International
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September 04, 2024
IRS' Economic Substance Authority Has Limits, Tax Court Told
The U.S. Tax Court and other federal courts have the authority to conduct an initial analysis of a transaction in cases where the Internal Revenue Service is challenging the economic substance of the transaction, a manufacturers advocacy group said Wednesday in an amicus brief.
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September 04, 2024
New Zealand Looking To Nearly Triple Its Tourist Levy
New Zealand's government is planning to increase a levy on tourists to NZ$100 ($62) per visit, nearly tripling the current rate, according to a joint statement from the country's conservation and tourism ministries.
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September 04, 2024
Irish Tax Surplus Too Reliant On Few Cos., Watchdog Says
It's dangerous for the Irish government to fund long-term plans with corporate tax windfalls pouring into its coffers for over a decade, as three foreign-owned multinational corporations are providing a growing share, risking volatility in an otherwise healthy economy, a parliamentary watchdog said.
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September 04, 2024
Singapore's Annual Corporate Tax Revenue Climbs 26%
Singapore collected SG$80.3 billion ($61.6 billion) in tax revenue in fiscal year 2023-24, a 17% increase over the prior year, thanks in large part to a 25.6% increase in corporate income tax receipts, pushing that total to SG$29 billion, the country's revenue agency said Wednesday.
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September 04, 2024
Swiss To Impose Second Portion Of Pillar 2 Starting In 2025
Switzerland will implement the income inclusion rule portion of the OECD's Pillar Two standards to fight tax base erosion and profit shifting starting in 2025, its Federal Council said Wednesday, complementing its establishment of the 15% global minimum corporate income tax this year.
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September 03, 2024
11th Circ. Trims $12.6M FBAR Fine In 8th Amendment Split
Some of the $12.6 million in penalties the IRS on imposed a man for willfully failing to report foreign bank accounts were in violation of the Eighth Amendment's bar on excessive fines, the Eleventh Circuit ruled, creating an apparent circuit split.
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September 03, 2024
Bahrain Adopting Global Minimum Tax In 2025
Multinational corporations making more than €750 million ($828 million) annually operating in Bahrain will be subject to the OECD's 15% global minimum corporate income tax starting in 2025, the country's tax agency said.
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September 03, 2024
UN Tax Rule On Payments Best For Many Gov'ts, Group Says
Developing countries should seek to add the United Nations' version of a minimum tax rule on payments to their bilateral tax treaties and to adopt corresponding laws domestically while approaching the OECD's more restrictive multilateral version with caution, an advocacy group said Tuesday.
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September 03, 2024
Ex-Defense Contractor Arrested In $350M Tax Evasion Case
A former defense contractor who, with his wife, is facing a 30-count indictment alleging they were involved in a decades-long scheme to defraud the U.S. government and avoid taxes on more than $350 million in income was arrested Tuesday.
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September 03, 2024
NZ Ratifies Slovakia Tax Agreement, Amends Austria Treaty
New Zealand government ratified a new treaty to avoid double taxation with Slovakia as well as amendments to a previous treaty with Austria, the country's tax agency said.
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September 03, 2024
Non-EU Cos. Need Clarity On Public Tax Reporting, Firms Say
The European Union should clarify how multinational corporations headquartered outside the bloc need to format tax data they report under new public disclosure rules, global accounting firms said.
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September 03, 2024
Higher UK Windfall Tax Will Cut Revenue, Says Industry Group
The U.K. government's plan to raise the energy windfall tax in November may cost HM Treasury around £12 billion ($15.7 billion) in tax revenue, according to an industry group.
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September 03, 2024
Norway Seeks Input On Beneficial Ownership Register Access
Norway's Ministry of Finance is seeking comments on a proposal laying out rules regarding access to the country's beneficial ownership register, the ministry said Tuesday.
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September 03, 2024
IRS Issues More Edits For Foreign Currency Accounting Regs
The Internal Revenue Service issued further corrections Tuesday to proposed rules that would adjust the timing for when companies can use certain accounting methods for gains or losses that arise from foreign currency transactions.
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August 30, 2024
Alvarez & Marsal Appoints Tax Experts As Managing Directors
Alvarez & Marsal Tax LLC appointed tax experts from Anderson and Deloitte as its new managing directors, the firm announced.
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August 30, 2024
Danish Gov't Pledges No Ponzi Analogies At $2.1B Tax Trial
The Danish tax authority won't compare pension funds, investors and attorneys it has accused of defrauding Denmark in a $2.1 billion tax refund scheme to a Ponzi scheme or infamous perpetrator Bernie Madoff, it said Friday in New York federal court.
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August 30, 2024
US Seeks Trade Talks In Dispute Over Canada's Digital Tax
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced Friday that it has requested dispute settlement discussions with Canada regarding the country's recently enacted digital services tax, which the USTR claims discriminates against U.S. companies.
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August 30, 2024
Whistleblower Seeks 2nd Bid At $690M Claim In DC Circ.
A whistleblower denied up to $690 million, or 30%, of the $2.3 billion collected in an Internal Revenue Service offshore voluntary disclosure program asked for a D.C. Circuit panel to rehear his case Friday, saying its original opinion included numerous mistakes and misunderstandings.
