Europe
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Americas
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Belgium
Americas
Ireland, US multinationals to face new tax landscape in 2018
Jim Stewart, Trinity Business School, Trinity College, Dublin discusses how EU tax authorities’ increasing challenges to the tax strategies of US multinationals, their access to information about MNE activities, US tax reform, and the net effect of ‘correlative adjustments,’ are creating a new tax environment for US MNEs, Ireland, and international taxation in general . . .
Americas
Americas
Featured News
Europe
Ordinary VAT rate on e-books is valid, European court concludes
Davide Anghileri of the University of Lausanne discusses a March 7 European Court of Justice ruling concluding that the EU VAT directive is valid under EU law even though it excludes electronically-supplied digital books, newspapers, and periodicals from a reduced rate of VAT . . .
Europe
ECJ rules in Spanish goodwill cases, implications for Apple, Fiat, Starbucks State aid cases
Dimitrios Kyriazis, a Doctoral Researcher in Law at the University of Oxford, analyzes the European Court of Justice’s judgment in the so-called Spanish goodwill cases, released December 21, and addresses the ruling’s impact on the Apple, Fiat, Starbucks State aid cases . . .
Africa
South Africa: transfer pricing record-keeping rules finalized
Jens Brodbeck, head of ENSafrica’s transfer pricing practice in Cape Town, discusses new South African record-keeping requirements for transfer pricing transactions which became effective October 1 . . .
Europe
Switzerland ratifies multilateral agreement on tax transparency
Switzerland has deposited the instruments of ratification for the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, furthering its effort to promote of tax transparency and combat tax evasion. writes Davide Anghileri, PhD researcher and lecturer at the University of Lausanne . . .
Americas
Italy issues more tax guidance on controlled foreign companies
Davide Anghileri, a PhD researcher and lecturer at the University of Lausanne, discusses guidance issued by the Italian tax authority on September 16 that provides important details on how to determine if Italy’s controlled foreign company (CFC) tax rules will apply . . .
Europe
Apple, Google, Fiat, IKEA, McDonald’s reps to be grilled on tax avoidance by EU Parliament committee
Representatives of large multinationals will again defend their companies’ tax avoidance practices before an EU parliamentary committee. This time, Apple, Google, Fiat, IKEA. . .
Europe
Google’s UK tax settlement resolved transfer pricing disputes, no diverted profits tax paid
Google’s recently announced settlement with UK HM Revenue and Customs requires the company to pay additional tax on account of transfer pricing adjustments and does not include any diverted profits tax (DPT) payment, HMRC documents . . .
Europe
The EU Commission’s anti-tax avoidance proposal: a first look
Professor Edoardo Traversa, Matthieu Possoz, and Elien Van Malder analyze the EU Commission’s proposed anti-tax avoidance directive, released today, noting that the document confirms that prevention of avoidance and abuse, rather than removal of cross-border obstacles, has become the dominant objective of EU tax policy.
Americas
US Senators urge Treasury to consider retaliatory EU tax in response to State aid cases
Four influential US Senators have urged the Obama administration to examine whether it should use its regulatory authority to impose additional taxes on EU citizens and corporations in retaliation for EU State aid . . .
Europe
EU Commission to soon propose new measures to combat tax avoidance by multinationals
The European Commission will present a new package of tax proposals by the end of January to combat tax avoidance by multinationals and tax fraud, EU commissioner Pierre Moscovici told . . .
Belgium
Belgium’s excess profits tax ruling scheme violates EU State aid law, Commission concludes
The EU Commission on Monday announced that it has concluded that Belgium’s excess profits tax regime is illegal under EU State aid . . .
Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific
Americas
US weighing changes to draft model tax treaty provisions, negotiating new treaty with Luxembourg
The US is considering changes to draft US Model Income Tax Convention provisions released last May, including several changes to provisions that deny tax treaty benefits to related party payments that are subject to a special tax regime (STR) . . .
Africa
Developing nations detail their experiences with BEPS, react to OECD work
Tax officials from 11 developing nations described the most common practices MNEs use to shift profits out of their countries, obstacles that prevent their countries from stopping these practices, and their reactions to the OECD/G-20 base erosion profit shifting (BEPS) project, responding to a UN request for . . .
Europe
Tax deals granted by Luxembourg to Amazon, Microsoft, and McDonald’s under EU scrutiny
The European Union’s competition commission has requested information from Luxembourg to determine if tax deals granted to Amazon violate state aid rules, according to unnamed sources interviewed for a July 3 FT report.
