International
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October 02, 2024
OECD Releases Crypto Data-Swap Guidance For Tax Agencies
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released guidance Wednesday to help tax administrations automatically exchange information under a new global crypto-asset reporting framework and under an updated system for swapping traditional financial data.
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October 02, 2024
Mongolia Ratifies OECD Tax Treaty Standards
Mongolia ratified the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's multilateral convention on base erosion and profit shifting, which updates bilateral tax treaties of its signatories with agreed-upon standards, the OECD said Wednesday.
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October 02, 2024
4 Arrested In €97M VAT Fraud Involving Phone Service
Four people were arrested in Italy for their suspected roles in a value-added tax fraud scheme involving services that let users make phone calls via the internet that sought to claim over €97 million ($107 million) in fraudulent refunds, the European Public Prosecutor's Office said Wednesday.
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October 02, 2024
Canada Finalizes Surtax List For Chinese Steel, Aluminum
Canada's Department of Finance issued its finalized list of Chinese-made steel and aluminum products that will be hit with a 25% surtax when imported into the country starting later this month.
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October 01, 2024
Tax Deadlines Extended For Victims Of Israel-Hamas War
The Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday that it will postpone tax return and payment deadlines to Sept. 30, 2025, for those affected by the Israel-Hamas war across 2023 and 2024.
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October 01, 2024
Amgen Must Face Suit It Misled Investors On $10.7B Tax Bill
Amgen lost an attempt to escape a potential class action claiming the pharmaceutical giant hid a $10.7 billion tax bill from investors after a New York federal court ruled there was sufficient evidence for the action to proceed.
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October 01, 2024
Ex-USTR Official Sees Possible Path Forward For Digital Taxes
The U.S. may withhold trade threats if it believes countries are having good-faith conversations about concerns that their digital services taxes discriminate against U.S. businesses, including in current talks with Canada, the former general counsel for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative told Law360.
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October 01, 2024
Ireland Eyes Infrastructure With €14B From ECJ Apple Case
The Irish government is aiming to build infrastructure with the €14.1 billion ($15.6 billion) in corporate tax payments due from Apple Inc. following a European Court of Justice ruling that Ireland granted Apple illegal state aid, officials said Tuesday in announcing next year's budget.
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October 01, 2024
EU Chief Prosecutor Calls For Making Tax Fraud A Priority
As organized crime rings continue to affect the European Union budget through "massive" value-added tax and customs fraud schemes, more must be done to support the European Public Prosecutor's Office and its power to investigate such crimes, the European chief prosecutor said in remarks published Tuesday.
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October 01, 2024
Treasury Plans Final Direct Pay Partnership Regs By Year-End
The U.S. Treasury Department is eyeing the end of the year to finalize regulations for development projects to elect out of their partnership tax status to qualify for a direct cash payment of their clean energy tax credits, an official said Tuesday.
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October 01, 2024
EU General Court To Begin Hearing VAT Cases
The European Union General Court can make preliminary rulings in cases involving the EU's common system of value-added taxes, effective Tuesday, as part of an expansion of the court's jurisdiction.
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October 01, 2024
UK Tax Havens Tied To $84B In Lost Revenue, Group Says
The British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and Bermuda held on to their spots atop the Tax Justice Network's tax havens list, with the group saying Tuesday that the U.K.'s tax havens network is responsible for a third of global corporate tax abuse risks.
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October 01, 2024
Estate Exaggerating Value Of Exec's Tax Tipoff, DC Circ. Told
A Dutch bank executive's estate is "vastly" overstating the significance of his tips to the IRS in seeking a whistleblower award for his reporting of tax schemes, the U.S. government told the D.C. Circuit, urging it to uphold the U.S. Tax Court's denial of the award.
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September 30, 2024
Corporate Tax Rates Up In 2023, OECD Annual Report Finds
A global trend toward cutting taxes to address the economics of the COVID-19 pandemic began to wane in 2023, with more nations willing to raise taxes and broaden tax bases to fund social spending, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development said Monday.
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September 30, 2024
PwC Agrees To $63M Fine For Evergrande Audit, China Says
PwC's chairman agreed to the firm's six-month suspension in China and nearly $63 million in fines over its Chinese auditing arm's work for Evergrande Group, which until a court-ordered liquidation in January was the country's largest real estate firm, the country's Finance Ministry said Monday.
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September 30, 2024
IRS Seeks Input On Draft Partnership Basis-Shifting Form
The Internal Revenue Service asked for comments Monday on a draft form and instructions for partners to disclose all the property they receive from partnerships, part of upcoming regulations meant to target abusive tax avoidance that uses sophisticated partnership basis-shifting transactions.
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September 30, 2024
German Lawyer Charged Over €428M Cum-Ex Fraud
A lawyer has been charged in Germany with several counts of "serious tax evasion" over his alleged role in a €428 million ($477 million) so-called cum-ex dividend tax fraud, a German court confirmed Monday.
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September 30, 2024
Feds Seek Prison In Tax Case Linked To 'China Initiative'
Prosecutors have asked a Texas federal judge for an 18- to 24-month prison sentence for a Chinese-born engineer who pled guilty to tax crimes after being charged with export violations and fraud in a case the defense claims began as an espionage investigation under the U.S. Department of Justice's now-disbanded "China Initiative."
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September 30, 2024
IRS Appeals Office Tests Group Mailbox For Large Cos.
The Internal Revenue Service's Independent Office of Appeals announced Monday that it will test out a program intended to help enhance secure messaging for large businesses with multiple representatives by allowing them to request a group mailbox to communicate with their assigned Appeals employee.
