's authority to approve tax agreements between Puerto Rico's government and mainland companies highlights the issue ofwhether the debt-ridden island should be taxing the companies more aggressively.

The decision that Luxembourg could allow double nontaxation of McDonald's profitwithout violating state aid rules suggests that the European Commission may be reconsidering the expansive interpretation of state aid that defined prior high-profile cases.

Unilever faces mounting opposition from U.K. fund managers over its plan to consolidate its headquarters in the Netherlands.

U.S. taxpayerswith foreign business operations in branch form are at risk of losing valuable foreign tax credits, and the options available to Treasurywill create complications of their own.

U.S. companies are putting savings from the corporate tax cut to use, but only a fraction of it is flowing to employees'wallets, new data show. In the months after the December tax-code overhaul that lowered the corporate rate to 21% from 35%, dozens of companies such aswalmart Inc.and FedEx Corp. announced one-time bonuses andwage increases for hourlyworkers. Those moves earned praise from the Trump administration as evidence the cutswere quickly reaching many Americans.

Dutch Labour MEP Paul Tang has declared that the corporate tax system needs an overhaul amid proposals for a digital tax, but some businesses oppose his vision and expect nothing to change.

Australian Tax Office guidance on a new diverted profits tax indicates the governmentwill apply the levy only in limited circumstances.

Adoption of the new revenue recognition standard under ASC 606 could present companieswith many unexpected tax technical and technology implications.with the new standard now beginning to take effect for public companiesÔøΩand just a year away for othersÔøΩit is important to understand the likely tax impact of adoption, including potential transfer pricing implications.

Final regulations on the new tax on global intangible low-taxed incomewill be released by June 2019, an Internal Revenue Service official says; rules for the opportunity zone tax incentive should be released in the next fewweeks; and the IRS'sworkwith companies in its Compliance Assurance Process is informing its progress dealingwith complexities of the new repatriation tax.

South Korea has joined the OECD's discussion on taxation of digital economy companies but isn't prepared to reveal its hand yet on how it plans to tax them.

New tax rules requiring Amazon.com Inc.,walmart Inc.'s Flipkart Group and others toweed out evasion on their platforms are "unfair" and could hurt online businesses, India's e-commerce industry says. A new provision to tax sales on e-commerce platformswill go into effect Oct. 1, obligating operators of online marketplaces like Amazon to collect on the payments made to businesses selling on theirwebsites.

EU finance ministers are set to take the bloc's tax rules further into the digital age by allowing reduced value added tax on ebooks and other digital publications.

U.S. companies have brought back billions in profits from overseas to take advantage of last year's tax break and all but 5 percent of itwent to share buybacks and debt repayment.

One of the key goals of the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is to encourage companies to invest and create more jobs in the U.S. This article discusses the key measures in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Actwhichwill affect transfer pricing andwhat should multinationals do to address these issues.

France's multi-layer regime to limit interest deductionswould be reduced to one under the country's 2019 budget draft.

The Tax Court of Canada ruled against the revenue agency's stance in a case involving the Bank of Montreal, the third defeat in a recent string of cases tied to its use of broad rules to combat tax avoidance.

Australia is facing a time crunch to enact changes to its research and development tax regime. The measures, in a bill passing through parliament,will apply to companies' income for the financial year starting July 1, 2018.

Heads of tax at retail companies say they are facing ever-more complex and outlandish claims for revenue from tax authorities around theworld.

The OECD announced September 27 that tax officials from 21 nations and other jurisdictions discussed their experiences regarding country-by-country reporting and how to most effectively use information to assess the tax risk multinational enterprise groups during aworkshop in Yangzhou that the OECD cosponsoredwith China's State Administration of Taxation.

The following reportwas presented at the 8th Annual Internal Revenue Service/Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center Joint Research Conference on Tax Administration, inwashington on June 20, 2018. Itwas prepared and presented by Thomas S. Neubig,who is a founding member of the TaxSageNetwork.com and is former deputy head of the Tax Policy and Statistics Division of the OECD in Paris. Neubig is based in Annandale, Virginia.

Mauritius should repeal statutory restrictions preventing its Financial Intelligence Unit from accessing tax data and start investigating tax evasion as a predicate offense of money laundering, a new Financial Action Task Force (FATF) report says.

