Int'l Tax News

Amendments to Slovenia's Corporate Income Tax Act introduce a new general antiabuse rule and controlled foreign corporation rules consistentwith EU Directive 2016/1164 (the anti-tax-avoidance directive, or ATAD).

The European Commission has issued a non-confidential version of its decision finding that Gibraltar gave many multinational companies illegal preferential tax treatment.

In the nonconfidential version of its decision on Gibraltar's prior royalty and interest exemptions, the European Commission's competition authority said that small jurisdictions' preferential treatment of passive income is inherently selective in favor of multinationals.

Lee Sheppard considers the section 956 proposed regulations and their potential effect on borrowing practices.

The High Court of Bombay found that the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal did not address the issue of taxable royalties, even though it had all information necessary to address it. Therefore, the appealwill be restored to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal,which must decide on the question of law:whether there is a taxable royaltywhen Sony Pictures Networks pays fees to distribute television channels owned by associate enterprises.

Business at the OECD, also known as the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD (BIAC), has issued a list of principles for digital tax methods,which include respect the Ottawa Taxation Framework principles, reduce occurrence of double taxation, reach a global agreement, and lessen administrativeweight on taxpayers.

Theworld Customs Organization has issued new guidance for customs authorities and businesses on tax and customs practice. Part 1 of this two-part insight looks atwhat the changeswill mean for companieswhich import into China.

Economists from across Canada challenged Ontario Premier Doug Ford's assertion that his provincewas headed for a recession because of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's carbon tax.

More companies operating in India may be embroiled in disputeswith authorities over claims their profits aren't taxable since they don't have permanent business operations in the country. Indian tax authorities are becoming more aggressive in challenging their claims and finding that companies have a physical presenceÔøΩor permanent establishmentÔøΩin the country, meaning that their profits are subject to taxes.

TomTom has become the latest Dutch-listed company to take advantage of a tax loophole, in a single stroke saving investors millions by allowing them to avoid the Netherlands' 15 percent dividendwithholding tax. Using the loophole, the navigation software and hardware provider said itwould return 750 million euros ($852.6 million) of the sale of its telematics unit back to investors.

Companies operating in an uncertain Brexit environment could see their tax bills go up if they don't take into account volatility in the poundwhen they price intercompany transactions.

The EU Council of Ministers reached agreement on establishingwhistle-blower protection rules for employeeswho disclose company tax evasion and other illegal activities.Under the Jan. 25 agreement, private companieswith 50 employees or more and 10 million euro ($11.4 million) annual turnoverwould be required to set up an internal reporting system.

Despite four dissents inwayfair, all nine Justices agreed on one thingÔøΩthat Quillwas "wrong on its own termswhen itwas decided in 1992, since then the Internet revolution has made its earlier error all the more egregious and harmful." But the one error in Quill that the Court did not addresswas the most serious jurisprudentially: the deification of Complete Auto's empty phrase: substantial nexus. This Article addresses the Quill court's erroneous use of the term "substantial nexus,"which allowed it to bifurcate Due Process and Commerce Clause nexus, and thewayfair court's failure to finally put this mistake to bed. The Court in Quill latched on to this empty phrase of substantial nexus from Complete Auto to clear theway for Congress to overrule its decision.

The Trump administration's $1.5 trillion cut tax package appeared to have no major impact on businesses' capital investment or hiring plans, according to a survey released a year after the biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax code in more than 30 years.

The European Commission on Thursday called on Britain to alignwith EU law its income tax rules concerning tax relief for losses resulting from the sales of shares, or face court action. Currently, only shares in companieswhich carry out their business activities mainly in the United Kingdom can qualify for the relief.

Francewill stick to its forecast for 2019 economic growth of 1.7 percent and broader plans to tax theworld's biggest Internet and software companies, finance minister Bruno Le Maire told Reuters Television on Thursday.

Six Democrats and a Republican reintroduced a measure Thursday in the U.S. House of Representatives to tax carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions, and to redirect the proceeds to individual households thatwould inevitably face higher energy costs.

Financial institutions are feeling the pressure of laying the groundwork for the reporting requirements of the EU's mandatory disclosure rules (DAC6) as they take on a more vital role in tax planning and transparency.

Economists from across Canada challenged Ontario Premier Doug Ford's assertion that his provincewas headed for a recession because of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's carbon tax.

Multinational companies operating in the European Union can relax because lawmakers' latest push to force them to publicly report profits and taxes paid by country have stalled.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said atworld Economic Forum in Davos that the U.S. supports France's push to create a new global tax system.

The Dutch tax haven blacklistwill be used primarily in connectionwith the introduction of controlled foreign corporation, conditionalwithholding tax and advance tax ruling measures against international tax avoidance.

Mayors of both political parties have a message for the federal government: Prioritize your climate-change policies. Local leaderswho gathered inwashington, D.C., for the U.S. Conference of Mayors'winter meeting are ramping up pressure on the new Congress and the Trump administration to establish a national climate policywith aggressive greenhouse gas cuts and clean energy targets.

Panama recently enacted a law amending the country's transfer pricing rules and establishing a method for determining income derived from qualifying intangible assets that is eligible for preferential tax treatment.

Lithuania's State Tax Inspectorate recently issued rules approved by the Parliament in December to bring domestic tax legislation in linewith Council Directive (EU) 2016/1164 (the anti-tax-avoidance directive).

