Int'l Tax News

The OECD and its partners in Latin America are working to improve low trust in the tax system through better communication, digitalization, and shifting tax authorities from an enforcement to a service model.

Robert Goulder comments on the new federal agency to administer U.S. tariffs, and the motivations behind it.

P.V.S.S. Prasad explains the difficulties of reaching multilateral agreements among jurisdictions with varying tax and economic policies, and he argues that bilateralism will remain prominent because it avoids those difficulties while still allowing negotiators to address their specific concerns.

Mindy Herzfeld examines the potential impact of recent U.S. executive orders on international tax and trade policy.

The effects of tariffs and tax cuts will be mild, but an immigration crackdown is cause for real concern.

President Trump used an address to prominent global business leaders to invite investment in the United States with the promise of low taxes but warned of stiff tariffs for companies that decide to forgo his proposition.

The EU Council’s Polish presidency has asked member states to exchange views on several open issues regarding the latest amendment to the directive on administrative cooperation, which will implement the OECD's standard global anti-base-erosion information return.

House Republicans have reintroduced legislation that would increase U.S. tax rates on foreign companies and investors if their countries impose extraterritorial measures on U.S. companies, like those found in the OECD international tax reform plan.

According to a U.S. official, challenges in global anti-base-erosion (GLOBE) rules negotiations under the OECD's pillar 2 taxation framework have made a permanent safe harbor provision seem unlikely.

Treasury must act under section 891 to investigate whether foreign countries are subjecting U.S. citizens or companies to discriminatory taxes, President Trump directed as part of an executive order issued January 20.

The European Commission said it was disappointed by President Trump’s announcement that the United States will pull out of the OECD’s international corporate tax reform deal, while others displayed a “told you so” attitude.

Noting that EU billionaires grew their collective wealth to €2.2 trillion by the end of 2024, Oxfam International called on EU countries to use the U.N. tax convention to effectively tax the ultrawealthy.

The United States’ rejection of the OECD global tax plan shows that there are different approaches to competitiveness on either side of the Atlantic, despite the EU’s promise to declutter its tax system, a business representative said.

The OECD global minimum tax rules have “no force or effect within the United States absent an act by the Congress adopting the relevant provisions of the Global Tax Deal,” because they expose American companies to retaliatory international tax regimes, the White House said in a January 20 memorandum.

Mindy Herzfeld examines how proposed updates to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act could be an opportunity to fix its international provisions.

J. Harold McClure poses two illustrations of the appropriate profit margin for a distribution affiliate, contrasting the implications of amount B with a more straightforward economic model.

President Trump wants an External Revenue Service to collect tariffs on imports. One trade expert said the move may be “more branding than substance.”

The president said he planned to put tariffs on America’s neighbors on Feb. 1, as he signed an executive order mandating a sweeping review of U.S. trade policy.

The OECD is working on identifying related-party transactions entered into by taxpayers that may pose integrity concerns under the pillar 2 global minimum tax rules, an OECD tax adviser said.

A statement joined by the majority of Canada’s first ministers says that the government could pursue retaliatory measures if U.S. President-elect Trump follows through with threats to introduce tariffs on Canadian imports.

The OECD has published more administrative guidance for the global minimum tax rules, including a list of legislation temporarily qualified as pillar 2-compliant and advice on deferred tax assets aimed at preserving the rules’ integrity.

Technical work is underway on a possible permanent safe harbor for multinational enterprises in scope of the pillar 2 global minimum tax rules, according to Treasury’s top OECD negotiator.

The OECD inclusive framework on base erosion and profit shifting has published a variety of tools and guidance regarding the administrative implementation of the global minimum tax under pillar 2 of the OECD's two-pillar tax reform plan, along with a central record of legislation that clarifies the member jurisdictions that have secured transitional qualified status for minimum tax purposes.

The OECD on January 15 published administrative guidance regarding the application of article 9.1 of the global anti-base-erosion model rules to deferred tax assets from benefits arranged by the government or new corporate income tax rates introduced after November 30, 2021.

The OECD on January 15 published a central record of legislation with transitional qualified status, providing information on the member jurisdictions whose implementation of the global anti-base-erosion model rules has been deemed consistent with the OECD's standard during a transition period.

The OECD on January 15 published a guide on how to complete the global anti-base-erosion information return, including a template that can be used to alert member jurisdictions that they will receive the returns through the exchange of information procedures.

Scott Besent, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice to be Treasury secretary, will be in charge of steering the president’s economic agenda if confirmed by the Senate.

