International
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May 24, 2024
EU Withholding Tax Deal Lacks Ambition, Investors Say
A recently agreed-to streamlining of how cross-border withholding taxes are refunded in the European Union lacks ambition and may not do much to help smaller investors, investor advocates said.
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May 24, 2024
Taxation With Representation: Davis Polk, Wachtell, Latham
In this week's Taxation With Representation, SouthState Corp. buys Independent Bank Group Inc., CyberArk acquires Venafi, Carlyle clinches its fifth Japanese buyout fund, and AuditBoard Inc. agrees to be bought by Hg Capital.
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May 24, 2024
Cyprus, Portugal Aim For National Implementation Of Pillar 2
Cyprus and Portugal both said Friday that they are moving toward putting the minimum tax known as Pillar Two into their national legislation, which EU law requires them to have done by the end of 2023.
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May 23, 2024
Premier League Team Goes Down 2-Nil In VAT Bill Appeal
Premier League soccer team Nottingham Forest must pay its more than £345,000 ($438,000) value-added tax bill, the U.K.'s Upper Tribunal ruled in a decision published Thursday, dismissing an appeal of a lower court ruling that found HM Revenue & Customs filed its tax assessment on time.
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May 23, 2024
Italy Adopts Safe Harbor Global Minimum Tax Rules
Italy has added a temporary safe harbor provision to its implementation of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's global minimum tax to ease the transition for in-scope companies, the country's finance ministry said.
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May 23, 2024
White & Case Adds Former A&O Tax Pro In Luxembourg
White & Case LLP announced it has added a tax partner to its Luxembourg office from A&O Shearman who specializes in international and Luxembourg corporate tax law.
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May 23, 2024
Carbon Pricing Generated Over $100B In 2023, Report Says
Carbon pricing mechanisms worldwide generated a record $104 billion in revenue in 2023, according to a World Bank report, though it said the 75 instruments currently in force are too few and doing too little.
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May 23, 2024
Spain, Greece, Sweden Have Tax Policy Problems, EU Says
The European Union's executive arm called on Spain, Greece and Sweden on Thursday to change tax laws the bloc finds problematic, while also referring a Spanish tax issue to the European Court of Justice.
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May 23, 2024
EU Flags Nations For Shortcomings On Pillar 2, Exchange Law
The European Commission said Thursday that six European Union countries still have failed to implement the global minimum tax for large companies, and it noted that an additional three aren't properly implementing an information exchange law.
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May 23, 2024
Yellen Opposes Global Redistribution Of Billionaires' Wealth
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen repeated Thursday that she opposes a global minimum tax on billionaires and added that she does not support basing a redistribution of the revenue from such a tax on damage from climate change and related financing needs.
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May 23, 2024
G7 Should Agree On Frozen Russian Assets, Yellen Says
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday that the Group of Seven countries should agree now on a concept of how the capital of frozen and immobilized Russian state assets should be used to support Ukraine's war against Russia.
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May 23, 2024
EU Could Add Sectors To Border Tax, Commissioner Says
The European Union should consider expanding its carbon border tax beyond the initial sectors covered, an EU commissioner has said.
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May 23, 2024
Akerman Brings On Kilpatrick Tax Ace In LA
Akerman LLP is boosting its tax team, bringing in a Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP corporate tax and energy tax credit expert as a partner in its Los Angeles office.
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May 22, 2024
Justices' CFPB Alliance May Save SEC Courts, Not Chevron
A four-justice concurrence to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision upholding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's unique funding scheme last week carries implications for other cases pending before the court that challenge the so-called administrative state, or the permanent cadre of regulatory agencies and career government enforcers who hold sway over vast swaths of American economic life.
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May 22, 2024
German Legislature Moves To Update Certain Tax Treaties
The lower house of Germany's legislature has approved a bill to update multiple bilateral tax treaties as part of the country's implementation of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's project against base erosion and profit shifting.
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May 22, 2024
Doctor Must Stay In Jail In Tax Penalty Fight, Gov't Says
A doctor incarcerated for civil contempt for not paying $1.1 million in penalties for failing to report his foreign accounts should remain in jail until he has done more to comply, the U.S. government told a Michigan federal court Wednesday.
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May 22, 2024
Belgium Provides Pillar 2 Reporting Rules
Belgium's finance ministry has issued guidance on what large multinational entities and domestic groups will need to do to comply with the country's coming registration requirement as part of its implementation of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's global corporate minimum tax.
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May 22, 2024
Guernsey Joins Crown Dependencies Moving Toward Pillar 2
Guernsey will soon take steps to implement the OECD's 15% global minimum tax on large multinational corporations making €750 million ($813 million) annually, in line with fellow U.K. crown dependencies the Isle of Man and Jersey, the island's Finance Ministry said.
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May 22, 2024
Property Transfer For Tax Break Not Dishonest, UK Court Says
Two liquidated London real estate companies failed to convince the United Kingdom Court of Appeal that their former director behaved dishonestly by transferring their holdings to Jersey trusts for less than market value to obtain a tax advantage, according to a judgment released Wednesday.
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May 22, 2024
IRS Again Delays Reporting Rules for Certain BEAT Payments
The Internal Revenue Service is deferring until 2027 the applicability date of requirements for reporting certain intercompany payments that are exempt from the base erosion and anti-abuse tax, the agency announced Wednesday.
