International

  • April 24, 2024

    Tax Pros Suggest How HMRC Can Assess Digitalization Effort

    HM Revenue & Customs should abide by a set of benchmarks when evaluating tests of its digitalization program for income tax self-assessment forms, two groups representing U.K. tax professionals said.

  • April 24, 2024

    Ex-England Footballer Banned As Director For Unpaid Tax

    Former England football international John Barnes has been banned from being a company director after his business failed to pay more than £190,000 ($236,000) in tax, a U.K. government agency announced on Wednesday.

  • April 24, 2024

    Papua New Guinea Commits To Automatic Tax Info Exchange

    Papua New Guinea has committed to enacting the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's standard for automatic exchange of financial account information in tax matters by September 2027, the OECD said Wednesday.

  • April 24, 2024

    EU Keeps Gibraltar, Panama, UAE On AML Blacklist

    Gibraltar, Panama and the United Arab Emirates should remain on the European Union's blacklist of high-risk countries for money laundering, the European Parliament said, stopping the EU from following the lead of a global organization promoting standards for countries to fight those crimes.

  • April 24, 2024

    EU Expected To OK Withholding Tax, Digital VAT Laws In May

    European Union finance ministers are expected to agree on a new withholding tax refund law and a package to modernize value-added tax reporting at their May 14 meeting, an EU official said Wednesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

  • April 24, 2024

    EU Says 3 States Aren't Correctly Following AML Law

    The European Commission said Wednesday that three European Union countries — Ireland, France and Latvia — aren't correctly implementing the bloc's laws against money laundering, meaning that the countries now have two months to correct the shortcomings.

  • April 23, 2024

    Treasury Says Aussie Royalty Ruling Contradicts US, OECD

    Australia's updated draft ruling regarding when payments for the rights to distribute software would be considered royalties conflicts with OECD and U.S. standards on the treatment of such deals, a U.S. Department of the Treasury official said in a letter made public Tuesday.

  • April 23, 2024

    Biz Ownership Law Constitutional, Lawmakers Tell 11th Circ.

    The Corporate Transparency Act is a garden-variety exercise of Congress' powers to address threats to national security, foreign affairs, commerce and tax collection, five Democratic lawmakers told the Eleventh Circuit, disputing a ruling that the law is unconstitutional.

  • April 23, 2024

    DC Circ. Backs Tax Penalties Against Swiss Couple

    A Swiss couple who incurred $500,000 in penalties for failing to report millions of dollars they held in Swiss bank accounts can't get out of paying, the D.C. Circuit ruled Tuesday, rejecting their argument that the IRS didn't properly approve the fines.

  • April 23, 2024

    Int'l Pricing Pact Guidance Is Coming Soon, IRS Official Says

    Updated Internal Revenue Service guidance that would help multinational corporations pursue advance pricing agreements will likely be released in a few months, an agency official said Tuesday.

  • April 23, 2024

    Disney, IBM Stuck With Tax On Royalties, NY Top Court Holds

    New York's highest court rejected Disney and IBM's arguments that the state unconstitutionally denied their attempts to take tax deductions on royalties received from foreign affiliates, holding Tuesday that the law at issue didn't discriminate against interstate commerce.

  • April 23, 2024

    EV Levy Could Blunt Swiss Climate Plan Pains, Report Says

    The first report on the long-term fiscal impact of climate change mitigation measures in Switzerland, released Tuesday, projects a major negative impact on public funds as certain tax sources dry up, but a planned replacement levy on electric vehicles could lessen that effect.

  • April 23, 2024

    Irish Minister Warns Corp. Tax Windfall Still Shrouds Deficit

    Ireland's budget is projected to have an €8.6 billion ($9.2 billion) surplus this year, but the country's finance minister again cautioned Tuesday that without the slowly decreasing windfall corporate tax receipts there would actually be a deficit.

  • April 23, 2024

    Tax Experts Want Cut To Healthcare Insurance Levy

    Tax experts on Tuesday urged the U.K. government to partially suspend a levy on healthcare insurance products, after it revealed record premium tax revenue of £8.1 billion ($10.1 billion) last year.

  • April 23, 2024

    Talk Of Int'l Wealth Tax Fuels Debate On UN Vs. OECD

    Discussion of an international tax on the world's wealthiest individuals has intensified a debate about whether international tax policy would be better steered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development or the United Nations.

  • April 23, 2024

    EU Parliament OKs Extending Duty-Free Imports From Ukraine

    The European Parliament approved the suspension of the European Union's customs duties and quotas on Ukrainian imports into the EU for one year until June 2025 on Tuesday, overcoming discord in March over farm imports that threatened the deal.

  • April 22, 2024

    Scotiabank Fights To Keep Peru VAT Claim Alive

    The Bank of Nova Scotia urged the World Bank's international arbitration institution in recently released documents not to dismiss the arbitration of its value-added tax dispute against Peru, saying the case raises issues of fact.

  • April 22, 2024

    Congress Can Enact Corp. Transparency, Orgs Tell 11th Circ.

    Congress is empowered to require American companies to report their beneficial owners to the federal government because there is ample evidence they've previously been used to fund hostile foreign actors, evade sanctions and traffic drugs, two think tanks told the Eleventh Circuit in an amici brief.

  • April 22, 2024

    Partnership Can't Claim $22.7M Loss, Tax Court Says

    The U.S. Tax Court on Monday upheld the IRS' decision to deny a $22.7 million loss deduction claimed by a Connecticut partnership, finding that underlying transactions involving a bankrupt Brazilian company's debt obligations amounted to a disguised property sale.

  • April 22, 2024

    Sweden Proposes Tax Breaks Ahead Of Budget Negotiations

    The Swedish Finance Ministry proposed adjusting its so-called expert tax incentive, which businesses use to attract external workers, among a series of tax changes offered up Monday.

