What keeps a tax commissioner awake at night? Hans Christian Holte, newly appointed chair of the OECD’s Forum on Tax Administration and tax commissioner of Norway, talks to TP Week about increasing tax certainty, CRS and what Norway can teach other tax administrations.
The US is increasingly becoming attractive again to IP-rich companies, especially large US pharmaceuticals and technology multinationals. Deductions from foreign-derived income attributable to intangibles (FDII) serve as a carrot, but other provisions in the tax code may yet impact the cost of relocating assets.
Canada’s budget revealed an additional C$90.6 million ($70.4 million) is being added to the Canada Revenue Authority’s anti-tax avoidance efforts. Advisers expect this will increase the tax authority’s ability to assess complex transfer pricing structures.
Dutch tax rulings are under scrutiny as the Finance Ministry recently revealed that errors were found in more than 70 confidential tax rulings with multinationals. A number of measures are now pending in parliament to rein in base erosion and re-establish the robustness of tax rulings.
The European Commission has now published the outcome of its public consultation on fair taxation of the digital economy. The survey shows the majority of stakeholders favours an international discussion and believes short-term solutions should be adopted until long-term measures are agreed upon.
In the new South African budget, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba drew attention to tax avoidance strategies, and vowed to crack down on excessive interest deductions and to strengthen tax authority governance.
