Int'l Tax News

Even if international consensus is reached on a minimum tax regime and a new approach to allocating taxing rights, practitioners are concerned that dissatisfied countrieswill retain their unilateral measures or push for further reforms.

If taxpayerswish to convince theIRSthat upcoming guidance should apply thedividends received deduction(DRD) to lower-tier dividends from specified foreign corporations (SFCs) to a controlled foreign corporation, they may havework to do.

Martin A. Sullivan ponders the possibilities of further base-erosion-and-profit-shifting-related estimates by the OECD and by others.

As part of its effort to prevent profit shifting, Norway'sMinistry of Financehas released a proposal for a newwithholding tax on interest and royalties paid to related parties resident in low-tax countries.

Following the approach recommended by the OECD and the African Tax Administration Forum, South Africa's National Treasury has proposed restricting deductible net interest as a percentage of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.

The Grand Chamber of the EU's highest court has found that Hungarian turnover-based taxes on telecom and retail operations don't violate the freedom of establishment, even though the tax burden falls heavily on foreign-parented operations.

Hungary's imposition of cascading fines related to Google Ireland's failure to submit a tax declaration for its advertising services constitutes a restriction on the freedom to provide services, according to the EU's highest court.

Although the United Kingdom's diverted profits tax (DPT) has become a powerful transfer pricing enforcement tool, itwasn't intended to be permanent and its future necessity remains under review, according toHM Revenue & Customsofficials.

TheOECD's proposals on the reallocation of taxing rights are "unnecessarily complex" and could lead to the establishment of tax avoidance practices and international conflicts, according to a study by European research institutes.

The United Kingdomwill take public comments about digital taxation into account as it shapes its trade policywith the United States, according to its negotiating mandate for a U.K.-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA).

Some of theworld's largest corporations are finding their financial statements under unwelcome scrutiny as activists ÔøΩ and candidates in the 2020 presidential race ÔøΩ claim they reveal low effective tax rates and loopholes in the system.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development appears to be broadening the scope of its proposed new global taxing regime to include more digital and online activities such as cloud computing and other business-to-business services.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's program for tax administrations and multinational corporations to openly discuss transfer pricing issues isn't currently taking on any new companies, an Internal Revenue Service official said Thursday.

Companies in Greece are concerned over the vague details of tax legislation that requires online platforms to provide information on sellers. The new law comeswith severe measures for non-compliance.

South Africa's Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has announced that the countrywill aim to increase its corporate income tax base and signalled a future rate reduction. The VAT rate remains unchanged amid minor changes on indirect taxes.

Lawmakerswho supported the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act's global intangible low-taxed income regime didn't realize that some multinational corporationswould end up paying much more in tax thanwas anticipated, according to a former senior tax counsel.

In economic analysis, Martin A. Sullivan examines how any OECD requirement that large multinational corporations calculate their pillar 1 amount A profit reallocations from source countries to market countries could result in significant tax increases.

The OECD's base erosion and profit-shifting project had a catchy name: BEPS. But in a recent statement from the OECD/G-20 inclusive framework on BEPS, the organization refers to its latest undertaking as the "Two-Pillar Approach to Address the Tax Challenges Arising From the Digitalisation of the Economy." The inability to come upwith a succinct title for a project that in reality is awholesale rewrite of international tax rules reflects a deeper problem: The project means different things to its participants, its opponents, and even its advocates.

The Belgian tax administration says patent boxes should be exempted from the OECD's proposed global anti-base-erosion (GLOBE) minimum tax.

G-20 finance ministers haveendorsed an updated roadmap to guide OECD-level negotiations on a global tax overhaul deal by the end of 2020, underscoring the importance of agreement on elements of that solution by July.

Legislation recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representativeswould force large multinational companies to provide country-by-country financial reports that the bill's Democratic sponsors saywould reveal the possible use of offshore tax havens.

Anew economic analysis fromKPMGthrows into question the need for differentiation in amount B of theOECD's so-called unified approach for modernizing corporate tax rules for the digital age.

In economic analysis, Martin A. Sullivan uses details from an OECD proposal and real but imperfect data to mimic how the OECD may begin to tax the digital economy.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to deliver remarks on Saturday in Germany expressing his company's acceptance of having to pay more taxes under global tax reforms."I understand that there's frustration about how tech companies are taxed in Europe.we alsowant tax reform and I'm glad the OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] is looking at this," excerpts of Zuckerberg's speech read, Reuters reports.

A bill proposed by two Democratic senatorswould reverse a recent U.S. Treasury Department proposed regulation thatwould exempt corporate income already taxed at high rates from the 2017 tax overhaul's global minimum tax.