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August 30, 2024
UK's Labour Gov't Urged To Raise Capital Gains Tax
The Labour government is facing calls to raise the capital gains tax despite financial firms advising investors to sell off their assets or even leave the United Kingdom over the possible tax hike.
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August 30, 2024
IRS Corrects Proposed Rules To Address Pillar 2 Losses
The Internal Revenue Service issued corrections Friday to proposed rules that outline when foreign taxes under the Pillar Two international minimum tax agreement could trigger long-standing U.S. rules that aim to prevent companies from what is known as double-dipping the same economic loss.
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August 30, 2024
Taxation With Representation: Kirkland, Paul Weiss, Squire
In this week's Taxation With Representation, Oneok reaches two agreements with energy infrastructure companies worth a total $5.9 billion, McKesson inks a $2.49 billion deal for a cancer center, and First Busey and CrossFirst Bankshares agree to a $917 million merger.
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August 30, 2024
Neb. Justices Affirm Nix Of Berkshire Unit's Tax Deduction Bid
A Nebraska tax deduction for certain dividends doesn't apply to income repatriated under the 2017 federal tax overhaul, the state Supreme Court affirmed Friday in rejecting arguments from a Berkshire Hathaway entity that the state's tax system excluded the foreign earnings from tax.
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August 29, 2024
Tax Court Rejects Bid To Change Ruling Post-Chevron
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent overturning of the Chevron standard of judicial deference to agencies when interpreting statutes does not justify reconsidering a Cayman Islands partnership's tax liability, the U.S. Tax Court ruled.
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August 29, 2024
4th Circ. Won't Revive Whistleblower's Credit Suisse Tax Suit
The Fourth Circuit upheld the dismissal of a former Credit Suisse employee's whistleblower case that alleged the Swiss bank continued to help clients evade taxes after it made a related plea deal with the U.S., saying a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision on the False Claims Act could not save the case.
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August 29, 2024
Tax Admins Advised To Tailor Structures To Needs Over Time
Tax administrations must tailor their organization structures to their specific challenges and environments to adapt to modern problems, not just reshuffle organization charts, several international tax groups said Thursday.
Expert Analysis
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US-India Advance Pricing Resolutions Should Reassure Cos.
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.
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Stock Buyback Excise Tax Guidance A Mixed Bag For SPACs
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.
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The IRS' APA Rulemaking Journey: There And Back Again
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.
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ECJ Fiat Ruling Sets Clear Boundaries For EU State Aid Law
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.
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Unpacking The Interim Guidance On New Stock Buyback Tax
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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IRS Will Use New Resources To Increase Scrutiny In 2023
The new year promises to be a busy one for the Internal Revenue Service, which is poised to apply the boost in funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act to bolster and expand its enforcement capability, and there are four areas to watch, say attorneys at Skadden.
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How Japan's Implementation May Change The Pillar 2 Debate
Japan’s outline of proposed legislation adopting a primary component of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's 15% global minimum tax will increase pressure on countries — including the U.S. — that have not committed to adopting Pillar Two, says Takato Masuda of Nishimura & Asahi.
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Foreign Tax Credit Proposal Is Some Help, But More Is Needed
New foreign tax credit regulations proposed by the U.S. Treasury Department provided some measure of relief on cost recovery and royalty withholding, two of the most troublesome aspects of the 2021 final foreign tax credit regulations, but the final regulations are still harmful to many taxpayers, making litigation inevitable, say attorneys at Fenwick.
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IRS' Tax Gap Statistics Don't Paint A Full Compliance Picture
The Internal Revenue Service's recent report indicating a widening tax gap sheds important light on tax compliance, underlines key pressure points and provides insights into how tax administration could be improved; but tax gap estimates also have their limits, says Joyce Beebe at Rice University.
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How High Court Could Change FBAR Penalty Landscape
On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Bittner v. U.S., a case that will affect many people penalized for failing to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, and there are important procedural implications should the government's position be reversed, say Reuben Muller and Andreas Apostolides at Cole Schotz.
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IRS Memo May Change IP Royalty Tax Prepayment Planning
A recent Internal Revenue Service advice memorandum finding a taxpayer was not permitted to prepay tax on contingent royalties after contributing intellectual property offshore is a noteworthy departure from earlier guidance that highlights potential differences between actual and deemed licenses, says William Skinner at Fenwick.
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What IRS Funding Increase Means For Taxpayers
The Internal Revenue Service will first use the influx of funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to address customer support and personnel issues, but with over half the money allocated to enforcement, corporations and high-net-worth individuals will face increased scrutiny, say Patrick McCann Jr. and Jasen Hanson at Chamberlain Hrdlicka.
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6 Tax Considerations For Life Sciences Collaboration Deals
Given recent IRS guidance and changes to certain tax rates and deductions, biotech and life sciences companies entering into collaboration agreements should assess several unique taxation issues affecting matters ranging from research and development expenditures to profit-sharing terms, say attorneys at Orrick and Andersen Tax.