International
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September 19, 2024
Death Doesn't Preclude FBAR Penalties, Judge Says
The death of a U.S. citizen who failed to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts doesn't stop the U.S. government from enforcing penalties against his estate, a New York federal judge ruled.
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September 19, 2024
Spain Tax Inspections Generated €16.7B In Revenue In 2023
Spain's tax agency said Thursday that it increased the number of control actions it took against large companies and other groups by nearly 14% in 2023 as part of the agency's €16.7 billion ($18.6 billion) in revenue generated from control work last year.
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September 19, 2024
Sweden Aiming For Broad Tax Cuts In 2025 Budget
Swedish taxpayers would see lower tax rates in many areas, such as on their labor and pensions, as part of a proposed 2025 budget that the government sent to the country's legislature for consideration Thursday.
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September 19, 2024
EU, China Fail To End EV Dispute But Talks Continue
Negotiators from the European Union and China failed to resolve a dispute over EU antisubsidy tariffs on imported electric vehicles from China but promised Thursday to intensify efforts to find a mutually agreeable solution.
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September 19, 2024
Nine Countries Sign Treaty For OECD Min. Tax On Payments
Indonesia, Turkey, Congo and six other countries signed a multilateral treaty aimed at implementing a 9% minimum tax on income sent from their jurisdictions to low-taxed entities within a corporate group, the OECD said Thursday.
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September 19, 2024
EU Top Court Rules UK's CFC Tax Breaks Not State Aid
The European Court of Justice ruled Thursday that tax breaks the U.K. gave to certain companies under controlled foreign company regulations did not breach European Union state aid law.
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September 19, 2024
Apple Ruling Prompts EU Lawmakers To Call For Tax Justice
Citing the recent European court judgment requiring Apple to pay €13 billion ($14.5 billion) in taxes to Ireland, European Union lawmakers demanded Thursday that the fight against tax evasion and for corporate tax harmonization be stepped up.
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September 19, 2024
EU Wrong To Block Berlusconi's Bank Stake, Top Court Rules
Europe's highest court ruled Thursday that the European Central Bank was wrong to decide that a prior conviction for tax fraud prevented former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from holding a stake in a bank in the country.
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September 18, 2024
Tax Chiefs Eye Crypto Payment Cos., OTC Traders, IRS Says
Tax investigators in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and the Netherlands are preparing guidance on red flags for cryptocurrency payment providers and over-the-counter trading desks following a joint operation this week, a special agent with the Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday.
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September 18, 2024
Tax Court Wrongly Denied Premium Deduction, 5th Circ. Told
A Texas couple asked the Fifth Circuit on Wednesday to reverse a U.S. Tax Court decision denying their bid to deduct more than $1 million in premiums paid to insurance companies they owned, arguing the Tax Court misclassified underlying insurance arrangements.
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September 18, 2024
Most Large Aussie Companies Paying Correct Tax Amounts
The Australian Taxation Office has a high or medium level of assurance that 86% of the country's largest taxpayers paid the correct amount of income taxes in 2024, based on recent reviews.
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September 18, 2024
House GOP Vows Blowback Over OECD's Min. Tax Backstop
House Republicans again warned the OECD that Congress will retaliate against countries that implement a backstop measure to the 15% global minimum tax, saying China will cheat the system and it will cost U.S. taxpayers about $120 billion.
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September 18, 2024
Estonia Implementing 2% Profit Tax To Fund Security
Companies in Estonia will need to pay a 2% tax on their accounting profits starting in 2026 in order to boost investment in the country's defense measures, its Ministry of Finance said.
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September 18, 2024
Country-By-Country Reports In Place In Over 115 Jurisdictions
More than 115 tax jurisdictions require large multinational entities to submit country-by country reports in line with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development standards as part of the group's fight against tax base erosion and profit shifting, the OECD reported.
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September 18, 2024
Colombia Should Lower 35% Corporate Tax Rate, OECD Says
Colombia can reignite the since-slowed growth it experienced following the COVID-19 pandemic through a series of tax changes, in particular lowering its 35% corporate income tax as part of an overall rebalancing of the tax burden from corporate to personal income, according to the OECD.
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September 18, 2024
Latham Adds A&O Shearman Energy Group Co-Lead In DC
Latham & Watkins LLP has hired the former co-head of Allen Overy Shearman Sterling's U.S. energy, natural resources and infrastructure group to its team of transactional tax partners based in Washington, D.C., the firm announced Monday.
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September 18, 2024
8th Circ. Considers Chevron's End In 3M's $24M Tax Case
The Eighth Circuit signaled it would consider an argument by 3M that the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Chevron deference warranted a reversal in a transfer pricing case in which 3M is challenging the IRS' reallocation of $24 million from a Brazilian affiliate.
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September 18, 2024
Fixing UK Labor Market Could Raise £16B, Report Says
The U.K. labor market has lost almost a million workers since the COVID-19 pandemic, but reversing this could raise more than £16 billion ($21.1 billion) in tax receipts, a research center said Wednesday.
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September 18, 2024
Dutch Government Issues Tax Cuts In First Budget
The new Dutch government issued its first budget since the 2023 elections, including plans to cut taxes on earnings and raise the limit on certain corporate tax deductions.
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September 17, 2024
Tax Court Denies Mineral Co.'s $1.1M Microcaptive Deduction
A mineral rights leasing company set up by an Oklahoma oil businessman can't take a $1.1 million deduction for what was presented as a microcaptive insurance transaction, the U.S. Tax Court ruled, saying the transaction was not a legitimate insurance arrangement.