  • April 22, 2024

    Trader Behind £1.4B Tax Fraud Thought Trades Were Valid

    A British trader accused of being the mastermind of a fraudulent trading scheme that cost Denmark's tax authority £1.4 billion ($1.7 billion) genuinely believed that the trades worked, his lawyer told a London court on Monday.

  • April 22, 2024

    Finland Discovers €30M In Undeclared Crypto Profits

    Finnish taxpayers made at least €30 million ($32 million) in undeclared cryptocurrency trade profits in 2022, Finland's tax authority said Monday, reminding taxpayers to include such profits in their filings this year.

  • April 22, 2024

    UAE Considering R&D Tax Break, Seeks Feedback

    The United Arab Emirates is seeking public input to help design a possible research and development tax incentive proposal to help drive innovation and growth, its Ministry of Finance said.

  • April 22, 2024

    Austria Eatery Busted 2nd Time On Tax Evasion Suspicion

    A Chinese restaurant in Austria was busted for a second time on suspicion of evading taxes, this time in the amount of €135,000 ($144,000), the country's finance minister announced, declaring that "the Austrian state cannot be an 'all you can eat' buffet for tax fraudsters."

  • April 22, 2024

    EU Probes Tax Breaks To Chinese Solar Panel Companies

    The European Commission has started two investigations into suspected tax breaks and other possibly illegal foreign subsidies to Chinese solar panel companies bidding for public contracts in Romania, notices in the EU's Official Journal showed Monday.

Expert Analysis

  • Preparing Your Legal Department For Pillar 2 Compliance

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    Multinational entities should familiarize themselves with Pillar Two of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s BEPs 2.0 project and prepare their internal legal tracking systems for related reporting requirements that may go into effect as early as January, says Daniel Robyn at Ernst & Young.

  • What Large Language Models Mean For Document Review

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    Courts often subject parties using technology assisted review to greater scrutiny than parties conducting linear, manual document review, so parties using large language models for document review should expect even more attention, along with a corresponding need for quality control and validation, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Participating In Living History Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    My role as a baron in a living history group, and my work as volunteer corporate counsel for a book series fan association, has provided me several opportunities to practice in unexpected areas of law — opening doors to experiences that have nurtured invaluable personal and professional skills, says Matthew Parker at the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

  • Private Equity Owners Can Remedy Law Firms' Agency Issues

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    Nonlawyer, private-equity ownership of law firms can benefit shareholders and others vulnerable to governance issues such as disparate interests, and can in turn help resolve agency problems, says Michael Di Gennaro at The Law Practice Exchange.

  • How Taxpayers Can Prep As Justices Weigh Repatriation Tax

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    The U.S. Supreme Court might strike down the 2017 federal tax overhaul's corporate repatriation tax in Moore v. U.S., so taxpayers should file protective tax refund claims before the case is decided and repatriate previously taxed earnings that could become entangled in dubious potential Section 965 refunds, say Jenny Austin and Gary Wilcox at Mayer Brown.

  • OFAC Designation Prosecutions Are Constitutionally Suspect

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    Criminal prosecutions based on the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s sanctions-related listing decisions — made with nearly unfettered discretion through an opaque process — present several constitutional issues, so it is imperative that courts recognize additional rights of review, say Solomon Shinerock and Annika Conrad at Lewis Baach.

  • How The OECD Global Tax Proposal Could Affect M&A

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    Following agreement on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Pillar Two proposal to introduce a global minimum tax, domestic implementation is expected to have a significant impact on international M&A transactions, with financial modeling, deal structuring, risk allocation and joint venture arrangements likely to be affected, say lawyers at Freshfields.

  • UK Shares-Tax Proposals Offer Long-Awaited Modernization

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    The U.K. government's recent consultation on the introduction of a new tax on transactions in securities raises detailed legal and practical issues, but the prospect of a single digital stamp tax offering both streamlined legislation and administration will be welcomed, say Zoë Arnautov and Mark Sheiham at Simmons & Simmons.

  • IRS Foreign Tax Credit Pause Is Welcome Course Correction

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    A recent IRS notice temporarily suspending application of 2022 foreign tax credit regulations provides wanted relief for the many U.S. multinational companies and other taxpayers that otherwise face the risk of significant double taxation in their international operations, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.

  • IRS Criminal Probe Spells Uncertainty For Malta Pension Plans

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    The IRS’ recent scrutiny of Malta pension plan arrangements — and its unusual issuance of criminal administrative summonses — confirms that it views many of these plans as illegal tax evasion schemes, and the road ahead will not be smooth and steady for anyone involved, say attorneys at Kostelanetz.

  • IRS Announcement Will Aid Cos. In Buyback Tax Planning

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    Recent IRS transitional guidance regarding current requirements for reporting and payment of the stock repurchase excise tax will help corporate taxpayers make decisions about records retention and establishing reserves for future tax payments, say Xenia Garofalo and Kyle Colonna at Eversheds Sutherland.

  • Flawed Analysis Supports Common Law Tax Deficiency Ruling

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    The Colorado federal district court’s recent decision in Liberty Global, holding that the U.S. Department of Justice may assert a common law tax claim without the notice of tax deficiency required by the Internal Revenue Code, relies on a contorted reading of the statute and irrelevant case law, say Loren Opper and Christie Galinski at Miller Canfield.

  • Review Of Repatriation Tax Sets Justices On Slippery Slope

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to review the constitutionality of the repatriation tax in Moore v. U.S. has implications for many tax rules involving unrealized amounts and could leave the court on the brink of invalidating large swaths of the Internal Revenue Code, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.

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