Policies about taxation, typically at a macro economic scale.
The Change of Scenery On 1 December 2019, the von der Leyen Commission took over for the coming 5 years, and it is called to deliver on a most challenging mandate. The European identity is questioned more than ever before, with Brexit being just one of the several signs. The established structures of the EU…
The past few years have seen the sensational rise of new models of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services, which have been synthetically captured under the umbrella definition of “sharing economy”. The ascent of digital platforms – including renowned companies headquartered in the Silicon Valley like Airbnb and Uber, or the French unicorns…
The speed at which the world around us is changing combined with the novelty of the challenges our societies are faced with, seems to lead our policy makers towards what can be described as panic driven decisions. At this point in time we can with some ease point towards the on-going developments regarding variants of…
Introduction Last fortnight, India by way of a Presidential Ordinance unexpectedly unveiled a new corporate tax rate structure. Given that the annual Union Budget exercise was presented in July, the announcement was unscheduled particularly since Ordinance route is rarely resorted for such changes. Nonetheless these changes are in line with the recent spate of measures unveiled…
In many member states’ tax law, mutual investment funds are relieved from double taxation, i.e. proceeds from investments are taxed only once even though they are earned on two levels: first at the level of the fund, and then at the level of the owners of the fund. The logic behind this is that mutual…
Globally, countries are making a concerted effort to rein in the direct tax challenges posed by the digital economy. Some of this work is directly inspired by the recommendations set out by the OECD as part of its 15-point Action Plan to tackle base erosion and profit shifting. The Indian government, too, introduced two key…
In a double take two-to-one decision because of a withdrawn decision due to the death of a judge, a Ninth Circuit panel in Altera reversed a unanimous en banc decision of the Tax Court that the qualified cost sharing arrangements (QCSA) regulations[1] were invalid under the Administrative Procedure Act.[2] The renown Professor Calvin Johnson (Texas) and I shared comments on this case. Professor Johnson’s…
Beginning 1 January 2020, Switzerland will significantly reshape its corporate taxation in an effort to comply with international tax standards while remaining one of the most attractive jurisdictions for foreign investments. 1. Introduction In this article, I will provide the background that led to that Swiss tax reform (“Reform”) also elaborating on the tax regimes…
The quest to align the international tax order with the challenges posed by the digital economy has so far mostly focused on solving issues involving incorporated structures. What is somehow escaping the attention of the tax treaty policymakers is the fact that it is not only in the domain of companies that we have lost…
Taxation of the digital economy is one of the more difficult and contentious issues in international taxation. There are several strands to this complexity. One strand is profit attribution for enterprises trading across different tax jurisdictions. Yet, several countries have introduced or propose to introduce a tax on MNEs in the digital sector known as…
The High Court of Kenya gave judgement on 15 March 2019 on a challenge to the validity of the Kenyan-Mauritius double tax treaty in Tax Justice Network- Africa v Kenya Revenue Authority and others. The petitioners had sought a declaration that the treaty had not been subjected to the ratification of domestic law and the…
We are glad to announce that the editorial team of the Kluwer Tax Law Blog has been strengthened with the appointment of Dr. Vikram Chand (Tax Policy Center, University of Lausanne, Switzerland) as the Managing Editor of the Blog. Dr. Chand currently has a strong interest in International Tax Policy, Transfer Pricing, Tax Treaty and…
The recent (February 2019) OECD document for public consultation introduced two proposals to address the challenges of taxation, the first one is the revised profit allocation and nexus rules in the digital economy (Section 2) and the second one is the global anti-base erosion proposal (Section 3). Even though the document is titled challenges of…
Lawyers across Europe holding their breath while awaiting the General Court’s ruling on the Belgian Excess Profits case were doubtlessly disappointed. On Valentine’s Day, the General Court reminded the European Commission that “tough love” is always a possibility, but the Commission’s defeat is no mortal blow. Its decision was annulled on more or less “technical”…
