Luxembourg has extended tomorrow’s deadline for financial institutions to submit their first report under the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). Mauritius has also announced a similar extension.
Congressmen Charles Boustany and Richard Neal have released a bipartisan discussion draft of innovation box legislation, showing the US’ commitment to pursuing measures to better attract and retain R&D investment, following the inclusion of such a regime for intellectual property (IP) income in international tax reform recommendations from the Senate Finance Committee earlier this month.
The US Senate Finance Committee has this week voted 23 to 3 to approve legislation extending more than 50 expired tax breaks, including some of keen interest to large, cross-border businesses such as the research and experimentation tax credit, the subpart F active financing exception, 50% bonus depreciation for qualifying properties, and the look-through treatment of payments between related controlled foreign companies.
The Senate Finance Committee’s international tax reform working group, chaired by Senators Rob Portman and Chuck Schumer, has released its five-pillar framework for reforming the US tax code, concentrating on frequently-debated topics including a move to a territorial tax system, but there were also surprises – for example in the strength of recommendation for a US patent box.
The level of US engagement with BEPS deliverables will be central to the project’s success The Republicans leading the US Congress' two tax-writing committees have called on Jacob Lew, Treasury Secretary, to "remain engaged with Congress" as proposals related to the OECD base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project continue to be developed.
George Osborne, UK chancellor of the exchequer, surprised businesses today in the first Conservative Budget in the UK for two decades by cutting the corporate tax rate, though not for two years. He also announced expected measures against tax evasion and aggressive avoidance, but made himself unpopular with the funds industry by closing loopholes that helped managers avoid full capital gains tax on carried interest, or their share of a fund’s profits.
