The Swiss Federal Council, on August 20, approved tax information exchange agreements with Andorra, Greenland, San Marino, and the Seychelles. The agreements will be submitted to parliament for approval. press release
Dorsey & Whitney LLP, on May 7, announced that solicitor and chartered accountant, Michael Cashman, has joined the firm’s London office as a partner in the Tax Group. Cashman works on UK and international transactional tax matters. Release
The European Court of Justice (ECJ), on April 10, ruled that Polish tax laws that exempt from withholding tax dividends paid to investment funds located in Poland and other EU countries, but that do not exempt dividends paid to funds located outside the EU, may be invalid because the laws restrict free movement of capital.
As a result, U.S. investment fund, Emerging Market Series of DFA Investment. . .
Hong Kong’s Inland Revenue Department has released the text of a tax treaty signed with Italy on January 14, 2013 . . .
Christian Aid has received a mixed feedback from its survey of the 100 largest companies on the London Stock Exchange regarding whether to the UK should adopt public CbC reporting. See: Christian Aid.
The UK’s HM Revenue and Customs, on March 30, released interim guidance on its new diverted profits tax, set to go into effect April 1. The guidance uses practical examples to explain . . .
The UK government has released regulations implementing automatic exchange of information under the European Union Revised Directive on Administrative Cooperation and under the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement implementing the Common Reporting Standard. The regulations, released March 24, also make minor changes to existing rules implementing the UK’s FATCA agreement . . .
Irish Revenue on March 12 released guidance on how it will implement spontaneous exchange of tax ruling information with EU Member States. The directive applies with immediate effect. As a member of the EU, Ireland is subject to . . .
UK businesses must adjust their accounting for VAT on intragroup supplies of services beginning in 2016 to follow the European Court of Justice’s ruling in Skandia America, HMRC said in a policy briefing released February 10. . . .
The European Commission will be giving up its state aid investigation into EU patent box regimes because its 2008 decision to approve Spain’s patent box created the expectation that the programs are legal, writes Victoria Slind-Flor of Boomberg, in a February 3 article, quoting a Commission official. See, Bloomberg.
New Zealand expects in 2015 to negotiate tax treaties or protocols with Korea, Australia, Norway, Slovak Republic, China . . .
HM Treasury’s David Gauke on October 3 said the UK does not support the the adoption of the nexus approach described the OECD’s interim report on harmful tax practices to determine if intellectual property regimes reward “substantial activities” . . .
Draft UK regulations released on October 3 under the Promoters of Tax Avoidance legislation in Finance Act 2014 exclude from the definition of “promoter” the . . .
The European Commission, in a July 24 website post, announced it has extended the deadline for submitting applications to serve as a VAT Expert Group member until Sept. 12. Website, Call for Applications (22KB), Prior coverage.
The Slovak Ministry of Finance is considering re-introducing thin capitalization rules into Slovak tax law, according to a June 16 report by KPMG.
The government of Cyprus on December 11 announced that it has signed a protocol . . .
UAE and Norway officials signed an agreement on exchange of information for tax purposes during . . .
Cyprus’s Ministry of Finance announced September 8 that it has agreed with the government of Ukraine to conclude a protocol to the countries’ November 2012. . .
European Court of Justice Advocate General Juliane Kokott, in an opinion issued June 11, concluded that France has violated freedom of establishment principles through a law that only gives domestic companies the opportunity to join a French group and . . .
Ireland’s Tax and Duty Manual has been updated with expanded information regarding the procedures that migrating companies should use to elect to defer their exit charge under the tax laws, Irish Tax and Customs announced on May 26. See, Revenue eBrief No. 53/15.
Switzerland’s Federal Council on April 29 initiated a consultation on a federal decree which would implement automatic exchange of information in tax matters with Australia. The consultation follows up on a joint declaration . . .
As expected, the UK government on March 24 published Finance Bill 2015, including the final version of its controversial new diverted profits tax. Provisions granting HMRC power to issue regulations to introduce country-by-country reporting requirements for MNEs consistent with OECD guidance were also included in the. . .
