Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe announced on October 7 that Edward Denny has joined the firm’s London tax practice group. Denny, who is formerly with Norton Rose Fulbright, focuses on mergers and acquisitions. Release
Botswana and Ireland, on June 11, signed an agreement to avoid double taxation, according to an report by Star Africa.
In Luxembourg, on May 28, Pierre Gramegna, Luxembourg Minister of Finance and Diarmuid O’Leary, Ambassador of Ireland, signed a protocol amending the countries’ 1972 tax treaty. The protocol updates the administrative assistance clause to the applicable international standard for the exchange of tax information upon request. Press Release
The European Court of Justice on April 30 dismissed the UK’s challenge to a EU Council decision that authorized 11 nation negotiations on a financial transaction tax. “The arguments relied on by the United Kingdom are directed at the elements of a future tax and not at the authorisation to establish enhanced cooperation,” the court said in a statement following the judgement. See, United Kingdom v Council, Press Release (164 KB).
The EU Parliament on November 25 overwhelmingly approved wide-ranging proposals to overhaul Europe’s international tax system offered by a special Parliament committee investigating multinational . . .
UPDATE (11/26/2015): EU Parliament to establish new committee on tax rulings: The EU Conference of Presidents on November 26 decided to set up a six-month committee to follow up on the tax rulings committee’s work; the precise mandate of the new committee will be decided on Wednesday. See: Release.
UPDATE (12/02/2015): New EU Parliament tax committee will have same mandate as its predecessor: The European Parliament on December 2 voted to create a new committee to investigate tax rulings, specifying that the new committee will have the . . .
The UK government on October 22 launched public consultations on proposed rules designed to limit excessive corporate interest deductions and revise the country’s patent box regime. Both proposals respond to the OECD/G20 base erosion . . .
The European Commission has been forced to delay decisions on whether countries violated state aid rules by granting private tax rulings to Amazon, Apple, Fiat, and Starbucks, EU competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, said May 5 . . .
The Italian goverment, on April 21, released draft legislation which “significantly reshapes the tax rules applicable to cross-border scenarios and redefines the concepts of abuse of law and tax avoidance,” writes EY in an April 27 tax alert. According to EY, the draft would replace Italy’s general antiavoidance rules with a new “abuse of law” provision and would expand types of matters that can be the subject of an advance tax ruling. Also included are proposals to modify the tax treatment of transactions with black list countries, the computation of the interest expense deduction cap, attribution of income to Italian permanent establishments, foreign tax credit and controlled foreign corporation rules, and provisions on consolidation between sister companies. See, EY.
UPDATE (05/07/2015): See, also PWC.
Luxembourg Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna on March 11 signed tax treaties with representatives of Hungary and Uruguay while attending an Ecofin meeting . . .
Geoffrey Scardoni has joined DLA Piper’s Luxembourg office as a partner on their tax team, the firm announced . . .
The UK, on December 10, released a draft Finance Bill modifying the taxation of the loan relationships and derivatives contracts. The bill updates the computation of profits and losses on these instruments and the detailed rules by which they are taxed. See: Corporation tax: modernising the taxation of corporate debt and derivative contracts
A joint proposal advanced by the UK and Germany that put limits on preferential intellectual property regimes has been adopted by the OECD Forum on Harmful Tax Practices (FHTP) as a new starting point for drafting guidance under Action 5 the base erosion profit shifting (BEPS) plan, UK Financial Secretary to the Treasury, David Gauke said December 2. Gauke said the UK/German proposal . . .
German, French, and Italian finance ministers have asked the EU Commission to take immediate steps to more aggressively tackle corporate tax avoidance in the EU. In a letter addressed to European economy, finance and tax commissioner Pierre Moscovici . . .
European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker on November 12 said advance tax rulings issued by Luxembourg to multinationals while he was the country’s prime minister were legal even though the rulings helped multinationals avoid tax due other European nations. Juncker was responding the uproar over the release of leaked taxpayer private rulings and tax returns which were . . .
(Updated 10/15/2014) EU finance ministers on October 14 agreed to extend mandatory automatic exchange of information between tax administrations to interest, dividends, and other income, and to account balances and sales proceeds from financial assets.
The agreement amends directive 2011/16/EU on administrative . . .