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September 30, 2024
Aussie 2023-24 Budget Delivered Surplus Despite Tax Dip
Australia ended the 2023-24 fiscal year with an AU$15.8 billion ($11 billion) surplus, larger than what the government had projected and primarily due to spending cuts, not higher taxes, according to the country's annual report, published Monday.
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September 27, 2024
Ex-Citizens' Renunciation Fee Suit Shipped To Claims Court
A D.C. federal judge ruled that a lawsuit brought by former U.S. citizens seeking a refund on their $2,350 citizenship renunciation fee belongs in the Court of Federal Claims.
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September 27, 2024
Constitution Permits Blocked Anti-Laundering Law, Panel Told
The U.S. government urged the Eleventh Circuit on Friday to reinstate the Corporate Transparency Act passed in 2021, arguing that the anti-money laundering law is within Congress' powers to regulate economic activity and necessary to have businesses report beneficial ownership to combat crimes like tax evasion and terrorist financing.
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September 27, 2024
IRS Plans Transition Rules In Basis-Shifting Regs, Atty Says
The IRS plans to include transition rules in forthcoming proposed regulations that aim to clamp down on abusive tax avoidance practices through complex partnership transactions known as basis shifting, an agency attorney said Friday.
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September 27, 2024
Corp. AMT Rules Could Wrap In Smaller Partnerships
Recently proposed rules on the U.S. corporate alternative minimum tax create new concerns for partnerships of various sizes that could be forced to comply with complex reporting requirements unless the government introduces carveouts, tax observers said.
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September 27, 2024
Ireland Seeks Input On Business Interest Tax Regime
Ireland has asked for comments on its business interest taxation and deduction regime, as well as whether the country should introduce a commercial business purposes test for deductions, its government said Friday.
Expert Analysis
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Preparing Your Legal Department For Pillar 2 Compliance
Multinational entities should familiarize themselves with Pillar Two of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s BEPs 2.0 project and prepare their internal legal tracking systems for related reporting requirements that may go into effect as early as January, says Daniel Robyn at Ernst & Young.
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What Large Language Models Mean For Document Review
Courts often subject parties using technology assisted review to greater scrutiny than parties conducting linear, manual document review, so parties using large language models for document review should expect even more attention, along with a corresponding need for quality control and validation, say attorneys at Sidley.
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Participating In Living History Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My role as a baron in a living history group, and my work as volunteer corporate counsel for a book series fan association, has provided me several opportunities to practice in unexpected areas of law — opening doors to experiences that have nurtured invaluable personal and professional skills, says Matthew Parker at the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.
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Private Equity Owners Can Remedy Law Firms' Agency Issues
Nonlawyer, private-equity ownership of law firms can benefit shareholders and others vulnerable to governance issues such as disparate interests, and can in turn help resolve agency problems, says Michael Di Gennaro at The Law Practice Exchange.
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How Taxpayers Can Prep As Justices Weigh Repatriation Tax
The U.S. Supreme Court might strike down the 2017 federal tax overhaul's corporate repatriation tax in Moore v. U.S., so taxpayers should file protective tax refund claims before the case is decided and repatriate previously taxed earnings that could become entangled in dubious potential Section 965 refunds, say Jenny Austin and Gary Wilcox at Mayer Brown.
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OFAC Designation Prosecutions Are Constitutionally Suspect
Criminal prosecutions based on the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s sanctions-related listing decisions — made with nearly unfettered discretion through an opaque process — present several constitutional issues, so it is imperative that courts recognize additional rights of review, say Solomon Shinerock and Annika Conrad at Lewis Baach.
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How The OECD Global Tax Proposal Could Affect M&A
Following agreement on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Pillar Two proposal to introduce a global minimum tax, domestic implementation is expected to have a significant impact on international M&A transactions, with financial modeling, deal structuring, risk allocation and joint venture arrangements likely to be affected, say lawyers at Freshfields.
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UK Shares-Tax Proposals Offer Long-Awaited Modernization
The U.K. government's recent consultation on the introduction of a new tax on transactions in securities raises detailed legal and practical issues, but the prospect of a single digital stamp tax offering both streamlined legislation and administration will be welcomed, say Zoë Arnautov and Mark Sheiham at Simmons & Simmons.
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IRS Foreign Tax Credit Pause Is Welcome Course Correction
A recent IRS notice temporarily suspending application of 2022 foreign tax credit regulations provides wanted relief for the many U.S. multinational companies and other taxpayers that otherwise face the risk of significant double taxation in their international operations, say attorneys at Mayer Brown.
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IRS Criminal Probe Spells Uncertainty For Malta Pension Plans
The IRS’ recent scrutiny of Malta pension plan arrangements — and its unusual issuance of criminal administrative summonses — confirms that it views many of these plans as illegal tax evasion schemes, and the road ahead will not be smooth and steady for anyone involved, say attorneys at Kostelanetz.
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IRS Announcement Will Aid Cos. In Buyback Tax Planning
Recent IRS transitional guidance regarding current requirements for reporting and payment of the stock repurchase excise tax will help corporate taxpayers make decisions about records retention and establishing reserves for future tax payments, say Xenia Garofalo and Kyle Colonna at Eversheds Sutherland.
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Flawed Analysis Supports Common Law Tax Deficiency Ruling
The Colorado federal district court’s recent decision in Liberty Global, holding that the U.S. Department of Justice may assert a common law tax claim without the notice of tax deficiency required by the Internal Revenue Code, relies on a contorted reading of the statute and irrelevant case law, say Loren Opper and Christie Galinski at Miller Canfield.
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Review Of Repatriation Tax Sets Justices On Slippery Slope
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to review the constitutionality of the repatriation tax in Moore v. U.S. has implications for many tax rules involving unrealized amounts and could leave the court on the brink of invalidating large swaths of the Internal Revenue Code, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.