The European Commission on February 3 opened a state aid investigation into the private ruling practices of the Belgian tax administration. The rulings allow multinational entities in Belgium to reduce their corporate tax liability by “excess profits” that allegedly result from the advantage of being part . . .
The EU Council, on January 27, amended the EU parent-subsidiary directive, adding a new antiavoidance rule. The action follows up on a political agreement reached on December 9 to amend the directive. The directive exempts from taxation dividends and other profit distributions received by parent companies from subsidiaries located in different member states. The amended directive provides that tax exemptions for . . .
Ireland may not support a proposal advanced by the UK and Germany to use a modified nexus approach to put limits on preferential intellectual property tax regimes under the OECD/G-20 base erosion profit shifting (BEPS) plan, Finance Minister Michael Noonan said December 2. The joint UK/German proposal, announced by the . . .
G20 finance ministers, in a communique released following their Sept. 20-21 meeting in Carins, Australia, have expressed approval of the progress made toward completion of the G20 OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Action Plan and have committed to finalizing all action items by 2015. Further, the ministers endorsed the finalized global Common Reporting Standard for automatic exchange of tax information, committing to exchange of information by 2017 or end-2018, subject to the completion of legislative procedures. Communique. See also, G20 release, prior coverage of BEPS recommendations.
UK formally commits to country-by-country reporting template: The UK has agreed to implement the country-by-country reporting template provided for in the OECD/G20 BEPS recommendations, Financial Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke announced in a Sept. 20 release. See, UK release.
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India disputes binding arbitration proposals in BEPS recommendations: In a Sept. 22 speech before the G20, India’s Minister of State for Finance expressed support for the OECD/G20 BEPS project but said that developing nations had “major concerns” with proposals to introduce binding arbitration into the mutual agreement procedure for tax treaties. See, speech of Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, India Minister of State for Finance. See, related coverage.
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The OECD and Global Forum announce mandate to assist developing nations with BEPS: The OECD and its Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information announced on Sept. 22 that they have been mandated by the G20 to develop toolkits to support developing countries in addressing BEPS and to launch pilot projects to assist them to move towards automatic exchange of information. The OECD said it will report to the G20 Leaders in November on its plan to deepen the involvement of developing countries in the OECD/G20 BEPS project and ensure that their concerns are addressed. OECD release.
Switzerland’s Federal Council on Sept. 9 adopted report on the tax treatment of fines including fines that arise in an international context. The report concludes that fines, including tax penalties and financial administrate sanctions, are putative in nature and therefore can not be deducted. Profit disgorgement sanctions, on the other hand, which require repayment of taxable profits obtained by illegal acts, can be deducted. For more details, see release, report (in German).
Luxembourg and France on Sept. 5 signed the 4th amendment to their 1958 double tax agreement, providing for source country taxation of gains from the sale of shares of companies that primarily invest in immovable property, such as real estate. Text of the amendment (in French), release (in French). For analysis, see Arendt & Medernach, Loyens & Loeff, Baker & McKenzie
French tax authorities, on August 5, published regulations under new Article 212 1-b of the French tax code, which limits interest deductions when the debtor and creditor are affiliated entities, writes Taxand France, in an August 18 report. For analysis of the new regulations, see Taxand France. See, also KPMG.
The Netherlands, on June 14, ratified a tax treaty signed in 2012 between The Netherlands and Ethiopia, according to a July 15 report by Consultants International. For analysis of the treaty provisions, see Consultants International.
Guidance released by Ireland’s Office of the Revenue Commissioners on July 1 enhances double tax relief for foreign tax paid by foreign branches of Irish companies, permitting companies to carryback the foreign tax credit in . . .
The UK’s HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) on November 30 announced that it has changed its interpretation of the company residence tie breaker clause in the Jersey-UK tax treaty and in 15 other tax treaties that . . .
Germany had the greatest number of unresolved mutual agreement procedure (MAP) cases among OECD countries during the 2014 reporting period, according to OECD statistics . . .
The legislation, released September 11 and 15 also includes provisions that reduce withholding tax on dividends that follow a cross-border merger into a Dutch company. See: Loyens & Loeff. For just the transfer pricing aspects of the bill, See: Otterspeer Haasnoot & Partners.
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