International
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July 30, 2024
Husch Blackwell Hires UB Greensfelder Partner In St. Louis
Several years after Husch Blackwell LLP's newest partner, Garrett Reuter Jr., graduated from law school, he joined Greensfelder Hemker & Gale PC to work alongside his late father. Now, he's bringing clients he grew up watching his father work with, to a new platform.
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July 30, 2024
UK Healthcare Ex-Directors Banned For £30M In Unpaid Taxes
Two former directors of a defunct U.K. healthcare company are banned from holding executive positions at any business after failing to pay more than £30 million ($38.5 million) in taxes, the government's insolvency agency said Tuesday.
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July 30, 2024
Israel Moving To Adopt Portion Of Global Minimum Tax
Israel's Ministry of Finance said it is working to adopt a portion of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's 15% global minimum tax on large multinational entities starting in 2026 while delaying consideration of two other portions.
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July 30, 2024
Tax Pros Vent Displeasure At EU Disclosure Law
Tax professionals commenting on a European Union disclosure law by the deadline Tuesday vented long-held displeasure at the measure, which requires tax preparers to reveal cross-border strategies.
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July 30, 2024
Pension Tax Reform Could Unlock £100B For UK Growth
Changing how pensions are taxed in the U.K. could potentially unlock more than £100 billion ($128 billion) for domestic investment over the next five years, according to a recent analysis by a pensions consultancy.
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July 29, 2024
Utah Biz Groups Latest To Challenge Corp. Disclosure Law
Several small-business associations in Utah became the latest group to challenge the Corporate Transparency Act's disclosure requirements, telling a federal court Monday the statute violates several constitutional provisions, including the guarantee of due process.
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July 29, 2024
Immigrants Paid $96.7B In Taxes In 2022, ITEP Study Says
Unauthorized immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022 but received few benefits in return, according to a new study released Monday, whose authors said granting such taxpayers work authorization would boost tax revenue and economic activity.
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July 29, 2024
Sites Should Pay Sport Fishing, Archery Import Tax, GAO Says
Congress should make U.S. online marketplaces responsible for any sport fishing and archery excise taxes owed on consumer import sales they're involved with, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Monday.
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July 29, 2024
UK Seeks Input On Rule Targeting Min. Tax's Safe Harbor
HM Revenue & Customs opened a consultation Monday seeking comments on an anti-arbitrage rule to help prevent large multinational companies from exploiting the safe harbor provision in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's global minimum tax.
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July 29, 2024
ECJ Nixes Swedish Dividends Tax On Foreign Pension Funds
Sweden can't collect a withholding tax on dividends distributed by Swedish companies to public pension funds abroad while exempting its own public funds because that is inconsistent with European Union law requiring the free movement of capital, the European Court of Justice said Monday.
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July 29, 2024
France Restricts Access To Beneficial Ownership Registry
France is dialing back access to its beneficial ownership information registry by introducing what it is calling a filtering system that limits the previously entirely public database starting Wednesday, the French Finance Ministry said Monday.
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July 29, 2024
Gov't Consults On Tax Hikes For Fund Managers, Non-Doms
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said Monday that an autumn Budget planned for Oct. 30 will include feature selected tax rises, a warning accompanied by strong hints from HM Treasury that fund managers and non-domicile taxpayers could take a bigger hit.
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July 29, 2024
EU's Highest Court Upholds Disclosure Law
The European Union's highest court on Monday upheld the bloc's law requiring tax advisers to report potentially aggressive cross-border tax arrangements, rejecting a challenge from Belgian tax attorneys who said their country's implementation of the EU's DAC6 law violated European law.
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July 26, 2024
G20 Declines To Back Brazil's Plan For A Minimum Wealth Tax
Finance ministers from the Group of 20 nations declined to back Brazil's proposal for an agreement on individual wealth taxation similar to the global corporate minimum tax, instead issuing a statement Friday that opted for softer language about cooperation.
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July 26, 2024
Biz Groups Call Corp. Transparency Act Unconstitutional
The U.S. government has failed to show how the Corporate Transparency Act meets narrow exceptions to the Fourth Amendment's search warrant requirements, a group of small businesses told a Michigan federal court Friday in contending that the statute is unconstitutional.
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July 26, 2024
Denmark's Tax Losses From Evasion Fell 70%, Study Says
Denmark's tax losses from offshore evasion by individuals dropped 70% following the implementation of the automatic exchange of banking information between tax authorities, researchers found in a study of the Danish Tax Agency's data.
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July 26, 2024
Chile Considering New Tax Compliance Measures
Chile's Senate Finance Committee approved a tax compliance measure that includes creating an anonymous whistleblower process related to tax crimes, a lifting of bank secrecy measures and an overall modernization of the country's revenue agency, the country's Ministry of Finance said.
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July 26, 2024
Denmark Says Pension Plans Misread Law In $2B Fraud Case
U.S. pension plans accused by Denmark's tax agency of participating in a $2.1 billion fraud scheme involving withholding tax refunds are misconstruing Danish law as it applies to the ownership of shares, the agency told a New York federal court.
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July 26, 2024
Two Admit Trying To Bribe IRS Official On China's Behalf
Two people admitted to secretly acting on behalf of the Chinese government and bribing an undercover agent in connection with a scheme to revoke the tax-exempt status of U.S. participants in a spiritual practice banned in China, according to New York federal court filings.
