BRUSSELS | NOVEMBER 2021 US House Approves Minimum Corporate Tax Legislation  In November, the Unites States House of Representatives approved President Biden's Build Back Better Act (H.R. 5376), a comprehensive legislation which also includes provisions relating to the OECD global tax agreement. The bill was passed with a narrow margin in favour (220-213), with Representatives voting [...]

BRUSSELS | OCTOBER 2021 Historical Agreement on International Taxation Under OECD Auspices  Following years of difficult discussions, under the auspices of the OECD and G20, 136 jurisdictions reached an agreement on global minimum tax and partial reallocation of profit to market countries, marking the most significant reform of international tax rules in history. The Statement released by [...]

BRUSSELS | SEPTEMBER 2021 Tax Administrations Accelerate Digital Transformation  The OECD's Forum on Tax Administration issued the Tax Administration 2021 report in September, which compares data on particular aspects of tax administration and tax systems across 59 economies, compiled in the 2020 International Survey on Revenue Administration. The report examines the data to highlight key trends, innovations [...]

BRUSSELS | JULY 2021 130 Countries Sign Historic Agreement on International Tax Reform In July, 130 countries signed the global agreement on international tax reform, based on a two-pillar solution which allows multinational companies to pay more tax in the countries where they operate as well as a global minimum tax rate. As estimated by the OECD, [...]

BRUSSELS | MAY 2021 EU Sets Out New Corporate Tax Reform Proposals  The European Commission has published a new plan for corporate tax reform within the European Union, encompassing a number of short term and longer term proposals. The plan is embedded in a Communication on Business Taxation for the 21st Century. The main pillars [...]

BRUSSELS | APRIL 2021 Pascal Saint-Amans: Digital Tax Agreement by October  Speaking at a conference organised by the Government of Ireland, Pascal Saint-Amans, the OECD Tax Director confirmed the agreed timeline for reaching a global agreement on digital tax. Pascal Saint - Amans said that the G20 meeting of the finance ministers in July is still [...]

BRUSSELS | MARCH 2021 EU Commission Publishes Roadmap on Business Taxation for the 21st Century The EU Commission has published a Roadmap concerning its upcoming Communication on Business Taxation for the 21st Century, which will present the Commission’s plan for reforming EU corporate taxation to be “fit for the realities of the modern global economy”. The Roadmap [...]

BRUSSELS | FEBRUARY 2021 Agreement on Digital Tax Within Reach After US Policy 'U-Turn' The new US Secretary of Treasury Dr Janet Yellen confirmed that President Biden's administration is ready to drop the 'safe harbour' requirement, a key obstacle to an international agreement on Pillar One concerning taxation of the digital economy. At the G20 meeting [...]

BRUSSELS | DECEMBER 2020 EU Parliament Calls for Wider Scope on EU Tax Blacklist  On proposal of the Permanent Subcommittee on Tax Matters (“FISC”), European Parliament’s Economic Affairs Committee adopted a resolution calling for stricter and legally binding EU rules on non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes, criticising the listing process at present as ‘lenient and confusing’. The [...]

BRUSSELS | NOVEMBER 2020 US President-Elect Joe Biden's Tax Plans In November, the United States elected the Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden as 46th President, while Kamala Harris has made history becoming the first woman elected Vice-President of the United States. After a contentious campaign, the Biden-Harris ticket won 290 Electoral College votes, thus defeating incumbent [...]