The Australian Government has announced three new legislative actions that are aimed at increasing the overall tax certainty for select business finance transactions. On April 19th Nick Sherry, Assistant Treasurer of Australia, issued a press release announcing the extension of the transitional period for Upper Tier 2 instruments. He also revealed that the final approval has been given to new regulations governing select term subordinated notes. The Assistant Treasurer also announced the release of a consultation draft for the Taxation of Financial Arrangements ... Read More

Governments across the world are reporting higher occurrence of transfer pricing, and are subsequently increasing efforts to curb tax evasion through the method. Governments worldwide are becoming increasingly aware and focused on transfer pricing regulations. Several nations have recently announced that greater attention will be paid to the matter throughout tax audits conducted on multinational corporations throughout the 2010 and 2011 fiscal years. In a recent press release, the Ho Chi Minh City Taxation Department revealed heavy tax revenue losses due to illicit transfer ... Read More

The highly debated issue of a new international tax imposed on banks has suffered a delay, after European Union (EU) Finance Ministers failed to reach a decision on how such a measure should be imposed, at a recent round of discussions. In a meeting of EU Finance Ministers held on April 17th in Madrid, discussions were hosted on the possible implementation of an international bank tax. Upon closing of the meetings it was revealed that no conclusion was reached regarding bank taxes, ... Read More

The Parliament of Greece has approved an extensive overhaul of the country’s tax code, in a concentrated effort to revive national finances and stem tax evasion. On April 15th the Greek Parliament approved a controversial and widely discussed new tax code aimed at reforming the country’s taxation landscape. Filippos Sahinidis, Deputy Finance Minister of Greece, described the aim of the new bill, saying, "This is an important piece of legislation to deal with the major problem of tax evasion and other chronic problems ... Read More

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) is stepping up its efforts to eliminate offshore tax evasion by requesting customer information from national financial institutions. The data will be used in fresh investigations on Australians with undeclared offshore bank incomes. On April 14th the ATO issued a press release detailing its new data-matching program aimed at identifying and investigating Australian taxpayers with undeclared offshore incomes or over-claimed tax deductions involving international transactions. The ATO has revealed that national financial institutions will be requested to provide ... Read More

Sources within the US State Senate have confirmed that new legislation is being considered which could effectively double the tax liability on profits earned by hedge-fund and private-equity managers. On April 13th Senator Charles Schumer, member of the US Senate Finance Committee and serving New York Democrat, revealed that a proposal to instate “Carried Interest” legislation was “on the table” before the Finance Committee. Under current laws, the cut of profits taken by private-equity fund executives is treated as capital gains, and taxed ... Read More

The Swiss Government is currently investigating the possibility of implementing new tax measures for banks, levied on risk and excessive employee-bonus payments. A Swiss Parliamentary committee is currently examining proposals on how to lower risk-taking and add extra stability to the nation’s banking sector. The committee is due to submit a final report with its recommendations before April 23rd. While most measures discussed within the report are expect to be revealed only upon its final release, two possible taxation measures have been announced ... Read More