2018

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire's efforts to rally his European Union colleagues around a new tax on tech giants fell short, as countries skeptical of the plan doubled down on their opposition, and others, including Italy, said they'll push aheadwith their own plans.

Germany's Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday the European Commission should revise its plan for a EU-wide tax on large digital companies and stressed the new levy should be applied only if there is no global deal by the summer of 2020.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday Francewould accept to delay to the end of 2020 the application of a European Union tax on large digital firms if a dealwere reached at EU level on the levy by the end of this year.

Itwas conceived as a big Brussels pitch to disillusioned voters ahead of next year's European Parliament elections, a newway to tax big internet giants so often accused of gaming corporate tax rules. But the EU's "GAFA" turnover tax (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) risks being stillborn.

EU governments have abandoned hopes of agreeing a European digital services tax on internet giants by next month after talkswere beset by opposition from member states led by the Nordics.

The Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation has issued a statement onwhat remains to be addressed following the release of the Paradise Papers, including: tax havens' establishment of public registers of beneficial ownership of companies; the U.S. signing up for the OECD common reporting standard; and an end to corporate tax secrecy for multinationals.

It's that time of the yearwhen our thoughts naturally turn to autumn leaves, spiced apple cider, and the latest rankings ÔøΩ not just for college football, but also for tax competition. The Tax Foundation has released its International Tax Competitiveness Index (ITCI) for 2018.

Countries may not be following through on threats to challenge the U.S. foreign-derived intangible income (FDII) provisions under international trade law because the measure hasn't had any significant effect.

The United Kingdomwill use its recently announced digital services tax (DST) to point out potential improvements to the EU's proposed DST, Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said.

The new tax on digital services announced in the U.K. Autumn Budget 2018 raises many questions around its implementation and application.

A scrap among European Union countries over a proposed tax on tech giants is set to resume on Tuesday,when finance ministers try to strike a balance between luring business and addressing popular discontent about companies not paying their fair share.

Lockheed Martin Corp. and fellow defense industry giantswant to know if foreign military sales are eligible for a tax deduction aimed at increasing U.S. exports. The 2017 tax overhaul includes a tax break to encourage companies to export U.S.-made goods, known as the foreign-derived intangible income deduction, but the lawwaswritten in away that doesn't make it clearwhether income from foreign military sales qualifies for the deduction, given that the U.S. government acts as an intermediary in the sales.

Philip Hammond, a man so detail-focused as to have earned the nickname "spreadsheet Phil", looks an unlikelywarrior in the latest "tech-lash". But thisweek the UK's chancellor of the exchequer joined the vanguard of finance ministers fighting back against tax arbitrage by theworld's largest technology companies.

Britain's proposed "digital services tax"would reduce the cash flow of big tech companies for years to come and scale back the benefits accrued from US President Donald Trump's tax cuts, according to credit rating agency Moody's.

As discussions on a long-term global solution continue, New Zealand has joined the ranks of countries exploring interim measures to tax the digital economy, asking its tax officials for advice.

The IRS is aware of apparent anomalies created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act's (P.L. 115-97) new provisions on foreign partners' gains from a U.S. partnership andwill continue to examine how to address them.

Banks got awhack in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (P.L. 115-97). Although industrial multinationals of all parentage initially complained about the base erosion and antiabuse tax, they quickly figured out how to prevent deductible payments to foreign related parties from exceeding 3 percent of their group deductions. It's hard to avoid BEAT for bankswith cross-border operations,whose U.S. affiliates make deductible payments to foreign related parties all day long. Two panels at the recent American Bar Association Section of Taxation joint fall CLE meeting in Atlanta considered the problems.

From taxes to trade, this year's midterm electionswill have an impact on a range of issues facing American corporations. The Trump administrationwants to make permanent new income tax cuts for individuals passed last year, a move thatwall Street analysts say could bolster consumer confidence and lift prospects for retailers, auto makers, tech firms and other consumer-goods companies.

A draft ruling by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO)would prevent taxpayers from shielding related-party debt from transfer pricing adjustments orwithholding tax by claiming that Australia's debt-equity characterization ruleswould treat it as equity.

European Union finance ministerswill discuss nextweek awatered down proposal on an EU-wide digital tax, a document seen by Reuters shows, trying to persuade reticent governments to agree on the plan by the end of the year.

German finance minister Olaf Scholz has rebuffed calls from the country's business leaders for corporate tax cuts, despite new figures showing that tax revenueswill continue to rise sharply.

Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's president elect, has a bold tax plan including a flat 20 percent corporate tax rate.

