International

  • December 16, 2024

    Mich. Judge Troubled By Scope Of Feds' CTA Data Collection

    A federal judge in Michigan said new disclosure requirements for small businesses seem burdensome and intrusive during a Monday hearing focused on the privacy implications of the currently blocked anti-money laundering law.

  • December 16, 2024

    Aussie R&D Scheme Promoters Hit With $8.7M In Penalties

    The Federal Court of Australia ordered an Australian, his tax agent and his companies to pay a total of AU$13.6 million ($8.7 million) in penalties for promoting illegal research and development tax fraud schemes, the Australian Taxation Office announced.

  • December 16, 2024

    Canadian Finance Minister Resigns Amid Trump Tariff Threats

    Canada's deputy prime minister and minister of finance announced Monday that she is resigning from her post, citing conflicting views with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about how to respond to tariff threats under President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration.

  • December 16, 2024

    Work Still Needed To Keep VAT In EU Effective, Group Says

    Following the European Union's agreement on a value-added tax reform package, a group of EU VAT experts presented a wide-ranging suite of short- and long-term proposals Monday aimed at making sure the bloc's regime remains effective as the landscape continues to shift.

  • December 16, 2024

    Cos. Urge Judge To Maintain Injunction On Transparency Law

    A Texas federal judge doesn't need to stay his preliminary injunction on the rollout of new corporate transparency rules while the U.S. government's appeal of his decision is pending at the Fifth Circuit, a business lobbying group and others said Monday.

  • December 16, 2024

    Wyden Bill Would Nix Tax Perks For Private Placement Plans

    U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden unveiled legislation Monday that would remove the tax benefits of a special type of private life insurance plan that he said high-net-worth individuals have been abusing to avoid paying taxes on their investments in the policies.

  • December 16, 2024

    HMRC Chief Defends Record On Fighting Tax Evasion

    The chief executive of HM Revenue & Customs told Parliament on Monday that the British tax authority has reduced the level of tax noncompliance in response to claims it needs a better strategy on tax evasion.

  • December 16, 2024

    Info On Over 1,900 Tax Rulings Swapped In OECD Last Year

    Tax jurisdictions within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development spontaneously shared information related to over 1,900 tax rulings involving foreign companies in 2023, the OECD said Monday, highlighting the widespread adoption of its transparency framework aimed at mitigating harmful tax practices.

  • December 16, 2024

    Hong Kong Commits To OECD Crypto Reporting Framework

    Hong Kong plans to take part in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's framework for automatically exchanging financial information regarding crypto-assets starting in 2028, the jurisdiction's Inland Revenue Department said.

  • December 13, 2024

    IRS Aims To Ramp Up Partnership Audits, Official Says

    The Internal Revenue Service plans to ramp up partnership audits in the next couple of years to boost the current audit rate of 0.05% as the agency props up a new unit that solely focuses on examining large partnerships, an agency attorney said Friday.

  • December 13, 2024

    OECD Seeks Input On Ring-Fencing Mining Income Guidance

    The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Friday that it is looking for feedback on proposed guidance for tax administrations looking to set up ring-fencing measures for mining operations in order to limit investors' ability to offset expenditures and revenues between projects.

  • December 13, 2024

    Swiss Gov't Rejects Retroactive Tax On Gifts Above $56M

    The Swiss federal government formally rejected a wealth tax proposal by the youth wing of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland on Friday, saying a retroactive 50% tax on gifts and inheritances above 50 million Swiss francs ($56 million) was "politically questionable."

  • December 13, 2024

    Canada Must Reassess Tax Bills For Ex-Blue Jays, Court Says

    Pension contributions made by two former Major League Baseball stars while they played for the Toronto Blue Jays should be counted in their annual income, the Tax Court of Canada ruled in a victory for the former players.

