Int'l Tax News

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.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta signed a new finance bill into law on Friday, cutting in half a new fuel tax that had led to public anger and strikes but stopping short of demands to scrap or delay it.

The top economic adviser to Brazilian presidential front-runner Jair Bolsonaro is ducking the limelight after an apparent dress-down from his boss over a tax plan.

Argentina is dropping plans to let corporations adjust their balance sheets for rampant inflation to reduce their taxable income. Under the old plan, companies could alter the value of their assetswhen prices rise by 100 percent over a three-year period, but the revised planwill force firms to use consumer prices instead of the higherwholesale price index in their income tax filings.

The IRS is considering giving more time and more guidance for multinationals looking to adjust the basis in the stock of some of their offshore assets under proposed transition rules for the one-time repatriation tax.

Revised transfer pricing guidelines are providing clarity to the Singapore tax community on the implementation of the amended transfer pricing legislation. The revisions include a penalty for noncompliancewith the mandatory transfer pricing documentation requirements, selective adoption of the OECD's BEPS Action Plan 13, among others.

New Zealand's Taxworking Groupwon't recommend a change to the country's 28% corporate tax ratewhen it makes its final report in February. New Zealand's government tasked the groupwith reviewing the country's entire tax system.

European Union analysis that large digital companies like Google Inc., Facebook Inc., and Amazon.com Inc. don't pay enough in tax is flawed, according to a study by Copenhagen Economics, an independent Danish-based consultancy.

Panasonic has announced that it is relocating its headquarters from the U.K. to the Netherlands, blaming concerns over Brexit-related uncertainty. But is there a different reason behind the move? This article explores the likelihood that Brexit concernswere the main reason for the relocation and posits another reason for the move.

The Hong Kong government enacted legislation in July 2018 to implement key actions arising from the OECD's BEPS agenda via its Inland Revenue Amendment No. 6 Ordinance 2018. The Ordinance codifies transfer pricing rules into Hong Kong's domestic tax law, introduces mandatory transfer pricing documentation requirements, expands the Advance Pricing Arrangement regime, and introduces a penalty regimewith potential civil and criminal sanctions. This article is a summary of the authors' key observations regarding the Ordinancewith a focus on the transfer pricing aspects.

France's promised business tax cutwill be delayed nine months according to its budget released Sept. 24.

Canadian manufacturerswant the government to offer fullwrite-offs for machinery and assets in a bid to keep upwith the changes included in U.S. tax reform.

Businesses should review existing stapled structures, set up to convert trading income into more favorably taxed passive income, as Australia's government moves a bill through parliament to crack down on the practice.

The IRS has announced that the advance pricing and mutual agreement program has reorganized to consolidate the program's resources to improve internal processes, resolve disputes, and increase taxpayer service.

In this article, the author discusses the growing use of cross-border audits, examining their connection to the push for transparency and how they operate bothwithin and outside the European Union. She addresses concerns about taxpayer secrecy, the potential benefits for both tax authorities and taxpayers, and discusses how taxpayers can prepare to face this new form of audit.

In this article, the authors discuss Alta Energy, inwhich the Tax Court of Canada held that a Luxembourg company's sale of shares in a Canadian shale development company to Chevron Inc.was exempt from capital gains tax as treaty-protected property under the Canada-Luxembourg treaty.

Too many EU tax treaties unfairly restrict developing countries' source taxing rights, and EU member states should reexamine and renegotiate those treaties to effectively lead on policy coherence for development, a new report says.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told business leaders she is in favor of ending the reunification tax for all taxpayers, and that Germany can't "simply decouple" from theworld in thewake of U.S. corporate tax reform.

The European Commission's finding that McDonald's didn't receive illegal state aid from Luxembourg doesn't mean there is nothingwrongwith the EU tax system, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said.

Treasury may be trying to blunt some practitioner criticism about the potential breadth of the global intangible low-taxed income provision's pro rata share antiabuse rule, including its capacity to catch older transactions.

It's hard not to notice the newest employees at South Korea's Incheon International Airport. They're extremely polite, they can help passengers find their gates, and they're more than happy to take photoswith passengers. And each of them is fluent in four languages: Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean.

Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a September 24 speech in Vienna that she has "asked three experts to look into the implications of the future of digitization for competition policy," and theywill present their findings and recommendations next March.

The Court of Justice of the European Union has published the reference for a case (C-458/18) onwhether provisions under article 2 of the EU parent-subsidiary directive (2011/96/EU) should be interpreted to mean that the expression "companies incorporated under the law of the United Kingdom" applies to companies incorporated in Gibraltar.

Many of theworld's major financial centers are undermining other countries' tax laws and facilitating crime and corruptionwithout having toweather a listing on the EU's tax haven blacklist, according to new research.

An administrative appeals panel has reversed a decision by Brazil's Federal Tax Service (RFB),which denied awhirlpool subsidiary's deduction of an embezzlement loss on grounds that the unit's directorwas not awhirlpool employee.

A higher corporation tax ratewith a reduced rate for small businesses and greater transparency are among the proposals the Labour Partywants to introduce to make the U.K. tax system fairer.

Tax campaigners and academics have boycotted the KPMG "responsible tax" event this pastwednesday over concerns about the firm's past role in helping large multinational companies minimize their tax bills and the inclusion of a rightwing think-tank as a prominentspeaker. The eventwas billed as an "idea exchange"where a range of participants including politicians, academics, campaigners, and policymakerswould discuss the topic of "responsible tax".

Companies' record stock repurchases this year are causing profits to appear stronger and fueling the stock market's record run. A key driver in the surge of stock buybackswas last December's tax overhaul,which lowered companies' tax bills and freed up funds that many companies are using for share repurchases.

Peruvian President Martín Vizcarra on September 13 signed a legislative decree implementing the general antiavoidance rule introduced into Peruvian legislation on July 19, 2012.

A draft resolution recently released by European Union lawmakers contains an amendment thatwould let individual countries decide the percentage of a tax to be imposed on large digital companies.

Although proposed regs fail to completely resolve ambiguity surroundingwhether business interest limitations apply for purposes of calculating global intangible low-taxed income, until stated otherwise, they are arguably applicable.

The IRS has proposed (REG-130244-17) removing final regulations (T.D. 9790) under section 385 that provide minimum documentation requirements for some related-party interests in a corporation to be treated as indebtedness for federal tax purposes and has proposed conforming changes to other final regs to reflect the proposed removal of the documentation rules.