Int'l Tax News

Canada needs to reform its tax system to remain competitivewith the United States in thewake of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, according to a Canadian Senate committee report.

The Liberal Democrats have proposed publishing multinational companies' tax returns to expose and tackle tax avoidance in the UK.

Over the past few years, the OECD, the European Commission and, indeed, the U.S. government have been steering (and continue to steer) the ship of international tax law at unprecedented speed into a Bermuda Triangle of sorts, inwhich the compass of the typical, seasoned tax crew no longer points north and the charts don't exist. This article considers several risks for multinational corporationsÔøΩ BEPS implementation, U.S. Tax Cuts Act changes, aswell as digital taxation proposals and European state aid investigation.

Germany is planning to roll out measures to give comfort to companies fearful of an immediate increase in their tax burden due to Brexit. Existing corporate and individual tax rules may still apply "in caseswhere Brexitwould cause an inappropriate and possibly unjust legal consequence," according to a new bill, published by Germany's Federal Ministry of Finance.

The Dutch government's abrupt decision to retain its 15 percent tax on dividend distributions means it can use the freed-up funds to ax or amend other unpopular measures. The center-right government, led by Prime Minister Mark Rutte, is funneling 1.9 billion euros ($2.2 billion)ÔøΩthe cost of ending the taxÔøΩtoward abolishing or mitigating the impact of proposed changes that have drawn the ire of local corporations and investors in recent months.

Seventeen regulations implementing the 2017 tax law are at the top of the Treasury Department's action list for fiscal year 2019, according to a new regulatory plan. The list includes high-profile rules on the tax overhaul's limit on the amount of debt interest payments businesses canwrite off and guidance on foreign tax credit issues arising from new international-tax changes.

Britain is looking at four options for carbon pricing once it leaves the European Union, including launching its own emissions trading system said Emily Briggs, deputy head of emissions trading at Britain's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Britain could remain in the EU's Emissions Trading System; launch a UK ETSwhich links to the European scheme; set up a stand-alone UK ETS, or revert to a carbon tax.

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said onwednesday that Germany did not need to take a new approach to corporate tax reform but should look atwhether some aspects need to be adjusted.

PWC, on behalf of Saltchuk Resources Inc., has commented on proposed transition tax regulations (REG-104226-18) involving the election to pay the net tax liability under section 965 in installments and has urged that "covered acceleration events" be extended to include specified transactions so theywill not be precluded from use of the termination group exception.

Baker McKenzie has commented on proposed regulations (REG-104226-18) implementing section 965, suggesting that Treasury and the IRS extend the previously taxed income concept for distributions in 2017 to cover sales covered by section 1248 and to add specific language to the final regs to avoid double taxation.

Miller & Chevalier has requested clarification in proposed transition tax regulations (REG-104226-18) that a controlling interest in a corporation is not treated as actively traded property forwhich there is an established financial market for purposes of determining the cash position of a specified foreign corporation under section 965(c)(3).

The United States Council for International Business has suggested changes to and clarifications of proposed regulations (REG-104226-18) on the section 965 transition tax, addressing issues on the definition of section 965 earnings and how those earnings interactwith deficits and previously taxed income, how cash is defined, and how foreign taxes are determined.

Cargill Inc. has urged that proposed regulations (REG-104226-18) clarify that amounts determined under section 965 for section 958(a) shareholders that are members of a U.S. consolidated group are aggregated across consolidated group members prior to calculating the "greater of" such amounts for determining the consolidated group aggregate foreign cash position.

The FACT Coalition has asserted that proposed transition tax regulations (REG-104226-18) tilt strongly in favor of multinational companies over smallwholly domestic ones or individual taxpayers and, thus, any changes should strengthen rather thanweaken the rules as some commentators argue.

KPMG LLP has suggestedways to diminish confusion and complexity in proposed transition tax regulations (REG-104226-18) regarding the transfer by a U.S. shareholder of specified foreign corporation stock to an S corporationwhen the transaction doesn't result in a change in the net tax liability of the transferring U.S. shareholder.

Covington & Burling LLP has requested changes to examples in proposed transition tax regulations (REG-104226-18) to illustrate the application of section 318 to avoid expanding the downward attribution rules beyond their "long-understood scope"while also continuing to illustrate the application of the special attribution rule.

In this article, the authors discuss the base erosion and antiabuse tax implemented under the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, focusing on its relationshipwith U.S. tax treaties currently in force.

Guernsey's Policy & Resources Committee has released the draft 2019 budget,which includes a couple of proposals thatwould amend the corporate tax regime.

Data storage giantwestern Digital has petitioned the U.S. Tax Court challenging $516 million in deficiencies, most ofwhich relate to a $1.4 billion transfer pricing adjustment for intangibles licensed to an Irish subsidiary.

France's Parliament is considering amendments to the country's patent box regime ÔøΩwhich doesn't complywith OECD requirements ÔøΩ to lower the tax rate from 15 percent to 10 percent and include softwarewithin its scope.

The 11th-hour abandonment of a Dutch dividendwithholding tax repeal coincideswith a more aggressive plan to cut corporate taxes thanwas previously considered.

International discussions about a long-term solution on digital taxation continue to take shape as the OECD aims to update the incoming Japanese G-20 presidency on the subject in 2019, the organization's tax chief said.

