International

  • 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.

  • June 13, 2024

    Canada Should Look Beyond Capital Gains Tax Hike, IMF Says

    Though Canada's proposed capital gains tax increase would be another positive development for a country that has largely fared well in its pandemic rebound, the country should consider more avenues to raise revenue, the International Monetary Fund said.

Expert Analysis

  • Cum-Ex Prosecutions Storm Shows No Sign Of Abating

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    The ongoing trial of Sanjay Shah in Denmark is a clear indicator that efforts remain focused on holding to account the alleged architects and beneficiaries of cum-ex trading, and with these prosecutions making their way across Europe, it is a more turbulent time now than ever, says Niall Hearty at Rahman Ravelli.

  • Practicing Law With Parkinson's Disease

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    This Parkinson’s Awareness Month, Adam Siegler at Greenberg Traurig discusses his experience working as a lawyer with Parkinson’s disease, sharing both lessons on how to cope with a diagnosis and advice for supporting colleagues who live with the disease.

  • Why Supreme Court Should Allow Repatriation Tax To Stand

    If the U.S. Supreme Court doesn't reject the taxpayers' misguided claims in Moore v. U.S. that the mandatory repatriation tax is unconstitutional, it could wreak havoc on our system of taxation and result in a catastrophic loss of revenue for the government, say Christina Mason and Theresa Balducci at Herrick Feinstein.

  • For Lawyers, Pessimism Should Be A Job Skill, Not A Life Skill

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    A pessimistic mindset allows attorneys to be effective advocates for their clients, but it can come with serious costs for their personal well-being, so it’s crucial to exercise strategies that produce flexible optimism and connect lawyers with their core values, says Krista Larson at Stinson.

  • Requiring Leave To File Amicus Briefs Is A Bad Idea

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    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.

  • 4 Ways To Motivate Junior Attorneys To Bring Their Best

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    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.

  • Former Minn. Chief Justice Instructs On Writing Better Briefs

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    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.

  • Stay Interviews Are Key To Retaining Legal Talent

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    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.

  • Neb. Justices Should Weigh IRC Terms In Dividend Tax Case

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    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.

  • Judicial Independence Is Imperative This Election Year

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    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.

  • Spartan Arbitration Tactics Against Well-Funded Opponents

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    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.

  • What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks

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    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.

  • How FinCEN Proposal Expands RE Transaction Obligations

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    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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