The UK’s HM Revenue and Customs on October 13 launched an online FATCA guide to assist UK financial institutions in registering and reporting financial information on behalf of their US customers in accordance with UK-US legislation. HMRC
The UK’s HM Revenue & Customs, on July 31, released draft implementing agreements and regulations for a common reporting standard for automatic exchange of information, and has requested stakeholder input . . .
On behalf of 32 civil society organizations, Eurodad has written to the European Commission protesting the Commission’s decision to hire PwC to assess the impact of proposals to require public disclosure of country-by-country reporting for banks
. . .
HM Revenue & Customs, on June 30, published draft regulations that simplify the determination of the market value of shares in listed companies and similar instruments for tax purposes. The draft responds to recommendations made by the Office of Tax Simplification, replacing complicated valuation methods such as the “quarter up” method with methods that require no calculation, such as, in the case of shares, the closing price of the shares on the relevant day. Comments on the draft are requested by August 22. Draft statutory instrument (PDF 103K), Draft explanatory memorandum (PDF 103K), Release.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ), on June 12, ruled in SCA Group Holding BV and other joined cases that the Netherlands may not deny single entity tax treatment to a resident parent company and its indirectly held Dutch subsidiary (sub-subsidiary) in cases where the sub-subsidiary’s parent is a not a Dutch . . .
-For implications of the ECJ opinion on Spain’s rules governing tax consolidation, see a June 17 report by EY
Pfizer Inc.’s attempted takeover of British pharmaceutical rival, AstraZeneca, if successful, could yield a massive loss to the U.S. Treasury as its offshore profits could permanently escape taxation. See, Jessie Drucker and Zachary R. Mider, Bloomberg; Richard Murphy, Tax Research U.K.; Liz Hoffman, Wall Street Journal; Jia Lynn Wang. Washington Post; Matthew Herper, Forbes
Poland’s Counsel of Ministers, on March 18, adopted guidelines to draft legislation that would modify Poland’s advance pricing agreement program, according to KPMG’s Poland office. Read more: KPMG
Criminals have allegedly duped Denmark’s tax authority into inappropriately refunding DKK 6.2 billion (approx. €830 million), causing the agency to temporarily suspend payout on pending refund claims, writes EY in an August 27 tax alert. See: EY
The European Commission on June 8 escalated its inquiry into whether EU countries’ tax ruling practices provide a selective advantage to companies in violation of state aid rules, asking 15 EU nations to provide the . . .
The EU Joint Transfer Pricing Forum (JTPF) has proposed modifications to the EU Arbitration Convention and revised Code of Conduct to better accommodate transfer pricing disputes. in a report released on its website, the JTPF . . .
Irish Revenue on April 22 released the text of a tax treaty signed by Ireland and Zambia on March 31. The agreement is . . .
Ireland’s Minister of Finance Micheal Noonan on March 11 signed an order to commence legislation that establishes the Irish collective asset-management vehicle (“ICAV”), a new Irish corporate vehicle for investment funds. The ICAV will be a corporate entity with . . .
The Swiss Federal Council on December 17 submitted for consultation a bill proposing to replace its current debtor system of withholding to a system based on a paying agent principle. The consultation will run until March 31, 2015. See, release.
The EU Commission’s new president, Jean-Claude Juncker, on November 27, survived a no-confidence vote in European parliament brought on account of the ‘Lux leak” revelations that Luxembourg helped scores of multinationals avoid tax while he was prime minister. The censure motion . . .
Agreements between Switzerland and Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man regarding the exchange of information on tax matters have entered into force. The agreements . . .
Ireland is expected to announce on October 14 that it will phase out the “Double Irish” tax loophole, reports Sam Schechner and Lisa Fleisher, The Wall Street Journal. See also, Padraic Halpin, Reuters and Arthur Beesley, Irish Times.
The European Commission on Oct. 7 announced that it has opened an in-depth investigation into whether Luxembourg granted private rulings to an Amazon subsidiary with too favorable terms, potentially violating EU rules on state aid.
The 2003 tax ruling, which is still in force, sets a methodology for the payment of a tax deductible royalty by Luxembourg-based Amazon EU Sàrl to a related limited liability. . .
The Australian Government, on May 4, released draft legislation that would give the revised Australia-Swiss tax treaty and accompanying protocol, signed . . .
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