The US has a critical decision to make in the near future over whether it will continue to negotiate at the OECD and see through the work on the global minimum tax, a top Treasury official said Thursday.

Ryan Finley explains why Treasury and the IRS likely have the statutory authority to make a simplified approach to baseline distribution mandatory.

The second Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress are poised to oppose the OECD’s global minimum tax rules, and countries shouldn’t ignore the policy shift, according to House Ways and Means Committee member Ron Estes, R-Kan.

Doron Narotzki and Vered Narotzki argue that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s short-term economic stimulus has been overshadowed by mounting fiscal challenges and unfulfilled promises. They highlight concerns about the sustainability of extending the expiring provisions without addressing revenue shortfalls and call for a targeted restructuring of the TCJA provisions to prioritize long-term fiscal stability over short-term political gain.

The OECD on Wednesday provided an update with a list of countries that have implemented minimum tax legislation that meets the secured transitional qualified status.

Certain deferred tax expenses will be excluded from transitional global minimum tax calculations under new OECD guidance, in an effort to prevent taxpayers from manipulating such calculations.

EU member states are discussing legal ways to ensure that any future changes to the OECD’s standard global anti-base-erosion information return that are implemented through the EU administrative cooperation directive can be introduced quickly.

Concerns from some jurisdictions about a key part of the amount B transfer pricing simplification framework remain a hurdle in finalizing an agreement on pillar 1 of the OECD’s two-pillar global tax reform plan.

 Pillar 2’s global minimum tax “will secure a broad level of protection against harmful tax competition and aggressive tax planning” and some EU antiabuse rules should be simplified or abolished, Germany and the Netherlands said.

Hilary B. Miller explains the basis on which a foreign tax is creditable for U.S. taxpayers and applies the reasoning to France’s social charge called the cotisation subsidiaire maladie.

The OECD on January 13 published a working paper on the relationship between multinational enterprise business functions and effective corporate taxation using country-by-country reporting data from 2017-2021, finding that business functions are effectively influenced by tax incentives and antiavoidance rules and that tax has less influence on corporate decisions regarding routine functions such as manufacturing and sales.

The OECD inclusive framework on base erosion and profit shifting's co-chairs issued a statement January 13 about the current state of pillar 1 negotiations, reiterating its commitment to ironing out the concerns that member jurisdictions have regarding amount B provisions and reaching a finalized agreement.

Lee A. Sheppard considers what happens to basis in dividend equivalent redemptions involving controlled foreign corporations with earnings and profits representing previously taxed earnings and profits, a problem Treasury plans to address in future rulemaking.

Regs on cloud and digital transactions have undergone significant changes from earlier rules, answering practitioners' calls to adopt a predominant character rule surrounding transactions and modify sourcing and cloud classification rules.

Final regulations on applying disregarded payment losses provide widespread relief by delaying the implementation date and creating carveouts for royalty payments and fractional ownership.

The EU has published the final Faster and Safer Relief of Excess Withholding Taxes directive, which was approved by the EU Council in December 2024 and allows member jurisdictions to provide relief of excess withholding taxes on cross-border investments as part of its initiative to tackle tax fraud.

According to a U.S. official, challenges in global anti-base-erosion (GLOBE) rules negotiations under the OECD's pillar 2 taxation framework have made a permanent safe harbor provision seem unlikely.

The EU Tax Observatory published a working paper January 8 explaining how the OECD's pillar 2 global minimum tax rules could affect government revenue and the potential impact on profit shifting using data reports from active multinational enterprises in Slovakia, finding that the 15 percent global minimum tax could help increase the country's corporate tax revenue by 4 percent.

Ryan Finley explains why Treasury and the IRS shouldn’t indefinitely postpone a Tax Cuts and Jobs Act-conforming update to the transfer pricing regulations’ definition of intangible.

President-elect Trump has said newspaper reports that his aides are working on tailored tariff plans that would only target critical imports are incorrect.

In this article, Sol Picciotto argues that the negotiations at the U.N. offer an opportunity to overcome the increasing dissensus in international tax rooted in the polarization between residence and source taxation, and that while a new consensus may be difficult to reach, it could be more sustainable.

Mindy Herzfeld reviews existing controversial regulations and discusses whether they are likely to be eliminated under the incoming presidential administration.

As the pillar 1 agreement hangs in the balance and questions arise about pillar 2 global minimum tax implementation, the outlook for the OECD-brokered tax reforms is anything but crystal clear.