International
-
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.
-
June 14, 2024
G7 Chiefs Agree On Using Frozen Russian Profits For Ukraine
Leaders from the Group of Seven countries reached a provisional agreement to use windfall profits from frozen and immobilized Russian state assets to back a $50 billion loan to Ukraine, they announced Friday, although details have to be ironed out before the end ot the year, said Italy's prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.
-
June 14, 2024
Swiss Council OKs Tax Agreements With Angola, Germany
Switzerland's executive body, the Federal Council, approved a double taxation agreement with Angola and an amendment to an existing agreement with Germany, it announced Friday.
-
June 14, 2024
Taxation With Representation: Kirkland, Arnold & Porter
In this week's Taxation with Representation, Noble Corp. PLC buys Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc., Cognizant buys Belcan, AlphaSense raises funding to buy Tegus, and Matador Resources Co. acquires a subsidiary of the EnCap Investments portfolio company Ameredev II Parent.
-
June 14, 2024
ABA Tax Section Calls For Revision To Stock Buyback Regs
The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the IRS should narrow a rule in proposed regulations on the stock buyback tax regarding U.S. subsidiaries funding repurchases of their foreign parents' stock, the American Bar Association's Tax Section said in a letter released Friday.
-
June 14, 2024
Full DC Circ. Won't Hear Foreign Disclosure Penalty Dispute
The D.C. Circuit declined to reconsider its ruling overturning a major U.S. Tax Court decision that had crimped the administrative collection arm of the Internal Revenue Service, letting stand a panel's restoration of the agency's power to more freely penalize undisclosed foreign corporations.
-
June 14, 2024
UK Broker Denied Supreme Court Hearing Over Cum Ex Raids
Judges at a London court refused on Friday to allow a brokerage to challenge at the U.K. Supreme Court findings that a raid on its London office during an investigation into tax fraud in 2022 was legal, finding that the "outcome of any appeal would be no different."
-
June 14, 2024
EU Transfer Pricing Law To Involve Basic Rights, Prof Says
A proposed European Union law on transfer pricing would, if adopted, mean the EU's charter of fundamental rights became relevant to transfer pricing disputes, a tax professor said Friday.
Expert Analysis
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.