International

  • June 20, 2024

    German Court Convicts 5 In €52M VAT Fraud In Cars, Masks

    Five people who played roles in a value-added tax fraud scheme involving the trade of luxury cars and medical face masks that caused over €52 million ($55.7 million) in losses were convicted by a Berlin court, the European Public Prosecutor's Office announced Thursday.

  • June 20, 2024

    EU Court Rejects Co.'s Portuguese Tax Breaks Appeal

    An appeal contesting a European Commission decision against a Portuguese tax exemption scheme was rejected by the European General Court, which found a Panama-based food company unable to prove why recovering the illegal state aid should be prohibited.

  • June 20, 2024

    China Denies Tax Crackdown As 2 Cos. Report $80M In Bills

    China's tax authority denied a nationwide crackdown on companies' old tax returns Thursday, less than a week after a chemical firm facing 500 million yuan ($69 million) in additional liabilities halted production and a beverage maker reported owing 85 million yuan.

  • June 20, 2024

    UK Tax Pros Largely Support 2027 Carbon Border Tax Plan

    Two groups representing tax professionals welcomed the U.K. government's plan to introduce a carbon border tax on certain carbon-intensive imports by 2027, but specifics regarding both default embedded emissions values and carveouts for smaller businesses must be ironed out, they said.

  • June 20, 2024

    Norway's $95M Yearly Dividend Tax Losses Spur Joint Audit

    Norway's tax agency announced a joint audit with other Nordic tax agencies, saying it loses an estimated 1 billion kroner ($95 million) a year in withholding taxes that should be paid by foreign shareholders on dividends but aren't due to aggressive tax planning.

  • June 20, 2024

    Canada Lawmakers OK Digital Tax, Advance Min. Tax

    Canada's Senate passed a 3% digital services tax that would target the revenue of large technology companies, following through on a plan that has drawn criticism from the U.S. and groups representing American tech giants.

  • June 20, 2024

    UK Tax Gap Continues Downward Trend, HMRC Says

    The U.K. has continued to shrink its estimated tax gap, reaching a new low of 4.8% in the 2022-2023 tax year, following a trend of decreases over the past almost two decades, HM Revenue & Customs said Thursday.

  • June 20, 2024

    G20 Should Not Give Up On Pillar 1, Gentiloni Says

    The Group of 20 rich and developing countries should not give up on the Pillar One agreement to reallocate corporate taxing rights globally, European Union tax commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said Thursday, pointing to a G20 summit in November as crucial.

  • June 20, 2024

    EU Adopts Sanctions On Russian LNG, Oil Tanker Fleet

    The European Union agreed in principle Thursday on the 14th economic sanctions package against Russia since its war against Ukraine began, targeting liquefied natural gas, dual-use goods and technologies, and a fleet of oil tankers from non-EU countries.

  • June 20, 2024

    Repatriation Tax Doesn't Violate Constitution, Justices Rule

    The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the 2017 federal tax overhaul's mandatory repatriation levy on Thursday, finding the measure applies to the earnings of foreign corporations with U.S. shareholders and therefore does not raise constitutional questions about taxing unrealized income. 

  • June 20, 2024

    German Casino Tax Regime Is Illegal State Aid, EU Says

    Germany's special tax system for public casino operators violates the European Union's law on state aid law, the bloc's executive branch and treaty regulator said on Thursday.

  • June 19, 2024

    EU Commission Tells France, Italy To Lower Budget Deficits

    The European Commission told France, Italy and six other European Union countries to rein in their big budget deficits on Wednesday, although their governments can decide themselves on the details of spending cuts and tax hikes.

  • June 19, 2024

    Problems With VAT Law Still Not Resolved, Estonia Says

    Estonia said Wednesday that it continues to have concerns about a proposed change to the European Union's value added tax law, which the small northeastern European country said would hurt small businesses.

  • June 18, 2024

    IRS Guidance Doesn't Perceive Spinoff Abuse, Official Says

    Recent IRS guidance limiting the corporate spinoffs that revenue officials will approve as tax-free ahead of time was designed to reflect the drafters' current views, rather than suggest perceived abuse of these transactions, a U.S. Treasury Department official said Tuesday.

  • June 18, 2024

    AbbVie Says IRS Can't Treat $1.6B Break Fee As Capital Loss

    The Internal Revenue Service cannot reclassify as a capital loss a $1.6 billion payment AbbVie made to an Irish biotechnology company after their failed merger and thereby raise the pharmaceutical giant's tax bill by $572 million, the company's attorneys told the U.S. Tax Court.

  • June 18, 2024

    Lithuania Legislature Approves Bank Windfall Tax Extension

    The Lithuanian legislature voted to extend a temporary "solidarity tax" on bank profits through 2025, expecting to generate between €50 million ($53.7 million) and €70 million, it said Tuesday.

  • June 18, 2024

    Hungary Aims To Fight Evasion, Foster Certainty As EU Chair

    Hungary, the incoming chair of the European Union council of member states, said Tuesday that it will prioritize fighting tax evasion and ensuring legal certainty for taxpayers during its time in the role.

  • June 17, 2024

    $2.1B Danish Tax Fraud Defendant Pushes For Separate Trials

    An attorney facing trial alongside his clients on allegations of filing $2.1 billion in fraudulent tax refund claims in Denmark urged a New York federal court to hear his case separately, saying disparate legal arguments could confuse a jury if only one trial is held.

  • June 17, 2024

    OECD Tax Plan Is Developing Nations' Best Choice, Prof Says

    Developing countries could gain more revenue from the OECD's multilateral plan to tax the digital economy than the U.N. Tax Committee's bilateral alternative because they have small treaty networks, many customers and few large companies, an academic argued Monday during an Oxford University panel.