Pascal Saint-Amans, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's director of tax policy, expressed optimism Tuesday that a task force chargedwith creating recommendations on how to dealwith digital tax issueswould agree on "some form of recommendation" in the next few months.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte abandoned a proposal to end a dividend-withholding tax in an about-face triggered by Unilever's decision to forgo a plan to consolidate its headquarters in the Netherlands.

U.S. corporations have largely abandoned the contentious deals that allowed them to shift their addresses abroad for a lower tax rate. Yet a key part of the transactions is continuing quietly even after President Donald Trump's tax overhaul. Although shifting headquarters abroad is less common, the move of intellectual property continues because the U.S. corporate rate cut isn't enough to change tax planning.

The so-called sixth Directive on Administrative Co-operation ("DAC6", the "Directive"), adopted by the Economic and Financial Affairs Council on May 25, 2018, requires EU member states to introduce in their national law mandatory disclosure rules for cross-border arrangements. Part 1 of this two-part series looks at the key features of the new regime and the requirements it introduces.

More companies may start tying tax policies into their corporate governance structures after unions accused Chevron Corporation of tax avoidance.

India and other countries unilaterally introducing online taxes should undo their rules if a global consensus is reached, a senior OECD official said. Grace Perez-Navarro, deputy director of the OECD's Center for Tax Policy and Administration, said nations imposing their own taxes on digital companieswere likelywaiting for an international agreement.

The Czech Republic is preparing to shift its investment incentive system to high-value projects like those in the technology sector, leaving manufacturing companieswith just a few months to seek favorable treatment.

William D. Nordhaus, the Yale economistwho shared the Nobel in economic science thisweek, has pointedwords for some of the experiments so farwith his theories on taxing polluters to fight climate change.

The so-called sixth Directive on Administrative Co-operation ("DAC6", the "Directive"), adopted by the Economic and Financial Affairs Council on May 25, 2018, requires EU member states to introduce in their national law mandatory disclosure rules for cross-border arrangements. Part 2 of this two-part series looks at the additional threshold test that many of the hallmarks set out in the Directive are subject toÔøΩthe main benefit test.

Austria is seeking to present a proposal for a European Union tax on the revenue of tech giants by next month, in a move intended to raise the pressure on the bloc's member states to come to an agreement over the controversial plans.

The idea of imposing a global minimum tax on a company's foreign entities is gaining steam at the OECD. France and Germany have raised the idea of a global minimum tax on multinationals' foreign entities and the OECD's digital task force is looking to deliver "something concrete" in 2019.

G-20 finance ministerswill get their first look at the OECD's analysis of companies' global tax reports at the Group of 20's June 2019 meeting in Fukuoka, Japan. The OECDwill analyze and calculate statistics from an aggregated data set of the reports so countries can better understand how to use the information to assess a company's tax risk.

China's anti-tax evasion campaign, first aimed at the film and TV industry, is likely to spread to the financial services, pharmaceutical, and real estate sectors.

Congress recently enacted Section 965, the "Mandatory Repatriation Tax," a central provision of the TCJA that imposes a one-time tax on U.S.-based multinationals' accumulated foreign earnings. This Essay considers the constitutional concerns raised by this provision and argues that Congress lacks the power to directly taxwealthwithout apportionment among the states. Moreover, the Essay argues that even if Section 965 is found to be an income tax (or, alternatively, an excise tax), the tax is nevertheless unconstitutionally retroactive.

Global foreign direct investment (FDI) fell by 41 percent to $470 billion in the first six months of this year, the lowest since 2005, preliminary figures from the United Nations trade and development agency UNCTAD showed on Monday.

French ministers agreed to cut taxes on corporate patent income to 10 percent Monday as part of awider overhaul to align the country's research incentiveswith global norms.

Mexico's First Circuit Court has recently ruled against a taxpayer involving two transfer pricing adjustments thatwill make it tougher for companies to complywith their domestic tax obligations on time.

Phillips 66 has asked the IRS to clear up ambiguous definitions in proposed transition tax regulations (REG-104226-18) and argues that the section 965 aggregate foreign cash position should exclude forward contracts and commodities inventory that are not traded on an established financial market.

In this article, the author examines the application of anti-hybrid dividend provisions enacted in section 245A(e) to disallow duplicate U.S. and foreign tax benefits for some dividends.

The OECD's Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes released another round of peer reviews assessing transparency, finding most of the countries "largely compliant."

The United Kingdom and the EU are finalizing a protocol to theirwithdrawal agreement concerning Gibraltar,which plans on having tax and customs cooperation arrangementswith Spain after Brexit.

Japan's prime minister said the governmentwill proceedwith a 2-percentage-point increase in the consumption tax despite concerns it could have a similar negative impact on economic activity as a previous rate hike.

On June 26 2018 the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (EUWA) received Royal Assent and therefore became an Act of the British Parliament (law).

The U.S. banking industry is enjoying the benefits of a growing economy and lower taxes, if the double-digit profit growth posted by three major lenders on Friday is any indication.

The IRS has scheduled an October 22 public hearing on proposed regulations (REG-104226-18) implementing section 965. Discussion topic outlines are due by October 16.

An Indian tribunal has restrained tax authorities from penalizing Uber Indiawhile it is hearing the company's claim that it is not liable for making tax deducted at source (TDS) payments on driver compensation.

Singapore's Ministry of Finance has taken issuewith a CNBC article claiming that the country's tax treatywith Indonesia "indulges" the city-state.

Under Dutch law and OECD guidance, profit attributable to a local permanent establishment created by an individual investor may be greater than the investor's return on capital as stipulated in an arm's-length agreement.