Although government officials have made a priority of ending the Netherlands' reputation for enabling aggressive multinational tax avoidance, a report by the Dutch government's economic research bureau says recent reforms may be inadequate.

Brazil's new economy minister reportedly told business leaders that the government is studying a plan to slash corporate tax rates and make up for the revenue hit by taxing dividend and interest payouts.

EU member states are poised to agree onwhistleblower protections and harmonized procedures for cross-border mergers and divisions.

While Ireland opposes global minimum taxation as a long-term solution to tax digitalization,what's lacking in the ongoing debate is a focus on value creation as it relates to tax incidence, Ireland's finance minister said.

Practitioners have called into question inconsistencies in the treatment of transactions involving controlled foreign corporations that allow noneconomic and duplicative losses in some circumstances.

Four former chairs of the Federal Reserve have joinedwith leading economists from both major political parties to issue an unprecedented call for a carbon tax in the US, saying "immediate" action is needed to address the risks of climate change.

Transparency and information-exchange efforts in the U.S. and around theworld are making it harder for multinational companies and tax evaders to hide information, an OECD tax official said.

Vodafone's India unit has taken the fight for refund of $675 million from Indian tax authorities to the country's top court,which agreed to hear the telecom company's in yet another tax battlewith the south Asian nation.

Cyprus has implemented the EU Anti-Tax Avoidance DirectiveÔøΩone of many taxation changes in Cyprus in 2019. In addition to the implementation of the Directive, 2019will be the first year inwhich the Cyprus tax authorities have to dealwith the new provisions for interest on back-to-back inter-company loans,which took effect on July 1, 2017.

With the recent tax demand for 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion) from Perrigo Co Plc and the news that Analog Devices Inc. faces a much smaller, but potentially significant, tax battle of its ownwith Ireland, the cases signal that Ireland is taking a tougher linewith U.S. companies using the nation to lower its taxes and as a gateway to Europe.

Petrobras, Brazil's state oil company, is consideringwhether and how to appeal a $400 million tax fight loss at the hands of an administrative appeals court. The court on Jan. 17 upheld a revenue service assessment on the 2010 profits of Petrobras' subsidiary in Holland.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the governmentwould continue cutting taxes on businesswhatever the outcome of a public debate on policies.

Belgium has become the latest European country after France, Austria and Italy, to begin discussions on taxing digital companies like Facebook Inc. Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Amazon Inc.

The recent decision from the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal in the Periar Trading case in India on the tax treatment of the conversion of preference shares into equity shareswill have significance for foreign investors.

An all-star lineup of economists, from Alan Greenspan to Paul Volcker, is endorsing a plan to combat climate change by slapping a tax on greenhouse gas emissions and then distributing the revenue to American households.

The global effort to stop corporate tax avoidance has failed because multinationals can still shift profits to very low-tax jurisdictions, a coalition of nongovernmental organizations said in a Jan. 17 report. The group calls for governments to find an alternative to transfer pricing, the system bywhich businesses assign value to their intercompany cross-border transactions.

The average effective corporate tax rate in the European Union is 15 percentÔøΩlower than the nominal rate of 23 percent because of sweetheart tax rulings, patent boxes, and other exemptions. That's according to a report from the European Green Party,which said the disparity underlines a corporate "race to the bottom" and the need for reforms to the bloc's corporate tax policy, including a common corporate tax base (CCTB) and public reporting of companies' global tax reports.

Six European countries face inevitable legal challenges on new digital taxes they're imposing on the revenues of tech giants like Amazon.com Inc. and Facebook Inc., according to tax practitioners. Challengeswill likely arise at the start of 2020,when companies are first assessed for the tax, and an international trade dispute could begin brewing even sooner. Here are fiveways the tech giants challenge the taxes.

The South Korean governmentwill keep the country's stock transaction tax despite calls from local brokerages to repeal it. An official of the finance tax division of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, Nam Han-sam, confirmed the government's position in an interviewwith Bloomberg Tax Jan. 17, a turnaround following an earlier Jan. 15 meetingwhere lawmakers indicated reform could happen.

Malaysia's intake of direct taxes rose to a record last year, easing pressure on a budget deficit that's expected to mark a five-year high.

The socialist government of Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez introduced a bill creating two new taxes on digital services and financial transactions based on the proposed EU-wide digital services tax thatwas stalled following opposition from several member states. Spain's versionwill levy a 3% tax on online advertising, online platforms, and sales of user data by companieswith global revenues of more than ÔøΩ750m that bring in at least ÔøΩ3m in digital services revenue in Spain.

Multinational titans like Apple and Amazon have long sought out more favorable tax arrangementswith European Union governments. The extent towhich the European Commission is able to rein them in could become clearer this year. The Commission has already issued decisionswhich say that Apple, Amazon, Fiat and Starbucks received unlawful state aid in the form of preferential transfer pricing rulings that let the companies shift profits to avoid paying taxes; the companies have appealed the decisions to the European General Court.

Certain types of foreign entities like limited liability companies and partnerships are trying to make a "check-the-box" election on how to be taxed in the U.S., but they can't because of a procedural hang-up caused by the government shutdown.

Threeweeks after the Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez called for an income tax rate of as much as 70% on thewealthiest Americans, billionaire investor Ray Dalio suggested that the idea may have legs in the run up to the U.S. presidential election. Discussing the outlook for a slowingworld economy, Dalio said that next yearwill see "the beginning of thinking about politics and how that might affect economic policy beyond. Something like the talk of the 70 percent income tax, for example,will play a bigger role."