For months, Treasury’s attention may have been focused on guidance implementing the Inflation Reduction Act, particularly the green energy provisions. Seasoned tax professionals know better than to let their guards down as fall turns to winter, however. Treasury and the IRS are notorious for releasing a flurry of guidance before the new year, often addressing imminent deadlines or tidying up loose ends.
If your organization does business across the US and collects consumer health data (broadly defined, health inferences generated from non-health data count), compliance with US state consumer health privacy laws is just around the corner. Consumer health privacy laws in Nevada (Senate Bill 370) and Washington (the My Health My Data Act) become fully operative for regulated entities on 31 March 2024. Requirements specific to consumer health data are already operative in Connecticut.
In 2023, the Government of Canada focused on modernizing Canada’s Competition Act and Investment Canada Act, proposing legislation that will overhaul existing legislative frameworks. Looking forward, we expect the Government will continue its modernization agenda and the respective authorities will continue to take strong enforcement positions against perceived anti-competitive conduct and investments that raise potential national security concerns in 2024.
On 22 November 2023, the finalized regulations enacted under the Retail Payment Activities Act (RPAA) were published, with registration-related requirements expected to come into force beginning in November 2024 and the remainder in September 2025. The RPAA and Retail Payment Activities Regulations make up Canada’s new retail payment supervisory regime overseen by the Bank of Canada, Canada’s central bank.
Two recent tax controversies demonstrate the authority of US courts in situations where a taxpayer’s assets are held in a country different than the taxpayer’s country of residence. In United States v. Kelly, a US person held assets in a Swiss bank account and failed to file a Foreign Bank Account Report (FBAR), and the court ordered repatriation of those assets to the United States. In Puri v. United States, an Indian taxpayer held assets in a US bank account, and the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari, finalizing the district court’s order that denied taxpayer’s motion to quash an administrative third-party summons issued by the IRS.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has recently provided public comments to industry professionals concerning its enforcement plans related to the importation of goods suspected to be mined, manufactured, or produced with forced or child labor.
Canada implemented an import prohibition on goods mined, manufactured or produced wholly or in part by forced labor as of 1 July 2020, when Parliament amended the Customs Tariff (tariff item no. 9897.00.00) to reflect Canada’s new obligations under the USMCA (Article 23.6: Forced or Compulsory Labor).
In July this year, the European Commission adopted an adequacy decision for the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. The decision allows the free flow of data from the European Union to the United States if US companies abide by the Framework. It is likely that the Commission will soon look at adopting adequacy decisions for African countries, in addition to other regions, with such decisions expected to have applicability for those countries that have developed privacy laws that are modeled, fully or partially, on the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulations or the earlier EU Data Protection Directive (1995).
Chapter 22.8 of the California Business and Professions Code imposes requirements on social media companies with annual gross revenues of USD 100 million or more to submit “terms of service reports” to the California Attorney General, with the first report due by 1 January 2024. The statute is currently the subject of a constitutional challenge, but covered companies should not delay preparing reports in case the lawsuit drags on or is unsuccessful.
On Tuesday, 23 January 2024 we are hosting an in-person client event in our New York office on Generative AI: Harnessing the Power and Mitigating Risk. The program includes an exciting in-house counsel panel featuring key speakers from Calix, Wolters Kluwer and Tiffany & Co. We’ll also hear from a cross-discipline Baker team who will discuss legal and regulatory considerations and mitigating risk when using Gen. AI,
Please join Baker McKenzie and ICPA for a fireside chat with Assistant Secretary Axelrod (U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security) where he will share his insights on what to expect in the year ahead for export enforcement. Assistant Secretary Axelrod will provide his perspectives on Bureau of Industry and Security priorities and the multilateral enforcement framework that is emerging globally.