A Canadian court reversed C $483 million (about $370.4 million) in adjustments to Cameco Corp.'s taxable income, holding that the company's cross-border uranium saleswere bona fide and properly priced using the comparable uncontrolled price method.

The IRS isn't flinching in the face of criticism that it may have overstepped its authority to draft a basis step-up antiabuse rule under the proposed regs for the global intangible low-taxed income provision.

Key questions remain on how the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act's international provisionswill be coordinatedwith existing transfer pricing rules and advance pricing agreement practices as the IRS faces ongoing resource constraints.

Luxembourg issued tax rulings allowing for double nontaxation to 70 companies besides McDonald's, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said.

The Supreme Court of India's finding that ambiguouslyworded exemption clauses and notifications must be construed in the government's favor has far-reaching implications because it overturns oft-cited precedent, according to practitioners.

After lengthy discussions that butted up against a deadline for announcing its budget targets, Italy's ruling coalition said itwill cut taxes and increase spending. Economists say the resulting deficit could violate EU target levels.

Competition regulation must keep upwith the realities of digitalization andwith new tools, expertise, and approaches, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act continues to require tax groups to adjust and refine their book- and tax-reporting processes as they transition from 2017-tax-year rules to those that apply for 2018 and beyond.

The recently proposed regulations interpreting section 951A (REG-104390-18)were eagerly anticipated, yet mostly answered only the easiest questions about global intangible low-taxed income. Left for later are the more controversial topics that could require regulatory rewrites andwhose resolutionwill likely affect companies' projected 2018 effective tax rates, and thus, earnings. (Prior coverage: Tax Notes Int'l , Sep. 17, 2018, p. 1208.) Taxpayers disagree on many of the unresolved questions, so Treasury's decisions could help some and hurt others.

EU member states maintain an edge over developing nations in negotiating bilateral tax treaties because of OECD models, experts told members of the European Parliament.

Declaring that "a post-Brexit Britainwill be an unequivocally pro-business Britain," Prime Minister Theresa May repeated her promise that companieswill enjoy the lowest rate of corporation tax in the G-20 if they invest there.

The Greek government is owed so much in tax arrears from households and companies that it could pay off more than half its massive public debts if it collected it all.

The IRS is planning to outline informal taxpayer guidance on separatewebpages for each of the major international provisions, similar to its approach to the transition tax.

The Dutch government is standing by its plans to abolish century-old dividend taxes and cut corporate tax in a bid to remain attractive to multinationals like Unilever, Shell, and Panasonic.

A spike in entrepreneurial ventures focused heavily on research and development,while earning little income, has sparked an IRS study to determine if such businesses can undertake tax-free distributions, according to an announcement Tuesday. The IRS said in a statement that it is taking a closer look atwhether businesses should be entitled to tax-free treatment during corporate spinoffswhen distributing stocks and securities of a controlled subsidiary to shareholderswithout recognizing gain themselves.

The BEPS definition of intangibles has thrown businesses in the pharmaceutical sector, among others, into uncertainty.

Andrea Bazzo Lauletta, partner at Mattos Filho, looks at Brazil's recent adoption of regulations concerning ultimate beneficial owners of investments in the country.

The Netherlandswants you to know that it is not a tax haven. But Menno Snel, the country's No. 2 finance official, grudgingly acknowledges that the Dutch have become experts at something else: aggressive tax planning.

British people are fed upwith austerity,with a two-to-one majority nowwilling to pay more tax in return for higher health and education spending, the highest support for a larger state in 15 years.

This article discusses of one of tax reform's "sticks"ÔøΩthe base erosion and anti-abuse tax (BEAT). The authors explain the calculation of the BEAT, some of the open issues and considerations, and possible, practical strategies for addressing BEAT exposure.

Much debate over the effectiveness of the 2017 tax overhaul has centered on corporate buybacks, and as November elections approach, that debate is sure to heat up. Buybacks accounted for the largest share of cash spending by S&P 500 companies in the first half of 2018ÔøΩthe first time that has happened in a decade.

Global companieswith Dutch entities could face higher taxes next year as the governmentworks to enact a rule limiting interest deductions. The proposed rule on earnings stripping,whichwould go into effect Jan. 1, compares a company's interest paymentswith its earnings from interest and its revenue to set a limit for how much can be deducted.