International
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September 17, 2024
Tax Court Denies Mineral Co.'s $1.1M Microcaptive Deduction
A mineral rights leasing company set up by an Oklahoma oil businessman can't take a $1.1 million deduction for what was presented as a microcaptive insurance transaction, the U.S. Tax Court ruled, saying the transaction was not a legitimate insurance arrangement.
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September 17, 2024
Cos. Risk Offside Call On Contractor Tax After HMRC Win
The U.K. Supreme Court's decision Monday that Premier League referees count as employees for tax purposes means many companies may have to reassess their arrangements with contractors or risk higher tax costs in the future, tax experts say.
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September 17, 2024
Competitiveness Outranks Climate In New EU Commission
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen shifted her focus from climate change to boosting competitiveness as she proposed her team of commissioners for the next five-year mandate Tuesday, handing out key jobs covering everything from competition enforcement to trade policy.
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September 16, 2024
Film Producer, Accountant Hid $25M From IRS, DOJ Alleges
A film producer who sold shares in the production company he cofounded for $25 million schemed with an Australian accountant to hide the proceeds from U.S. authorities in Swiss bank accounts, causing the IRS to lose out on some $5 million, according to the DOJ.
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September 16, 2024
Apple Ruling May Embolden EU's Tax Policing, Experts Say
The European Court of Justice's ruling against Apple and Ireland last week runs contrary to its logic in a 2022 state aid ruling, potentially giving the European Commission a reason to think it can decide tax norms across Europe, tax experts said.
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September 16, 2024
Hospitality Sector Faces Almost £1B 'Tax Bombshell' In April
Many companies in the hospitality sector are set to be hit with huge tax bills in April 2025 when business rates relief is phased out, an industry group said Monday.
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September 16, 2024
Jet Fuel Tax Could Raise Almost £6B A Year, Report Says
HM Treasury could raise up to £5.9 billion ($7.8 billion) a year by imposing tax on jet fuel to match the duty paid by motorists, according to a think tank report published Monday.
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September 16, 2024
IRS Cancels Hearing On 'Basket Contract' Transactions Rule
The Internal Revenue Service canceled a hearing on proposed rules that would flag what are known as basket option contracts as potentially abusive listed transactions, according to a notice released Monday.
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September 16, 2024
Football Referees Can Be Employees, Top UK Court Rules
Referees for English football games can legally be considered employees, obliging the company they work for to deduct taxes from their pay, the U.K.'s highest court ruled Monday.
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September 13, 2024
The 2024 Regional Powerhouses
The law firms on Law360's list of 2024 Regional Powerhouses reflected the local peculiarities of their states while often representing clients in deals and cases that captured national attention.
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September 13, 2024
EU Actors Lobby Hard For Top Jobs in New Commission
European Union lawmakers and national governments are lobbying intensely to pull top jobs and policy their way as the new European Commission is formed for the next five years.
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September 13, 2024
HMRC Seeks Comments On Top-Up Tax Guidance
HM Revenue & Customs is seeking comments on new draft guidance on the multinational top-up tax as part of implementing the global minimum corporate tax rate.
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September 13, 2024
EU Finance Ministers Boycott Hungary Meeting Over Russia
Most European Union finance ministers protested on Friday against what they see as Hungary's Russia-friendly politics by boycotting a meeting with their EU peers in the country's capital, Budapest.
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September 13, 2024
Freeths Hires McNulty As Pensions Director In London
Freeths LLP has appointed Sean McNulty, a former legal director at Blake Morgan as a pensions director in its London office, a move it believes will bolster its retirement income business.
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September 13, 2024
Brokers Seek Insurance Tax Cut In Budget For At-Risk Housing
A trade body for insurance brokers has urged the U.K. government to exempt policyholders in apartment buildings with flammable cladding from a tax on premiums, as it seeks to avoid a jump in the price of cover.
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September 13, 2024
Hungarian Amendment To Environment Law Shouldn't Fly
Hungarian proposals to exempt maritime and aviation fuel from an update of the European Union's energy tax directive for the next 20 years risk locking some sectors of the economy into fossil fuel dependency, a think tank has said.
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September 12, 2024
UK Says Illicit Cigarette Crackdown Halves Tobacco Tax Gap
HM Revenue & Customs said Thursday it has slashed the tax gap on cigarettes and other tobacco products by more than half since 2005.
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September 12, 2024
Wilson Sonsini Hires Tax Pro From Slaughter and May
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC has recruited a tax specialist from Slaughter and May to its office in London to boost its strengths representing U.K. and European technology and life sciences companies that are expanding in the U.S. and globally.
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September 12, 2024
IRS Lacked Way To Track CAMT Comments, TIGTA Finds
The IRS Office of Chief Counsel did not always track comments it received in response to guidance issued on the corporate alternative minimum tax and did not have detailed procedures in place for the pre-rulemaking guidance process, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration reported Thursday.
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September 12, 2024
EU Rejects Minimum Price Offers In Chinese EV Dispute
The European Commission has rejected offers from exporters of electric vehicles made in China to stick to minimum prices that would aim to remove an unfair competitive advantage that the commission believes Chinese state subsidies give the exporters, a commission spokesman said Thursday.
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September 12, 2024
UK Gov't Warned Over Pension Tax Changes In Budget
A trade body for actuaries said on Thursday that the government should consult widely and take time to implement any reform to pension taxation as it joins a growing number of organizations urging caution over potential tax changes ahead of the upcoming Budget.