Israel's tax authority is coming under criticism from tax advisers for undermining efforts to encourage more multinational investment in Israeli technology companies.

European Union finance ministerswill discuss nextweek awatered down proposal on an EU-wide digital tax trying to persuade reticent governments to agree on the plan by the end of the year.

IT giant Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. faces continued troubles over a tax disputewith Indian authorities that has tied up $405 million. India's tax authority is seeking the equivalent of $455 million in taxes originating from a disputed 2016 share buyback.

As companies close their first tax year following the TCJA, many multinational firms are planning around new provisions thatwill impact their intercompany transactions. One area that is attracting significant attention is the new BEAT provision and how the identification and classification of intercompany expenses can minimize its potential effects. This articlewill summarize the BEAT provision and discuss tax and transfer pricing considerationswhen determining the appropriate allocation of intercompany expenses.

Houseways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) called the U.K.'s new cross-border digital services tax troublesome, saying itwould prompt the U.S. to review its own tax and regulatory approaches in global markets.

In recent years, estimates of profit shifting by multinational companies have indicated substantial revenue costs to the U.S. government, likely in excess of $100 billion per year. The TCJA has changed the climate for profit shifting in several importantways: the lower U.S. corporate rate should lower the incentive to shift profits away from the United States,while "territorial" tax treatment (of some income) and the removal of tax upon repatriation should raise the incentive to shift profits abroad. This paper evaluates tax law changes under the TCJA, discussing their likely effect on the magnitude of profit shifting.

A group of 15 European businesses havewritten a letter to EU finance ministers about their "serious concerns" about the proposed digital services tax,which they saywould deprive businesses of an essential source of capital and subsequentlyweaken their ability to compete in the global economy.

Despite growing opposition to the digital services tax (DST) concept being floated in the EU, one Canada-based academic sees a clear case for it as away to tax location-specific rent that digital platforms earn.

The United States is prepared to act if the United Kingdom and other countries press aheadwith digital services taxes (DSTs),which are attempts to grab extra revenue, a top U.S. House taxwriter has said.

The IRS has issued proposed regulations (REG-114540-18) that reduce the amount determined under section 956 for some domestic corporations that own, or are treated as owning, stock in foreign corporations.

When it comes to changes in long-standing policy of taxation of a controlled foreign corporation's investment in U.S. property, the IRS and Treasury have proven that big things come in small packages.

Kenneth Hayduk of General Dynamics has requested guidance providing that documents typically created in the ordinary course of a taxpayer's business are sufficient to establish a presumption of foreign use to satisfy the foreign use requirement in section 250(b)(4)(A)(ii).

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has urged Treasury to redouble its efforts to get the European Union to engage in multilateral discussions regarding any plan for a digital services tax, saying in part that proposals from individual EU member states improperly target large American technology companies.

In this article, the author discusses trade and competition and compares U.S. efforts to regulate monopolieswith EU attempts to regulate state aid.

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond's budgetwas "a bit of a gamble" that offered "sticking plasters rather than long-term solutions" to tax issues, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

The potential parade of horribles from changes to the U.S. downward attribution rule continues to grow as new anxieties arise over the burdens it imposes on information reporting andwithholding.

The IRSwill revise the inclusion date definitionwithin its guidance on the global intangible low-taxed income provision, according to an official.

In this report, Ram discusses the history of the enactment of subpart F and reviews crucial documents and ideas that helped shape it.

Looking behind the headlines from the Chancellor's speech, the U.K. government's Budget sets out a number of important tax changes for business. Has the U.K.'s business tax code become more complex as a result of the Budget measures?

While tech companies and investors digested the finality of a digital services tax, announced in the U.K.'s budget, the fact that the government quietly amended its royaltieswithholding tax ruleswithin its 106-page red Budget book escaped their attention. Now, U.K. income linked to intellectual property in low-tax regionswill be taxedwhichwill further effect tech firms already hurting from digital services tax.

Pfizer posted a 45 percent jump in third-quarter profit, as it benefited from sharply lower taxes due to this year's federal tax cut and slightly higher revenue.

China may try to dress thewounds of global carmakers, but itwill be able to provide little more than a Band-Aid. The country's top economic-planning body is consideringwhether to cut in half the 10% tax that customers pay on new cars thereÔøΩthat might help prop up falling demand, but the industry has bigger problems.

Britain said itwould tax the revenue that online platforms such as Google, Facebook and Amazon make in the country to update a system that had not kept pacewith changing digital business models.