2026

A proposal to simplify Canadian transfer pricing documentation for small companies and transactions wouldn’t broaden compliance or offer easier reporting burdens, tax practitioners said.

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Think tank Bruegel released an August 27 policy brief co-authored by Pascal Saint-Amans arguing that successful anti-profit-shifting reforms have created a tax policy trilemma among sovereignty, revenue, and investment neutrality within the EU single market. The authors urge Brussels to leverage pillar 2’s common tax base calculations to build a harmonized corporate tax regime for large multinationals or, alternatively, pursue targeted coordination through binding limits on national tax incentives, reduced withholding taxes, and an external corporate tax border.

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Sternberg argues against adopting a value-added tax in the United States, warning that introducing a broad-based consumption tax would not replace existing income taxes but rather layer on top of them to fuel European-style government spending growth. Highlighting compliance burdens on small businesses and Europe’s ongoing fiscal struggles despite robust VAT regimes, the analysis contends that Washington's deficit stems from undisciplined spending rather than a revenue shortage.

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A discussion paper from the Institute for Public Policy Research urges the U.K. to rebalance its tax system by shifting the fiscal burden away from younger workers toward property and accumulated wealth, while establishing new mechanisms to tax artificial intelligence. Authored by Oxford Professor Ben Ansell, the report proposes replacing council tax and stamp duty with a 0.65 percent proportional property tax, aligning capital gains and income tax rates, extending National Insurance to pensioners, and introducing progressive consumption and AI taxes to tackle aging demographics and technological displacement.

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The Ireland government’s expenditure on its research and development tax credit rose to €1.26 billion ($1.47 billion) in 2024 as more claimants took advantage of corporation tax relief. Foregone revenue from the country’s most popular corporation tax credit rose nearly 30% on the 2023 figure of €976 million, according to figures released Wednesday by the Department of Finance.

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The United Nations should centralize more power in a future global tax agreement’s top decision-making body and make it easier for countries to trigger taxing rights over business activity under the deal, a think tank closely tied to developing countries said.

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This article analyzes what it identifies as the first reported Italian judicial decision on the Digital Services Tax, in which the First Instance Tax Court of Milan considered whether an online retailer’s consignment sales involved a taxable “multilateral digital interface.” The court held that the revenues fell outside the DST because customers interacted only with the retailer, which acted as a principal rather than an intermediary, and not with suppliers or other users through the website. The article discusses the ruling’s implications for multinational groups operating hybrid direct-sales and marketplace models, including revenue segmentation, contractual structuring, transfer pricing, and potential refund claims.

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U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham refused to rule out tax increases in the upcoming October 28 budget, acknowledging during a visit to Ukraine that the government faces a challenging fiscal landscape driven by public and defense spending commitments. While defending recent tax cuts on energy and business rates as fully funded, Burnham emphasized a cautious fiscal approach amid rising inflation and ruled out calling a general election this year.

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The OECD advised Peru in an August 25 tax policy review to rethink the design of its proposed private special economic zones (ZEEPs) by shifting from generous corporate income tax holidays to broader expenditure-based incentives. The organization warned that the 15 percent global minimum tax framework could render ZEEP income exemptions ineffective for large multinationals—shifting tax revenues to foreign jurisdictions via top-up taxes—and urged Peru to adopt targeted eligibility criteria, investment tax credits, and a potential qualified domestic minimum top-up tax to safeguard its domestic tax base.

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An Irish top court ruling empowering government officials to make appeals hearings public would potentially force multinationals to unveil sensitive tax information.

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