MNC profit shifting has received major attention over the past few years. Total earnings stockpiled overseas are now reported to be in excess of $2 trillion. One of the authors published a technical tax article in Tax Notes on July 13, 2015, demonstrating that foreign subsidiaries of many MNCs are highly vulnerable to IRS attack using an…

The IRS issued Notice 16-08 announcing that it will extend timelines or modify four elements of FATCA –  (1) modify the date for submitting to the IRS the preexisting account certifications required of certain foreign financial institutions (FFIs); (2) specify the period and date for submitting to the IRS the periodic certification of compliance for a registered deemed…

On January 15, 2016, in a joint (bi-partisan) letter of Senate Finance Committee Republicans and Democrats to US Treasury, one that will certainly be of interest to our friends at Wolters Kluwer (a Netherlands parent multinational enterprise), the Senate Finance Committee members encouraged Treasury to use a tit-for-tat strategy against the EU Commission.  The letter stated that…

Starbucks Manufacturing BV (SMBV), based in the Netherlands, is the only coffee roasting company in the Starbucks group in Europe. It sells and distributes roasted coffee and coffee-related products (e.g. cups, packaged food, pastries) to Starbucks outlets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.  Read my previous comments on this case post here. The EU…

This month, Haydon Perryman and I review the change over the past year, and the immediate previous three months, for FATCA financial institution registrations.  The November 1, 2015 GIIN list contains 177,147 registrations from 226 countries and jurisdictions. Of these November 2015 registrations 84 percent were from Model 1 IGAs that had been either signed or…

Both Starbucks and Fiat represent, if one listened closely to the live press release broadcast, an first salvo by the EU Commission to establish that it has the authority, under a State Aid premise, to step into the shoes of the national revenue authority and re-allocate profits of an enterprise according to the EU Commission’s…

William Byrnes and Haydon Perryman FATCA FFI GIIN List Monthly Update The IRS released the sixteenth FATCA GIIN list of foreign financial institutions (FFIs) that have registered with the IRS through its FATCA portal.  The IRS provides these FFIs a Global Intermediary Identification Number (GIIN).  The FFI may then use its unique 19 digit GIIN to…

On 18 September 2015 the US Treasury issued Notice 2015-66 which announced that the it intends to amend the regulations under chapter 4 (sections 1471-1474) to extend the period of time that certain transitional rules will apply.  Specifically, the amendments will extend: (1) the date upon which withholding on gross proceeds and foreign passthru payments…

This post answers the emails received requesting further information on the US Competent Authority, including statistics, based upon my Kluwer Tax Blog post of 25 August IRS Issues New Competent Authority And Advance Pricing Agreement Procedures. The Office of the United States Competent Authority (USCA) includes both the Advance Pricing and Mutual Agreement (APMA) Program…

On August 12, 2015 the IRS released two final revenue procedures impacting the U.S. transfer pricing regime.  Revenue Procedure 2015-40 concerns the protocols and procedures for requesting assistance of the U.S. competent authority (CA) and the other, Revenue Procedure 2015-41, the protocols and procedures for seeking an Advance Pricing Agreement with the IRS.[1] In 2013…

Please contact us to assist in our research Prof. William Byrnes & Haydon Perryman In 2011, HMRC forecast that it would receive “billions” from the Swiss Disclosure Facility.  In 2012, HMRC stated that this number would be five billion sterling, and another three billion sterling from the Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility (LDF).  This implies that at least a couple hundred thousand United Kingdom tax…

Attacking Profit Shifting by Prof. Jeffery Kadet (Abstract) In recent years the financial press has turned increasing attention to MNCs that shift income to low taxed jurisdictions overseas in order to avoid US taxation. What’s generally missing from these discussions is any serious focus on possible IRS attacks on these companies, most of which are CFCs. There’s little…