Climate change and the use of natural resources present us all with a major challenge. We all have our part in it and we can all contribute to ensure that we do not live at the expense of future generations. Various reports and goals were agreed upon internationally (e.g. Brundtland Report and Sustainable Development Goals)….
The Tax Court issued a nine to eight split decision of six opinions (three in favor and three dissenting) upholding the Service’s 1994 blocked income regulations. Yesterday, February 9, 2023, the Tax Court finally issued its ‘split’ decision regarding the 3M “blocked income” issue (formally, a decision regarding the validity of the Treasury Regulation regarding…
On Thursday, August 18, 2022, Chief Judge Kathleen Kerrigan of the U.S. Tax Court published her 75-page decision on the Medtronic and I.R.S. controversy (“Medtronic III”).[1] This decision resulted from a remand by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals (“Medtronic II”) of her original 144-page 2016 decision (“Medtronic I”).[2] The IRS and Medtronic had agreed…
William Byrnes, Texas A&M University School of Law* (33-page draft research available on SSRN) Howdy! Earlier today the General Court of the European Court of Justice (EGC) sided with Starbucks’ transfer pricing analysis of its Dutch coffee roaster, and thus against the European Commission’s approach. Thus, I feel that my transfer pricing research about this…
I have received several requests this July 4th holiday in the U.S. about my initial thoughts on the EU Commission’s 56-page published (public version from earlier this week) State Aid preliminary decision with the reasoning that The Netherlands government provided Nike an anti-competitive subsidy via the tax system. My paraphrasing of the following EU Commission…
In regards to the title of this post, the Ways & Means version of international tax reform moves toward a territorial regime of granting an exemption for foreign profits but then derogates from the exemption with a series of BEPS measures.[1] by William Byrnes, Texas A&M University Law On Thursday, November 2, 2017, the Republicans…
IRS Operational Update: Reorganization and Risk-Based Approach The IRS new Large Business and International (LB&I) risk approach has been implemented in the form of “campaigns”, focusing on weighing the size of the compliance risk, how often the risk is occurring, where it is occurring and if the risk is a result of a promoted scheme….
In a 207 page opinion the Tax Court ruled March 23, 2017 that the IRS’s adjustment with respect to Amazon.Inc’s transfer pricing buy-in payment for an intragroup cost sharing agreement (CSA) is arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable [1]. Another major blow for the IRS in a string of such losses starting with VERITAS [2] (2009), the 2010 Xilinx [3] about-face…
To refresh memories, several months ago I posted part 1 of this study on Kluwer’s International Tax Blog: Application of TNMM to Starbucks Roasting Operation: Seeking Comparables Through Understanding the Market Part 1 briefly describes my advocated transfer pricing approach drawn from my transfer pricing law treatise and my corresponding research based upon it. My…
On June 27, 2016 the EU Commission published the long awaited Starbucks State Aid decision (see here). The EU Commission’s decision challenges the outcome of the Advanced Pricing Agreement (APA) between the Netherlands Tax Authority (Tax Authority) and Starbucks Manufacturing BV (SMBV), a wholly owned and controlled coffee roasting operation. Below is the Part I…
When UK voters went to the polls on 23 June 2016 and voted by a slim majority to leave the European Union, few of them had in mind the impact on taxation. Future generations are unlikely to view it kindly. Looked at from the present the dominating features are uncertainty and disruption of settled tax…
In highly dramatic fashion the French tax authorities and IT specialists raided Google’s headquarters and McDonalds. I don’t own Google stock. I’m not in favor of Google’s near monopoly on search (though it has accomplished this by offering a really great product and (free) work tools that make my life much easier). I don’t eat…
Treasury recently released its 2015 Transfer Pricing Advance Pricing Agreements Report to Congress, the seventeenth report since the initial 1999 report. Each year, the Treasury APA Report describes the annual experience, structure, and activities of the APMA Program. Treasury also formally released the much discussed new audit/examination protocols that will become effective 1 May 2016. …
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…