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September 12, 2024
Treasury Floats Long-Awaited Rules For Corp. Minimum Tax
Treasury and the IRS released eagerly awaited rules Thursday on the new 15% corporate alternative minimum tax on corporations with reported profits of $1 billion or more, taking a step toward implementing a key provision of President Joe Biden's signature 2022 tax and climate law.
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September 12, 2024
Danish Pharma Co. Is Entitled To VAT Reduction
A Danish pharmaceutical company's mandatory payments for value added tax should lower the company's taxable base, the European Court of Justice ruled on Thursday.
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September 11, 2024
EU Struggles With Setup Of G7 Use Of Frozen Russian Assets
European Union countries are struggling to agree on a legal solution to reassure the U.S. that windfall profits from frozen and immobilized Russian state assets will be used to repay a $50 billion loan to Ukraine over the entire length of the loan.
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September 11, 2024
McCarter & English Recruits EY Tax Pro In New Jersey
McCarter & English LLP has bulked up its tax and employee benefits team in New Jersey with a longtime Ernst & Young expert at a time when the Garden State's business community is bracing for regulations on a series of corporate tax reforms.
Expert Analysis
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Key Takeaways From IRS Reversal On FDII Stance
The Internal Revenue Service's recent memo regarding allocation of deferred compensation expenses for purposes of foreign-derived intangible income is a departure from the agency's previous position and may have implications beyond the context of deferred compensation, say attorneys at Miller & Chevalier.
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New Tax Decree Suggests Expansion In Dutch Transfer Pricing
A July 1 decree from Dutch tax authorities updating transfer pricing guidance heralds a major change in how intercompany financial transactions are considered for transfer pricing purposes and forebodes significant audit activity, say Monique van Herksen and Clive Jie-A-Joen at Simmons and Simmons.
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Is NJ's Voluntary Transfer Pricing Initiative Really Voluntary?
The New Jersey Division of Taxation's voluntary transfer pricing audit initiative promises penalty abatement to taxpayers that elect to participate and agree to the division's proposed adjustments, but the effective penalties associated with nonparticipation raise questions about the program's voluntary nature, say attorneys at McDermott.
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Global Tax Chiefs Should Look To US Whistleblower Programs
As the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement develops its international whistleblower program to address tax evasion and money laundering schemes in new areas like cryptocurrency, it should take lessons from highly successful U.S. programs on which features to include and pitfalls to avoid, say Neil Getnick and Nico Gurian at Getnick & Getnick.
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What Microcaptive Reporting Ruling May Mean For The IRS
In CIC v. Internal Revenue Service, a Tennessee federal court’s decision to set aside an IRS requirement to disclose microcaptive insurance arrangements may be a step toward evidentiary standards to show that the potential for abuse in a lawful transaction is sufficient to support heightened disclosure requirements, says Samuel Lauricia at Weston Hurd.
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US Should Leverage Tax Rules To Deter Business With Russia
The U.S. should further restrict the flow of resources available for the Putin regime's war in Ukraine by denying U.S. businesses that operate in Russia or Belarus foreign tax credits and global intangible low-taxed income preferences, and by terminating its tax treaty with Russia, says Reuven Avi-Yonah at University of Michigan Law School.
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Justices Must Apply Law Evenly In Shadow Docket Rulings
In recent shadow docket decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court has inconsistently applied the requirement that parties demonstrate irreparable harm to obtain injunctive relief, which is problematic for two separate but related reasons, says David Hopkins at Benesch.
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US Investors Stand To Benefit From Brazil's New Forex Law
Brazil's New Foreign Exchange Law facilitates negotiations and reduces bureaucracy for foreign investments, making it a good time for U.S. investors looking for projects with a positive environmental, social and governance impact to allocate funds to Brazilian energy and infrastructure, say Jorge Kamine and Juliana Pimentel at Willkie.
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A Landmark UK Enforcement Case For Crypto-Assets
HM Revenue and Customs' recent seizure of nonfungible tokens from three people under investigation for value-added tax fraud promises to be the first of many such actions against crypto-assets, so investors should preemptively resolve potential tax matters with U.K. law enforcement agencies to avoid a rude awakening, says Andrew Park at Andersen.
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Simplifying Tax Issues For Nonresident Athletes In Canada
Tax compliance can be particularly challenging for nonresident professional athletes playing in Canada, but as NHL contract negotiations approach a close, it's worth looking at some ways the tax burden can be mitigated, say Marie-France Dompierre and Marc Pietro Allard at Davies Ward.
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Steps For Universities As DOJ Shifts Foreign Influence Policy
Notwithstanding Wednesday's U.S. Department of Justice announcement terminating the initiative targeting Chinese influence and raising the bar for criminal prosecutions, universities should ensure their compliance controls meet new disclosure standards and that they can efficiently respond to inquiries about employees' foreign connections, say attorneys at Covington.
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Why I'll Miss Arguing Before Justice Breyer
Carter Phillips at Sidley shares some of his fondest memories of retiring Justice Stephen Breyer both inside and out of the courtroom, and explains why he thinks the justice’s multipronged questions during U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments were everything an advocate could ask for.
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Corporate Reporting Considerations As Tax Meets ESG
With the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing season upon us amid increasing pressure for greater transparency around effective tax rates and tax strategies, multinational companies must decide how they will approach voluntary tax reporting and prepare their responses if they want to control the narrative, say Michael Lebovitz and Jenny Austin at Mayer Brown.