1. European Commission to Propose Qualified Majority Voting for Taxation Files In his 2018 State of the Union address speech, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced that “the Commission is proposing to move to qualified majority voting in specific areas…we should be able to decide on certain tax matters by qualified majority.” The Commission’s Letter of […]

1.Austrian Presidency: Progress on EU Digital Services Tax The informal ECOFIN Council meeting of this weekend saw progress in the discussions on EU proposals for fair taxation of the digital economy. The Austrian Finance Minister, Hartwig Löger, at present holding the EU presidency of the Council, said that it was realistic to reach an agreement […]

1.EU Parliament Digital Tax Debate The European Parliament Committee on Economic and Monetary Policy (ECON) held a meeting on 29 August to discuss the EU Commission proposals on fair taxation of the digital economy in the Single Market. The European Parliament rapporteurs Paul Tang (S&D, The Netherlands) and Dariusz Rosati (EPP, Poland) highlighted that the […]

BRUSSELS I 27 AUGUST 2018 1.EU-Norway VAT Agreement to Enter Into Force The EU-Norway agreement on VAT administrative cooperation to fight VAT fraud shall enter into force on 1 September 2018. The agreement has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union on the 1 August. The cooperation Agreement sets out rules and […]

BRUSSELS I 13 AUGUST 2018 1.Britain Contemplates Online Retailer Tax Chancellor Philip Hammond has stated that Britain will consider implementing a unilateral tax for online retail sales. Discussing recent GDP figures, Hammond noted that as the prevalence of online shopping increases and the nature of high street and traditional business models evolve, so too must […]

BRUSSELS I 6 AUGUST 2018 1.Apple Makes Part Payment of EU State Aid Recovery Into Escrow Apple has reported its best June quarterly results ever, in the week when it became the first public company in the world to reach the $1 trillion market valuation. In its third quarter report published on 31 July, Apple […]

BRUSSELS I AUGUST 2018 1.US IRS Release Proposed Regulations Concerning Repatriation of Profits On 1 August, the US IRS released detailed proposed regulations concerning the repatriation of foreign subsidiary profits at reduced rates. The regulations set out comprehensive guidance concerning the rules and definitions that apply to repatriation of profits, including in relation to date […]

BRUSSELS I 30 JULY 2018 1.OECD Invites Input on Dispute Resolution Peer Reviews As a follow-up of BEPS Action 14, the OECD invites taxpayers’ input to inform and improve the tax treaty dispute resolution process, as a priority of the BEPS project. The OECD is gathering contributions from taxpayers on specific issues relating to access […]