The Australian government on September 16 moved forward with plans to address multinational tax avoidance, introducing a bill in the House of Representatives that targets large companies that avoid the permanent establishment rules. The bill also proposes new transfer pricing documentation and country-by-country . . .
The US IRS on August 28 released IRS agent training materials on transfer pricing rules under section 482 and on foreign-to-foreign transactions under . . .
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) on July 8 announced that it is developing a practical guide to help taxpayers self-assess their transfer-pricing activity in respect to related party offshore marketing hubs. The hubs provide marketing and sales functions for goods . . .
China’s State Administration of Taxation in a June 23 English-language release described follow up procedures implementing the SAT’s decision no longer require tax administration approval . . .
Tax officials at a March 19 consultation on draft revisions to OECD transfer pricing guidelines expressed interest in adopting a special measure proposed in the draft that would address hard-to-value intangibles. Officials also discussed the weight that should be accorded a related party . . .
The European Commission on February 18 announced that it will present a tax transparency package in March which will include a legislative proposal for the automatic exchange of information on tax . . .
The Ecuadorian Internal Revenue Service has set up a new system to provide advance rulings on a company’s transfer pricing methodology, writes EY in a December 17 report. For discussion, see EY.
The European Commission on November 14 published its preliminary opinion that an advance pricing agreement (APA) granted by the Netherlands to a Starbucks subsidiary constitutes illegal state aid. The inquiry, first announced in June, is one of four state aid investigations recently initiated by the Commission clamping down on EU states that grant sweetheart deals to . . .
New German regulations on allocation of profit between head office and permanent establishments were published in the Federal Law Gazette on October 17, 2014, and are now applicable to tax years beginning after December 31, reports PwC. The regulations provide detailed rules on the application of the Authorized OECD Approach (AOA), which became effective in Germany in 2013. For analysis of the new regulations, see PwC.
Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne has announced that her party will introduce on October 28 the Corporations Amendment (Publish What You Pay) Bill 2014, which will require reporting of payments made by Australian-based extractive companies to foreign governments on a country-by-country and . . .
Major Chilean tax reform legislation was published in the Official Gazette on September 29, introducing new measures for computing shareholder-level income taxation, amendments to thin capitalization rules, rate increases, and the introduction of general antiavoidance rules, among many other changes, writes PwC in an October 3 report. For analysis of some of the most important tax changes, see PwC.
The European Commission will publish this week the formal letter the Commission sent to Ireland in June setting out its preliminary view that Ireland violated state aid in granting private tax rulings to Apple . . .
India’s government will amend its tax regulations to allow for the roll back of advance pricing agreements (APAs) to the previous four years, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced during a July 10 speech outlining the 2014-15 Union Budget.
The new rules, long sought by international firms, could assist in resolving India’s huge backlog of transfer pricing disputes, permitting concepts agreed to in an APA between the government and a taxpayer to apply to previous tax years.
Jaitley said the government will also introduce a “range concept” to determine arm’s length price for transfer pricing, though arithmetic mean . . .
The Tax Court of Canada, on June 10, ruled in Marzen Artistic Aluminum Ltd. that marketing fees paid to Marzen’s wholly owned subsidiary, Starline International Inc (SII), were not arm’s length.
SII was incorporated in Barbados to act as Marzen’s agent for sales of windows in the U.S.
. . .
The South African Revenue Service on December 15 issued draft rules requiring companies that have consolidated South African turnover of R1 billion and above to keep . . .
The company said the dispute is over income received from licensing its products to related parties located in foreign markets from 2007–2009. See: Wall Street Journal. More: Forbes, Business Insider, Market Watch.
Countries failed to agree to a proposal to upgrade the UN Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters to a more powerful UN intergovernmental body during the United Nations Third International . . .
The Indian government on May 21 released draft transfer pricing rules that would introduce the concept of a range for determining arm’s length price as well as allow the use of multiple year data for comparability purposes. The rules . . .
Japan and Qatar on February 20 signed a tax treaty in Tokyo, the Japanese Ministry of Finance has announced. Under the agreement, taxation in the source country on dividends is reduced to 5 percent for corporate shareholders that hold at least a 10 percent interest, and is 10 percent in other cases. Taxation . . .
WTP Advisors announced February 4 that Kash Mansori, an economist and transfer pricing specialist, has joined the firm’s North Carolina office. Mansori previously had his own consulting practice, and has worked for Ernst & Young and Experis Finance. He was also an economics professor at Colby College where he conducted research on transfer pricing, international trade, and international finance.
France’s 2015 Finance Act and the Rectificative Finance Act for 2014 have entered into force, reports CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre in a January 9 tax alert. Among the new tax law changes is a broadening of the scope of tax consolidation to include . . .
The US IRS, in a private letter ruling released December 12, granted a corporation prospective consent to change to the elective method for measurement and timing of employee stock options, restricted shares, and restricted share units pursuant . . .
An OECD discussion draft released December 16 proposes to modify OECD transfer pricing guidelines to clarify that the arm’s length price for commodities can be determined by reference to a commodity’s quoted or publicly available prices. The guidance also sets the shipment date as the default pricing date. . . .
Ernst & Young LLP announced July 17 that Richard McAlonan, Jr. has joined the firm as director of national tax transfer pricing controversy in Washington, DC. McAlonan will also act as the Americas director of advance pricing agreements (APAs). McAlonan previously. . .
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has released its Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP) Program report for the
. . .
The OECD has revised the dates when discussion drafts will be published and public consultations held in relation to the September 2014 BEPS outputs. OECD
India and South Korea have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) agreeing to suspend the collection of taxes while mutual agreement procedure . . .
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 OECD has asked transfer pricing officers in multinational enterprises to participate in an online survey on transfer pricing comparability data . . .
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 . . .
US Senator, Orrin Hatch, expected to be the next Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, released a report December 11 which calls for the US to adopt a territorial tax system and suggests that the US consider adopting a patent or innovation box. The report . . .
Treasurer Joe Hockey in a Sept. 4 release said that he has asked the Commissioner of Taxation to examine whether location specific profits are being generated in Australia on account of the high prices multinationals charge to consumers and, if so, whether multinationals are appropriately allocating these profits to Australian operations under the transfer pricing rules.
“Australian consumers often pay much higher prices compared to United States . . .
The Slovak Ministry of Finance is considering re-introducing thin capitalization rules into Slovak tax law, according to a June 16 report by KPMG.
An ITAT ruling, Bharti Airtel, has concluded that a corporate guarantee is not an international transaction under the Indian transfer pricing regulations, according to Vijay Iyer, EY, in an article submitted to the Business Standard
The OECD has announced that it will present webcasts on October 5 on the contents of the final reports under the . . .
In a significant blow to the IRS, the US Tax Court has invalidated 2003 cost-sharing regulations that require related parties to share stock-based compensation costs in qualified cost-sharing agreements, finding that the regulations do not meet the standard of reasoned . . .
The OECD on June 19 released 42 public comments on a discussion draft on action 8 of the OECD/G20 base erosion profit shifting (BEPS) plan dealing with hard-to-value intangibles for purposes. . .
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. . .
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