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July 26, 2024
Taxation With Representation: Wachtell, Polsinelli, Kirkland
In this week's Taxation With Representation, T-Mobile partners with KKR to acquire Metronet, Exclusive Networks gets a takeover offer, KKR buys Instructure Holdings Inc., and Bally's Corp. merges with The Queen Casino & Entertainment Inc.
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July 26, 2024
Australia Clarifies Tax Treatment Of Exploration, Land Rights
The Australian government has amended its petroleum resource rent tax to clarify what is considered "exploration for petroleum" for tax purposes, and changes are coming soon regarding the depreciation of mining, quarrying and prospecting rights, the Australian Taxation Office said.
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July 26, 2024
EU Closes Investigation Into Repealed Hungarian Ad Tax
The European Commission said Friday it has closed its nearly decadelong investigation into a Hungarian advertisement tax that it said violated the European Union's state aid rules, noting that the country has repealed the law in question.
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July 26, 2024
EU Frees Up €1.5B Of Frozen Russian Assets To Aid Ukraine
The European Union's executive branch said Friday that it is freeing up €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion) of revenue generated from immobilized Russian assets to aid Ukraine in defending itself against the Russian invasion.
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July 25, 2024
Global Tax Revamp Continues To Progress, OECD Tells G20
Implementation of the Pillar Two minimum tax portion of the OECD's international plan to address tax base erosion and profit shifting is well underway, while an agreement is close on the Pillar One taxing rights overhaul, the organization told the Group of 20 nations Thursday.
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July 25, 2024
UK Telecom Co. Owes VAT For Phone Plans In £51M Dispute
A U.K. telecommunications provider will not recover £51.1 million ($65.7 million) in value-added tax payments after the First-tier Tribunal ruled that VAT is chargeable on phone plans from the point of sale, not when the services are used.
Expert Analysis
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Requiring Leave To File Amicus Briefs Is A Bad Idea
A proposal to amend the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure that would require parties to get court permission before filing federal amicus briefs would eliminate the long-standing practice of consent filing and thereby make the process less open and democratic, says Lawrence Ebner at the Atlantic Legal Foundation and DRI Center.
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4 Ways To Motivate Junior Attorneys To Bring Their Best
As Gen Z and younger millennial attorneys increasingly express dissatisfaction with their work and head for the exits, the lawyers who manage them must understand and attend to their needs and priorities to boost engagement and increase retention, says Stacey Schwartz at Katten.
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Former Minn. Chief Justice Instructs On Writing Better Briefs
Former Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea, now at Greenberg Traurig, offers strategies on writing more effective appellate briefs from her time on the bench.
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Stay Interviews Are Key To Retaining Legal Talent
Even as the economy shifts and layoffs continue, law firms still want to retain their top attorneys, and so-called stay interviews — informal conversations with employees to identify potential issues before they lead to turnover — can be a crucial tool for improving retention and morale, say Tina Cohen Nicol and Kate Reder Sheikh at Major Lindsey.
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Neb. Justices Should Weigh IRC Terms In Dividend Tax Case
Nebraska’s highest court, which will hear oral arguments in Precision CastParts v. Department of Revenue on April 1, should recognize that the Internal Revenue Code provides key clues to defining “dividends received or deemed to be received,” and therefore limits Nebraska’s tax on foreign-sourced corporate income, says Joseph Schmidt at Ryan.
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Judicial Independence Is Imperative This Election Year
As the next election nears, the judges involved in the upcoming trials against former President Donald Trump increasingly face political pressures and threats of violence — revealing the urgent need to safeguard judicial independence and uphold the rule of law, says Benes Aldana at the National Judicial College.
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Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents
Like the ancient Spartans who held off a numerically superior Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae, trial attorneys and clients faced with arbitration against an opponent with a bigger war chest can take a strategic approach to create a pass to victory, say Kostas Katsiris and Benjamin Argyle at Venable.
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What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks
Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.
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How FinCEN Proposal Expands RE Transaction Obligations
Against a regulatory backdrop foreshadowing anti-money laundering efforts in the real estate sector, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's proposed rule significantly expands reporting requirements for certain nonfinanced residential real estate transfers and necessitates careful review, say attorneys at Fried Frank.
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Litigation Inspiration: A Source Of Untapped Fulfillment
As increasing numbers of attorneys struggle with stress and mental health issues, business litigators can find protection against burnout by remembering their important role in society — because fulfillment in one’s work isn’t just reserved for public interest lawyers, say Bennett Rawicki and Peter Bigelow at Hilgers Graben.
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Unpacking FinCEN's Proposed Real Estate Transaction Rule
Phil Jelsma and Ulrick Matsunaga at Crosbie Gliner take a close look at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's recently proposed rulemaking — which mandates new disclosures for professionals involved in all-cash real estate deals — and discuss best next steps for the broad range of businesses that could be affected.
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Think Like A Lawyer: Forget Everything You Know About IRAC
The mode of legal reasoning most students learn in law school, often called “Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion,” or IRAC, erroneously frames analysis as a separate, discrete step, resulting in disorganized briefs and untold obfuscation — but the fix is pretty simple, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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How New EU Tax And Transfer Pricing Rules May Affect M&A
Companies involved in mergers and acquisitions may need to adjust fiscal due diligence procedures to ensure they consider potential far-reaching effects of newly implemented transfer pricing measures, such as newly implemented global minimum tax and European Union anti-tax avoidance directives and proposals, says Patrick Tijhuis at BDO.