The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has evaluated the economic performance of the Slovak Republic, saying that country has the potential to see strong growth in the near future if a series of tax changes and economic reforms are instated to ensure a sustainable rate of development. Late last week the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released Economic Survey of the Slovak Republic 2010, an annual report on the economic conditions, projections and challenges facing the country. According to the ... Read More

The Zambian Government has come to an agreement with locally operating mining companies, resulting in greater future tax certainty for the mining industry, and a ZMK 1.426 trillion payment of taxes in arrears for the Government. Discussions between the Zambian Government and mining companies operating in the country have come to a fruitful conclusion, with mineral extraction operators agreeing to pay tax authorities ZMK 1.426 trillion in owing taxes. The payback amount is approximately ZMK 413 billion greater than previously expected by the ... Read More

The First Minister of Northern Ireland is calling for the UK Government to lower the corporate income tax rate in Northern Ireland to match the 12.5 percent rate paid by businesses in the Republic of Ireland. On November 24th the UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron visited Northern Ireland, where he was urged by the First Minister of Northern Ireland Peter Robinson to lower the corporate tax rate faced by businesses operating in the country, claiming that a reduced rate will allow the ... Read More

The Hungarian government has approved several changes to its tax system, including a new flat-rate model for personal income taxes, reduced corporate income taxes, and incentives for families to have extra children. On November 23rd the Hungarian Government passed into law a series of heavily debated changes to the tax system, significantly revising the country’s tax regulations. It is hoped that the alterations will boost national tax revenues, while spurning job creation and economic health. As of January 1st 2011 the current Hungarian tax ... Read More

The international bank Credit Suisse is set to fight a Canadian federal court order issued in October which mandated that an extensive amount of customer data be handed to Canadian national tax authorities to aid investigations into offshore tax evasion. Late last week it was revealed that on November 17th lawyers representing Credit Suisse filed an application with the Federal Court of Canada to overturn a previous ruling which granted tax authorities access to over “500 boxes” of archived transaction data and customer ... Read More

The recent release of the Scottish national budget is being overshadowed by a revelation that the Scotland's leading government party secretly abandoned its only independent tax power, leaving the country with no tax autonomy for at least two years. Last week the Scottish National Party (SNP) revealed the country’s budget for the upcoming year. However, the announcement was marred when a round of in-Parliament questioning led the Finance Minister to disclose that the Party opted to forgo the opportunity to keep the Scottish ... Read More

The US Internal Revenue Service currently holds USD 164.6 million worth of tax refunds that are yet to be delivered to taxpayers, mainly due to clerical errors or outdated delivery and personal details. The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is actively urging taxpayers to migrate to an electronic tax return filing system, pointing to the fact that a vast number of people are yet to receive their tax refunds simply because they could not be delivered to the right address due to old ... Read More