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September 17, 2024
Cos. Risk Offside Call On Contractor Tax After HMRC Win
The U.K. Supreme Court's decision Monday that Premier League referees count as employees for tax purposes means many companies may have to reassess their arrangements with contractors or risk higher tax costs in the future, tax experts say.
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September 17, 2024
Competitiveness Outranks Climate In New EU Commission
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen shifted her focus from climate change to boosting competitiveness as she proposed her team of commissioners for the next five-year mandate Tuesday, handing out key jobs covering everything from competition enforcement to trade policy.
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September 16, 2024
Film Producer, Accountant Hid $25M From IRS, DOJ Alleges
A film producer who sold shares in the production company he cofounded for $25 million schemed with an Australian accountant to hide the proceeds from U.S. authorities in Swiss bank accounts, causing the IRS to lose out on some $5 million, according to the DOJ.
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September 16, 2024
Apple Ruling May Embolden EU's Tax Policing, Experts Say
The European Court of Justice's ruling against Apple and Ireland last week runs contrary to its logic in a 2022 state aid ruling, potentially giving the European Commission a reason to think it can decide tax norms across Europe, tax experts said.
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September 16, 2024
Hospitality Sector Faces Almost £1B 'Tax Bombshell' In April
Many companies in the hospitality sector are set to be hit with huge tax bills in April 2025 when business rates relief is phased out, an industry group said Monday.
Expert Analysis
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The Reciprocal Tax Bill Is A Warning Shot At Pillar 2
A bill recently introduced in the House of Representatives to reciprocally tax countries deemed to have imposed discriminatory taxes on U.S. citizens and businesses takes aim at countries implementing the global minimum tax treaty known as Pillar Two, with which the U.S. has not complied, says Alan Cole at the Tax Foundation.
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What Tax-Exempt Orgs. Need From Energy Credit Guidance
Guidance clarifying the Inflation Reduction Act’s credit regime, expected from the U.S. Department of the Treasury this summer, should help tax-exempt organizations determine the benefits of clean energy projects and integrate alternative energy investments into their activities, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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How Foreign Info Return Penalty Case May Benefit Taxpayers
The U.S. Tax Court's recent decision that the Internal Revenue Service cannot penalize taxpayers for failing to file foreign corporation information returns may give similarly situated taxpayers an opportunity to also avoid penalties, provided they protect their rights before the decision is overturned or mooted by legislation, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.
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The Nuts And Bolts Of IRS Domestic Content Tax Credit
Recent IRS guidance provides specifics on how renewable energy projects can qualify for bonus tax credits by meeting U.S. domestic content rules, but also creates a qualification framework that will be complicated for project developers to navigate, say Scott Cockerham and Wolfram Pohl at Orrick.
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Taxing The Digital Economy: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
U.S. tech companies should watch for important developments in international taxation, including the resolution of Apple's decade-old state aid case, growing frustration with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's global tax plan and adoption of the digital services tax instead, says Joyce Beebe at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.
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Big Tax Changes For Multinational Cos. In Budget Proposal
The Biden administration’s fiscal year 2024 budget proposes changes that would materially alter decades-old Internal Revenue Code provisions, requiring a shift in multinational corporations' tax planning strategies comparable to that required after enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, say Xenia Garofalo and Kyle Colonna at Eversheds Sutherland.
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Senate Credit Suisse Report Puts Attention On Banks, Trusts
The Senate Finance Committee's recent finding that Credit Suisse violated a plea agreement struck over its role in enabling offshore tax evasion has important ramifications for banks and trusts, including how they onboard, document and report on transactions relevant to U.S. reporting requirements, say Will Barry and Ian Herbert at Miller & Chevalier.
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Seeking IRS Accountability For Faulty Microcaptive Notice
Like the taxpayers in Standard Insurances v. U.S. seeking to expand earlier wins in microcaptive insurance cases that limit IRS use of improperly obtained information, others should consider ways to hold the agency accountable and provide incentive for it to follow the law going forward, says Joshua Smeltzer at Gray Reed.
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Biden Admin. Proposals Both Encourage And Thwart EV Adoption
While the Biden administration has been aggressively focused on promoting electric vehicles from the start, its recently issued guidance on EV tax credits and its restrictive new auto emissions proposal create a sense of implementation whiplash that may frustrate manufacturers and consumers, says Levi McAllister at Morgan Lewis.
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The Key Issues Keeping Transfer Pricing A Top Tax Concern
Several challenges preventing a global economic reemergence from the pandemic era are making practitioners reevaluate commonly used transfer pricing models, and embrace new technologies and ways of doing business, say Farnaz Amini and Sophia Castro Jurado at Marcum.
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Curtailing Offshore Tax-Advantaged Investment In China
The U.S. government's plans to establish a new outbound investment regime hold the potential to arrest Chinese companies' increasing use of offshore, tax-advantaged locations to raise capital, says David Plotinsky at Morgan Lewis.
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Cos. May Want To Wait Out US-EU Green Incentives Fight
As the European Union considers measures to compete with the Inflation Reduction Act's incentives for U.S. production of clean tech, and EU and U.S. officials discuss a possible compromise, companies in the green sector should consider taking a wait-and-see approach to investment decisions, says Todd Thacker at Goldberg Segalla.
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India's Budget Proposals May Ease Entry For Certain Sectors
India’s recently released budget includes proposals to facilitate doing business in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City and moderate thousands of compliance requirements, opening up new opportunities for foreign businesses in the digital infrastructure, manufacturing and renewable energy sectors, say Mukesh Butani and Seema Kejriwal at BMR Legal.