International

  • June 21, 2024

    USTR Warns Canada After Digital Services Tax Enactment

    The U.S. Trade Representative's Office remains concerned about Canada's enactment of its digital services tax and is weighing options in defense of potential discrimination against U.S. businesses, a USTR official told Law360 on Friday.

  • June 21, 2024

    Fed. Circ. Backs Subsidy Duties For Canadian Wind Towers

    A Canadian wind tower manufacturer can't get a break on countervailing duties despite being upfront about errors in its sales data, with the Federal Circuit ruling Friday that the errors raise the possibility of additional mistakes.

  • June 21, 2024

    US Formally Suspends Part Of Tax Treaty With Russia

    The U.S. government has provided formal notice to Russia suspending, via mutual agreement, parts of the countries' double-taxation treaty.

  • June 21, 2024

    Big 4 Continue Push For Broader Irish Dividend Exemption

    The Big Four accounting firms reiterated support for Ireland's plans to implement a corporate tax exemption for foreign-sourced dividends and foreign branch profits, but they found the latest proposal still too narrow and complicated to qualify for, according to comments released Friday.

  • June 21, 2024

    Norway Seeking Feedback On Undertaxed Profits Rule

    Norway is looking for feedback on a proposal that would implement the undertaxed profits rule, one component of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's 15% corporate global minimum tax plan, the country's Finance Ministry said.

  • June 21, 2024

    OECD Official Sees Amount B Deal Helping With Amount A

    The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is close to a final deal on a key part of its efforts to establish new international taxing rights under Amounts A and B of its Pillar One plans, according to the organization's tax chief.

  • June 21, 2024

    Taxation With Representation: Travers Smith, Potamitis Vekris

    In this week's Taxation With Representation, RSK Group Ltd. gets a £500 million ($632 million) investment, Boston Scientific Corp. acquires Silk Road Medical Inc., Masdar takes a part of Terna Energy SA, and Tate & Lyle PLC buys CP Kelco from JM Huber Corp.

  • June 21, 2024

    EU Digital Tax Is Backup If Pillar 1 Stalls, French Official Says

    Finalizing the Pillar One agreement to reallocate corporate taxing rights globally should remain a paramount goal, but if the effort stalls, the European Union should revive its plan for a digital tax of mostly U.S.-based tech giants, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Friday.

  • June 21, 2024

    Estonia Again Blocks Agreement On VAT Deal

    For the second straight month, Estonia blocked agreement Friday on a European Union proposal for platform companies such as Airbnb, Uber and Estonia-based Bolt to collect value-added tax on behalf of service providers.

  • June 21, 2024

    Next UK Gov't Urged To Ease Private Healthcare Insurance Tax

    Whoever wins the U.K. election on July 4 should introduce tax breaks on private medical insurance to relieve pressure on the National Health Service, a consultancy warned Friday.

  • June 20, 2024

    German Court Convicts 5 In €52M VAT Fraud In Cars, Masks

    Five people who played roles in a value-added tax fraud scheme involving the trade of luxury cars and medical face masks that caused over €52 million ($55.7 million) in losses were convicted by a Berlin court, the European Public Prosecutor's Office announced Thursday.

  • June 20, 2024

    EU Court Rejects Co.'s Portuguese Tax Breaks Appeal

    An appeal contesting a European Commission decision against a Portuguese tax exemption scheme was rejected by the European General Court, which found a Panama-based food company unable to prove why recovering the illegal state aid should be prohibited.

  • June 20, 2024

    China Denies Tax Crackdown As 2 Cos. Report $80M In Bills

    China's tax authority denied a nationwide crackdown on companies' old tax returns Thursday, less than a week after a chemical firm facing 500 million yuan ($69 million) in additional liabilities halted production and a beverage maker reported owing 85 million yuan.

  • June 20, 2024

    UK Tax Pros Largely Support 2027 Carbon Border Tax Plan

    Two groups representing tax professionals welcomed the U.K. government's plan to introduce a carbon border tax on certain carbon-intensive imports by 2027, but specifics regarding both default embedded emissions values and carveouts for smaller businesses must be ironed out, they said.

  • June 20, 2024

    Norway's $95M Yearly Dividend Tax Losses Spur Joint Audit

    Norway's tax agency announced a joint audit with other Nordic tax agencies, saying it loses an estimated 1 billion kroner ($95 million) a year in withholding taxes that should be paid by foreign shareholders on dividends but aren't due to aggressive tax planning.

  • June 20, 2024

    Canada Lawmakers OK Digital Tax, Advance Min. Tax

    Canada's Senate passed a 3% digital services tax that would target the revenue of large technology companies, following through on a plan that has drawn criticism from the U.S. and groups representing American tech giants.

  • June 20, 2024

    UK Tax Gap Continues Downward Trend, HMRC Says

    The U.K. has continued to shrink its estimated tax gap, reaching a new low of 4.8% in the 2022-2023 tax year, following a trend of decreases over the past almost two decades, HM Revenue & Customs said Thursday.

  • 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.

Expert Analysis

  • Preparing Your Legal Department For Pillar 2 Compliance

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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

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    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.

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