International

Expert Analysis

• EU Climate Plan Should Involve Taxing Pollution, Not Borders

  

  In order to crack down on greenhouse gas emissions, the European Union proposes to levy carbon emissions at its borders and to overhaul its long-standing energy tax framework, but the latter would hold polluters directly accountable, giving it the better chance for success, says Rebecca Christie at Bruegel.

• Prepare For Global Tax Regime's New Biz Dispute Risks

  

  Companies should take steps to mitigate the business dispute risks of the new international tax framework, which over a hundred countries agreed to in July, as implementing the new regime will be expensive and require substantial organizational restructuring efforts, says Tim McCarthy at Dykema.

• Prepare For More Audits Of Tax Info And Withholding Filings

  

  Financial institutions and other corporate taxpayers should focus compliance efforts on tax information reporting and withholding, given recent indications from the Biden administration that the IRS will increase enforcement, and the administration's need to fund its infrastructure plan and other costly initiatives, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.

• Anti-Boycott Compliance Still Key In UAE Business Dealings

  

  Notwithstanding recent amendments to U.S. anti-boycott laws that reflect the United Arab Emirates' withdrawal from the Arab boycott of Israel, companies doing business in the UAE and elsewhere still need to maintain effective anti-boycott compliance programs to avoid reporting violations or penalties, says Howard Weissman at Miller Canfield.

• 9th Circ. Adds Pressure To Reject Substance Over Form

  

  The Ninth Circuit’s recent decision rejecting taxes on a family's Roth IRA payments that were made through a foreign sales corporation represents a refreshing trend among federal appeals courts to reject substance-over-form principles and instead look to congressional intent, say Lawrence Hill and Caitlin Tharp at Steptoe & Johnson.

• Will The OECD Plan Fix International Taxation?

  

  Lilian Faulhaber at Georgetown Law breaks down the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s plan for international tax reform, recently joined by 130 countries, and whether it will solve the problems it was designed to address, including the need for multinational companies to pay their fair share of taxes in the digitized world economy.

• What Biden's Tax Proposals May Mean For Int'l Private Clients

  

  Jennifer Wioncek and Paul D’Alessandro at Bilzin Sumberg discuss the U.S. Department of the Treasury's recently released explanation of the Biden administration's tax proposals and how the changes would affect income and wealth transfer planning for international private clients.

• What Crypto Holders Can Learn From Early-2000s Tax Scandal

  

  The Internal Revenue Service’s recent push to gather information about cryptocurrency accounts is similar to its Swiss bank account investigations of the early 2000s, which should prompt taxpayers to consider voluntarily disclosing transactions before they are individually targeted for enforcement, say Timothy Wagner and Thomas Barnard at Baker Donelson.

• International Tax Reform's Implications For Transfer Pricing

  

  As the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development overhauls the global tax rules on base erosion and profit shifting, and the Biden administration rolls out new U.S. tax proposals, multinational enterprises need to prepare for the effects of these tax changes on their transfer pricing structures, say Mandy Li and Shuang Feng at MGO.

• Justices' Preemptive Tax Challenge Ruling Shows Divisions

  

  The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in CIC Services v. Internal Revenue Service reveals divisions among the justices about when potentially burdensome tax regulations can be challenged, making the holding less clear and less valuable, say George Isaacson and David Swetnam-Burland at Brann & Isaacson.

• Takeaways From 2 New FBAR Rulings

  

  In light of two recent California federal court decisions, capping penalties for nonwillful violations of foreign bank account reporting but broadening the willfulness standard, U.S. taxpayers must be vigilant about understanding their reporting obligations, and prepare for the Internal Revenue Service to target willful conduct, which yields much higher penalties, say Friedemann Thomma and Marianna Felshtiner at Venable.

• El Salvador's Use Of Bitcoin Complicates US Commercial Law

  

  El Salvador recently became the first country to recognize Bitcoin as currency, presenting significant implications for U.S. commercial law as the development will likely trigger the cryptocurrency to now fall within the definition of "money" under the Uniform Commercial Code, say Joe Carlasare and Eric Fogel at SmithAmundsen.

• Justices' Nod To Preemptive Tax Challenges May Caution IRS

  

  The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in CIC Services v. Internal Revenue Service, allowing pre-enforcement challenges of tax reporting rules despite the Anti-Injunction Act, is likely to make the U.S. Department of the Treasury more careful about its own compliance obligations under the Administrative Procedure Act, says Robert Carney at Caplin & Drysdale.