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May 22, 2024
IRS Again Delaying Dividend Anti-Abuse Regs
The Internal Revenue Service is again extending the transition period for rules that govern certain financial transactions that could avoid withholding on dividend payments to foreign taxpayers, it announced Wednesday.
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May 22, 2024
UK Gov't Calls Elections For July 4 Despite Poor Polls
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday called an early general election to be held on July 4, advancing the electoral timetable even though his Conservative Party lags decisively behind the opposition Labour Party.
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May 22, 2024
Swiss Gov't Adopts Proposals For Tougher AML Laws
Switzerland on Wednesday approved a new anti-money laundering framework that will introduce a register in which companies and other legal entities in the country will have to disclose information on their beneficial owners in a major shift in its anti-money laundering rules.
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May 22, 2024
EU's Carbon Border Tax Pushes Others To Follow, Experts Say
The European Union's carbon border tax is pushing many countries outside the bloc to introduce similar systems, government and academic experts said Wednesday.
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May 22, 2024
UK Dependency To Implement Pillar 2 Starting In 2025
The island of Jersey, a U.K. crown dependency, said it would implement the international minimum tax for large corporations known as Pillar Two, with the law taking effect next year.
Expert Analysis
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Long Road Ahead For Biden's Individual Tax Hike Proposal
Dustin Stamper at Grant Thornton provides insight into President Joe Biden's recently proposed individual tax increases to pay for his American Families Plan, and explains how competing interests among congressional Democrats and Republicans may shape the final provisions and prolong their implementation.
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What Value-Added Tax Might Look Like In The US
Christiaan Van Der Valk and Charles Maniace at Sovos consider the value-added tax, a primary source of revenue for many countries, and what it might mean for the U.S. were it implemented to raise funds for large-scale federal initiatives such as President Joe Biden's infrastructure plan.
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US Needs Better, Nonpunitive Approach To Greening Trade
Instead of imposing tariffs on goods produced where foreign governments have assisted in cleaning up the environment, the U.S. should make trade policy green by helping industries reduce their environmental impact and encouraging every foreign government to do the same, say Elliot Feldman and Michael Snarr at BakerHostetler.
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What OECD Scrutiny Means For Anti-Corruption In Brazil
Attorneys at Paul Hastings examine how an unprecedented standing subgroup recently created by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to monitor Brazil's anti-corruption efforts reflects significant uncertainty regarding the country's commitment to enforcement, and what companies can do to address foreign bribery risk and strengthen compliance programs.
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The International Outlook For US Border Carbon Adjustments
The Biden administration may see enacting a border carbon adjustment system as a good way to advance climate goals and protect domestic industries and jobs, but any such plan must take into account the need to respect existing international trade agreements, say attorneys at Akin Gump.
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The Domestic Landscape For US Border Carbon Adjustments
With the Biden administration possibly eyeing border carbon adjustments on imported goods as a means to mitigate climate change, attorneys at Akin Gump discuss such policies' potential benefits to domestic businesses, and the political and technical challenges to their enactment in the U.S.
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Prepare For Global Collaboration In Crypto Tax Enforcement
Recent Internal Revenue Service victories involving John Doe summonses served on cryptocurrency exchanges — and statements by the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement about global collaboration in cryptocurrency-related tax investigations — should prompt assessment of prior virtual currency transactions and remediation before an enforcement agency shows up at the door, say attorneys at McDermott.
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10 Things to Know About US Competent Authority Assistance
Taxpayers should consider seeking U.S. competent authority assistance to help eliminate double taxation from a transfer pricing adjustment, especially now that the competent authorities are resolving cases virtually and more quickly, say attorneys at Thompson & Knight.
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US Advance Pricing Agreements, Amid COVID And Before
Steptoe & Johnson's Matthew Frank, former director of the U.S. Advance Pricing Agreement Program, shares insights from an Internal Revenue Service report revealing an uptick in APA completions amid the pandemic, discusses trends over the program's 30-year history, and suggests ways taxpayers and the IRS could bolster program participation.
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Choosing A Branch Or Subsidiary For Overseas Expansion
Samuel Pollack and Naoko Watanabe at Baker McKenzie examine the corporate and U.S. tax law considerations involved in deciding whether a branch or subsidiary is the most efficient way to expand operations overseas, now that recent Treasury regulations clarified the complicated international tax regime created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
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Key Tax Concerns For Foreign Investors In US Private Equity
Paul D'Alessandro at Bilzin Sumberg examines important tax questions foreigners interested in U.S. private equity investments should ask in advance, including whether the investment will produce active or passive income, be subject to gains tax, and have U.S. estate tax consequences.
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Surveying Global Tax Updates For Sovereign Wealth Investors
As the market transitions to a post-pandemic phase, sovereign wealth fund and other foreign institutional investors must evaluate how recent U.S., EU and U.K. tax changes may affect their private fund investments, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Coke, 3M Tax Cases May Not Settle Blocked Income Debate
Even if the challenged U.S. Department of the Treasury regulation on blocked income is struck down by the U.S. Tax Court in the pending Coca-Cola and 3M cases, the obligations of a taxpayer that had, but failed to avail itself of, alternative means to secure payment will remain an open question, say Matthew Frank and Amanda Varma at Steptoe & Johnson.