  • June 17, 2024

    Saudi Arabia Should Boost Non-Oil Tax Revenue, IMF Says

    Saudi Arabia has had an "unprecedented economic transformation" in recent years, but maintaining such growth will require further tax efforts, particularly when it comes to non-oil revenue generation, the International Monetary Fund said.

  • June 17, 2024

    OECD Clarifies Rules For Global Minimum Tax

    The OECD-led international negotiating body working on fundamental changes to corporate tax law clarified rules under the global minimum tax on deferred tax and securitization, the organization said Monday.

  • June 17, 2024

    EU Approves Italian Fee Cut For Boats Using Cleaner Energy

    The European Commission approved an Italian plan Monday which, by waiving a fee, incentivizes boats to use a cleaner way of obtaining electricity.

  • June 14, 2024

    US Urges 5th Circ. To Back $2M Tax Bill For Tire Imports

    The Fifth Circuit should overturn a lower court's ruling that a Houston truck company was not an importer responsible for nearly $2 million in excise taxes on tires it bought from a Chinese manufacturer, the U.S. told the Fifth Circuit on Friday.

  • June 14, 2024

    Eaton Says Court Improperly Required Int'l Employee Evals

    An Ohio federal court should reconsider its decision that multinational power management company Eaton must disclose the personnel records of its foreign employees that were requested by the Internal Revenue Service in a transfer pricing investigation, the company told the court.

  • June 14, 2024

    Mining Co. Entity Can't Deduct Loan Interest, UK Court Says

    A U.S. mining company's entity in the U.K. that was created to save taxes through the acquisition of a Texas-based firm cannot overturn the Upper Tribunal's decision that its U.K tax deductions weren't deserved, according to a Court of Appeal judgment.

Expert Analysis

  • 7 E-Discovery Predictions For 2024 And Beyond

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    The legal and technical issues of e-discovery now affect virtually every lawsuit, and in the year to come, practitioners can expect practices and policies to evolve in a number of ways, from the expanded use of relevancy redactions to mandated information security provisions in protective orders, say attorneys at Littler.

  • 5 Litigation Funding Trends To Note In 2024

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    Over the next year and beyond, litigation funding will continue to evolve in ways that affect attorneys and the larger litigation landscape, from the growth of a secondary market for funded claims, to rising interest rates restricting the availability of capital, says Jeffery Lula at GLS Capital.

  • 4 Legal Ethics Considerations For The New Year

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    As attorneys and clients reset for a new year, now is a good time to take a step back and review some core ethical issues that attorneys should keep front of mind in 2024, including approaching generative artificial intelligence with caution and care, and avoiding pitfalls in outside counsel guidelines, say attorneys at HWG.

  • What The Law Firm Of The Future Will Look Like

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    As the legal landscape shifts, it’s become increasingly clear that the BigLaw business model must adapt in four key ways to remain viable, from fostering workplace flexibility to embracing technology, say Kevin Henderson and Eric Pacifici at SMB Law Group.

  • 4 PR Pointers When Your Case Is In The News

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    Media coverage of new lawsuits exploded last year, demonstrating why defense attorneys should devise a public relations plan that complements their legal strategy, incorporating several objectives to balance ethical obligations and advocacy, say Nathan Burchfiel at Pinkston and Ryan June at Castañeda + Heidelman.

  • Unpacking The Proposed Production Tax Credit Regulations

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    Recently proposed tax regulations for claiming the U.S. clean-energy manufacturers' production credit under Internal Revenue Code Section 45X are less stringent than many had feared but fail to define a fundamental eligibility requirement, say Casey August and Jared Sanders at Morgan Lewis.

  • 10 Considerations For Litigating A New York Tax Case

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    While some of New York’s recently adopted corporate tax regulations are likely to face legal challenges, aggrieved taxpayers should answer certain questions before deciding to embark on the tax litigation process, say Cyavash Ahmadi and Jeffrey Friedman at Eversheds Sutherland.

  • Law Firm Strategies For Successfully Navigating 2024 Trends

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    Though law firms face the dual challenge of external and internal pressures as they enter 2024, firms willing to pivot will be able to stand out by adapting to stakeholder needs and reimagining their infrastructure, says Shireen Hilal at Maior Consultants.

  • Attorneys' Busiest Times Can Be Business Opportunities

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    Attorneys who resolve to grow their revenue and client base in 2024 should be careful not to abandon their goals when they get too busy with client work, because these periods of zero bandwidth can actually be a catalyst for future growth, says Amy Drysdale at Alchemy Consulting.

  • How Attorneys Can Be More Efficient This Holiday Season

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    Attorneys should consider a few key tips to speed up their work during the holidays so they can join the festivities — from streamlining the document review process to creating similar folder structures, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • How Clients May Use AI To Monitor Attorneys

    Excerpt from Practical Guidance
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    Artificial intelligence tools will increasingly enable clients to monitor and evaluate their counsel’s activities, so attorneys must clearly define the terms of engagement and likewise take advantage of the efficiencies offered by AI, says Ronald Levine at Herrick Feinstein.

  • The Pop Culture Docket: Judge D'Emic On Moby Grape

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    The 1968 Moby Grape song "Murder in My Heart for the Judge" tells the tale of a fictional defendant treated with scorn by the judge, illustrating how much the legal system has evolved in the past 50 years, largely due to problem-solving courts and the principles of procedural justice, says Kings County Supreme Court Administrative Judge Matthew D'Emic.

  • Breaking Down High Court's New Code Of Conduct

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    The U.S. Supreme Court recently adopted its first-ever code of conduct, and counsel will need to work closely with clients in navigating its provisions, from gift-giving to recusal bids, say Phillip Gordon and Mateo Forero at Holtzman Vogel.

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