Meanwhile, the EU is scrutinizing Luxembourg’s taxation of Microsoft’s and McDonald’s operations, according to a July 4 Bloomberg article.
The actions appear to be part of a wider investigation into whether tax rulings
Featured News
OECD hybrid mismatch proposal’s ten percent threshold scrutinized at hearing
Government representatives at a May 15 consultation defended draft OECD guidance on hybrid mismatch arrangements that uses a 10 percent ownership threshold to determine whether parties to a hybrid instrument are related.
The guidance, released March 19, responds to action item 2 of the OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) . . .
Council of the European Union
EU Council adopts directive on automatic exchange of tax rulings, reaches conclusions on BEPS
(Updated 12/10/2015) The European Council, during a December 8 meeting, formally agreed to an amended directive requiring EU States to exchange information automatically on advance cross-border tax rulings and . . .
Featured News
OECD to help developing nations address transfer pricing abuse, other BEPS concerns
The OECD will lead a guidance project designed to help tax administrations determine the price of mineral commodities for transfer pricing purposes as a part of its effort to address the tax avoidance concerns of developing nations, a . . .
Europe
European Parliament committee to investigate tax ruling practices of EU states
The European Parliament voted February 12 to establish a special committee to investigate the tax ruling practices of EU member states. The 45-member committee . . .
Europe
UK diverted profits tax hits MNEs that avoid PE rules, route profits through tax havens
The UK government on December 10 proposed a new 25 percent tax on “diverted profits,” targeting MNEs that engage tax avoidance transactions, including MNEs that “exploit” permanent establishment (PE) rules and that reduce their tax liability through transactions that lack substance. The new tax, first announced in UK Autumn Statement 2014, affects only large MNEs, is . . .
Featured News
OECD approves revisions to the Model Tax Convention
The OECD Council, on July 15, approved a 2014 update to the OECD Model Tax Convention. The update modifies Article 26 on exchange of information to allow for group requests. Changes are also made to the meaning of “beneficial owner” for purposes of the OECD Model Convention; to tax treaty issues related to emissions permits and credits; to the tax treaty treatment of termination of employment payments; and to Article 17 (Artistes and Sportsmen). No updates relate to the OECD’s BEPS project.
An updated Model Tax Convention will be published in next few months. See, 2014 Update to the Model Tax Convention, Release.
Asia-Pacific
Hong Kong enacts tax concessions for 2013-14
Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, on June 25, passed concessionary tax measures that reduce by 75 percent the profits tax, salaries tax, tax under personal assessment for tax year 2013-14, subject to a ceiling of $10,000 per case
Featured News
Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific
Australian Senate report advocates heightened public disclosure of multinationals’ tax affairs
An interim report prepared by the Australian Senate Economic References Committee, released August 18, calls for laws mandating greater public disclosure of tax information of large . . .
Asia-Pacific
Australian draft laws introduce country-by-country reporting, double penalties for profit shifting and tax avoidance
Australia’s Treasury on July 6 released draft laws introducing country-by-country reporting documentation standards and doubling administrative penalties for multinational entities that have entered into tax avoidance or profit shifting schemes. Both measures were first announced . . .
Featured News
OECD releases model legislation, competent authority agreements to implement country-by-country reporting
The OECD on June 8 released model domestic legislation and competent authority agreements to implement the transfer pricing country-by-country (CbC) reporting plan developed under the OECD/G20 base erosion profit shifting (BEPS) project. The work furthers action 13 of the OECD/G20 BEPS plan and . . .
Europe
Journalists publish 35 more leaked Luxembourg tax rulings on the Internet
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on December 9 published on the Internet 35 more leaked Luxembourg private tax rulings. The documents originated from the big four accounting firms, as well as from smaller Luxembourg-based tax firms and law . . .
Featured News
OECD releases BEPS discussion draft on preventing artificial avoidance of PE status
The OECD on October 31 released a discussion draft on the artificial avoidance of permanent establishment ( PE) status, addressing commissionaire structures, the avoidance of PE status through specific activity exemptions, and other issues. The draft responds to Action 7 of the OECD/G-20 Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS), issued
. . .
UPDATE: OECD to hold January 21 consultation on draft rules to stop avoidance of PE status: Requests to attend or speak are due January 9.
Americas
US adds transfer pricing risk allocation guidance to list of priority tax projects
The US IRS, on August 26, released its 2014–2015 priority guidance plan, which details the tax guidance it intends to work on from July 2014 through June 2015.
Notable international tax changes . . .