  • December 13, 2024

    CFC Tax Issues Can't Be Solved Via Treaties, Officials Say

    Bilateral treaties between the U.S. and other countries where a controlled foreign corporation may face withholding tax issues aren't able to effectively resolve those disputes, Internal Revenue Service and Treasury officials said Friday.

  • December 13, 2024

    IRS Mulls Turning Off Foreign Currency Rules For CFCs

    The Internal Revenue Service is in the early stages of considering whether foreign currency gain or loss recognition rules could be turned off in certain situations for controlled foreign corporations, an agency official said Friday.

  • December 13, 2024

    Halliburton Consistent On Claims For $35M Refund, Court Told

    Halliburton has not changed its reasons for claiming a tax refund on a $35 million payment it made to a foreign government to protect its employees from harassment, the company told a Texas federal court, saying the U.S. wrongly accused it of a flip-flop.

  • December 13, 2024

    Taxation With Representation: Kirkland, Davis Polk, Wachtell

    In this week's Taxation With Representation, Google and TPG Rise Climate partner with Intersect Power, Gen Digital Inc. acquires MoneyLion Inc., Patient Square Capital acquires Patterson Companies Inc., and the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins sell minority ownership shares to private equity firms.

  • December 13, 2024

    Canada 2-Month Sales Tax Holiday Begins Saturday

    A two-month goods-and-services tax holiday in Canada on certain goods such as gifts and restaurant meals will begin Saturday after having passed the Senate and receiving royal ascension.

  • December 13, 2024

    Contractor Loses Bail For Texting Alleged Tax Cheat Allies

    A District of Columbia federal judge revoked bail for a former defense contractor accused of running a $350 million tax-evasion scheme that prosecutors call one of the largest in U.S. history, after the government said he'd been texting his alleged co-conspirators.

  • December 13, 2024

    Loper Bright May Influence Tax Less, IRS Chief Counsel Says

    The U.S. Supreme Court decision this year overturning a decades-long standard to defer to federal agencies' regulatory interpretations has encouraged the Internal Revenue Service to better explain its rules, its outgoing chief counsel said Friday.

  • December 12, 2024

    IRS Wants Choice Retained In Dual Loss Rules, Official Says

    The Internal Revenue Service is working to preserve flexibility for taxpayers in rules aimed at preventing companies from using the same economic loss twice after concerns were raised about how the rules could negatively interact with the Pillar Two global minimum tax, an official said Thursday.

  • December 12, 2024

    IRS Seeks Feedback On Limits In Previous Taxed Profit Rules

    The Internal Revenue Service will consider whether rules included in recently proposed guidance on previously taxed earnings and profits to limit instances where U.S. multinationals may use basis to offset gain are too restrictive, an official said Thursday.

  • December 12, 2024

    CJEU Upholds €1.8M Tax On Volvo Group In Belgium

    Belgium can impose a "fairness tax" totaling €1.8 million ($1.9 million) on nonresident companies without a permanent office in the country, the Court of Justice of the European Union said Thursday.  

  • December 12, 2024

    2nd Circ. Won't Rethink Dual Citizen's FBAR Penalties

    The Second Circuit will not review its September decision finding that a dual U.S.-French citizen is liable for tax penalties for failing to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts, the court said Thursday.

  • December 12, 2024

    Swiss To End Credit Offsetting India's Tax Treaty Snub

    The Swiss government will no longer offer a credit to taxpayers designed to offset India's rejection of Swiss claims to benefits offered in other Indian tax treaties because India's top court decided to uphold its government's position, according to a notice.

Expert Analysis

  • Senate Credit Suisse Report Puts Attention On Banks, Trusts

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    The Senate Finance Committee's recent finding that Credit Suisse violated a plea agreement struck over its role in enabling offshore tax evasion has important ramifications for banks and trusts, including how they onboard, document and report on transactions relevant to U.S. reporting requirements, say Will Barry and Ian Herbert at Miller & Chevalier.

