Joe Hockey, Australian Treasurer, labelled the Australian taxation system as “compromised” in a speech to the Sydney Institute last week, while Big 4 accounting firm EY described it as in “disarray”. The criticisms have led to calls for the formation of an independent tax reform commission.
The European Commission has opened formal state aid investigations into three tax rulings agreed between Apple, Fiat and Starbucks with the Irish, Luxembourg and Netherlands tax authorities, respectively.
Newly-elected Indian leaders Narendra Modi and Arun Jaitley must use next month’s Budget to repeal the retrospective amendments brought in under the previous government if they want to provide businesses with the certainty and confidence to invest and grow.
US businesses will be pleased that lawmakers have taken one step closer to providing certainty over the future of the R&D tax credit, after the House of Representatives voted 274-131 to approve legislation that would permanently extend the provision.
Mention the word ‘inversion’ or ‘inverted’ and the first things likely to come to mind for most people are inverted commas – the most supercilious of the English language’s punctuation marks, looking down on regular commas from their lofty perch with scorn. Possibly La Pyramide Inversée at Le Louvre, too. But mention those words today and a tax efficient restructuring mechanism may also feature. Matthew Gilleard explores the inverted reality of this transactional trend.