  • Seeking IRS Accountability For Faulty Microcaptive Notice

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    Like the taxpayers in Standard Insurances v. U.S. seeking to expand earlier wins in microcaptive insurance cases that limit IRS use of improperly obtained information, others should consider ways to hold the agency accountable and provide incentive for it to follow the law going forward, says Joshua Smeltzer at Gray Reed.

  • Biden Admin. Proposals Both Encourage And Thwart EV Adoption

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    While the Biden administration has been aggressively focused on promoting electric vehicles from the start, its recently issued guidance on EV tax credits and its restrictive new auto emissions proposal create a sense of implementation whiplash that may frustrate manufacturers and consumers, says Levi McAllister at Morgan Lewis.

  • The Key Issues Keeping Transfer Pricing A Top Tax Concern

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    Several challenges preventing a global economic reemergence from the pandemic era are making practitioners reevaluate commonly used transfer pricing models, and embrace new technologies and ways of doing business, say Farnaz Amini and Sophia Castro Jurado at Marcum.

  • Curtailing Offshore Tax-Advantaged Investment In China

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    The U.S. government's plans to establish a new outbound investment regime hold the potential to arrest Chinese companies' increasing use of offshore, tax-advantaged locations to raise capital, says David Plotinsky at Morgan Lewis.

  • Cos. May Want To Wait Out US-EU Green Incentives Fight

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    As the European Union considers measures to compete with the Inflation Reduction Act's incentives for U.S. production of clean tech, and EU and U.S. officials discuss a possible compromise, companies in the green sector should consider taking a wait-and-see approach to investment decisions, says Todd Thacker at Goldberg Segalla.

  • India's Budget Proposals May Ease Entry For Certain Sectors

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    India’s recently released budget includes proposals to facilitate doing business in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City and moderate thousands of compliance requirements, opening up new opportunities for foreign businesses in the digital infrastructure, manufacturing and renewable energy sectors, say Mukesh Butani and Seema Kejriwal at BMR Legal.

  • High Court Ax Of Atty-Client Privilege Case Deepens Split

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent dismissal of In re: Grand Jury as improvidently granted maintains a three-way circuit split on the application of attorney-client privilege to multipurpose communications, although the justices have at least shown a desire to address it, say Trey Bourn and Thomas DiStanislao at Butler Snow.

  • US-India Advance Pricing Resolutions Should Reassure Cos.

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    The United States' and India's tax authorities' recent resolution of a significant number of pending advance pricing agreements should reduce taxpayer uncertainty, reassure companies of the nations' good working relationship and improve India's investment environment, say Miller Williams and Caroline Setliffe at Eversheds Sutherland.

  • Stock Buyback Excise Tax Guidance A Mixed Bag For SPACs

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    Recent IRS guidance on the new stock repurchase excise tax includes a welcome exception for publicly traded special-purpose acquisition companies but does not exclude redemptions in connection with a de-SPAC transaction, and further guidance is needed to clarify ambiguities around the exception's application, say Olga Bogush and Evgeny Magidenko at ArentFox Schiff.

  • The IRS' APA Rulemaking Journey: There And Back Again

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    Attorneys at Dentons examine recent challenges in which taxpayers successfully argued Internal Revenue Service rulemaking was invalid under the Administrative Procedure Act, how tax exceptionalism and U.S. Supreme Court regulatory deference prompted such challenges, and similar challenges the agency will likely face following this line of cases.

  • ECJ Fiat Ruling Sets Clear Boundaries For EU State Aid Law

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    The European Court of Justice's recent landmark decision in Fiat v. Commission limiting the commission’s attempts to circumvent the lack of EU powers in the area of tax law has important implications in EU state aid law and beyond, say Andreas Reindl and Pietro Stella at Van Bael.

  • Unpacking The Interim Guidance On New Stock Buyback Tax

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    The U.S. Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service's recent notice on applying the newly effective excise tax on stock repurchases provides much-needed clarity on the tax's scope, which is much broader than anticipated given its underlying policy rationale, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.

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