On Tuesday, 20 December 2022, the OECD released a highly anticipated consultation document on Digital Services Taxes (DSTs) and relevant similar measures. This consultation document provides draft articles for inclusion in the Multilateral Convention to implement the agreement reached by members of the Inclusive Framework with respect to DSTs and relevant similar measures.
On 8 December 2022, the United States and Croatia signed their first convention for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of tax evasion with respect to taxes on income. With this development, Croatia becomes the latest, and the only remaining, European Union member state to sign its first tax convention with the US.
On 26 September 2022, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, issued an opinion in United States v. Meyer, 50 F.4th 23 (11th Cir. 2022), holding that the Anti-Injunction Act, codified in Code Section 7421, did not bar a defendant taxpayer from seeking a protective order in a closed suit to restrain the government from using his admissions when assessing a tax penalty in a separate administrative proceeding.
On 2 November 2022, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court upheld the Swiss Federal Administrative Court’s ruling that information can be exchanged to investigate criminal tax matters pursuant to an information exchange request by a foreign tax authority. However, use of the information exchanged for non-tax enforcement purposes is impermissible.
In a year-end twist, it appears EU Member States formally adopted a directive on a minimum level of taxation for largest corporations, also known as the Pillar 2 Directive.
In its press release published on 26 October 2022, The Financial Crimes and Enforcement Network announced that its Acting Director renewed and expanded its Geographic Targeting Orders beginning on 27 October 2022 and ending on 24 April 2023 (with certain exceptions).
This webinar on 17 January 2023 will explore key questions and examples of the state of play of crypto (or digital) assets across a number of jurisdictions and the tax impact and rules on employee compensation as well as considerations from a wealth management perspective.
On 8 December 2022, the European Commission proposed a text amending Directive 2011/16/EU on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation. DAC8 provides, among other things, the following: changes to the existing DAC framework, rules on advance cross-border rulings for high-net-worth individuals, and a crypto-asset reporting framework for competent EU authorities.
On 30 November 2022, Treasury and the IRS published Notice 2022-61, which provides much-awaited guidance on the application of “prevailing wage” and “apprenticeship” requirements relevant to determining the amount of several renewable energy and other clean technology tax credits that were enacted, extended or modified by the Inflation Reduction Act. The guidance provided by the Notice is fairly scant and leaves a number of issues unaddressed. It seems that the issuance of the Notice was rushed in order to start the 60-day period after which taxpayers will need to satisfy the “prevailing wage” and “apprenticeship” requirements, to the extent applicable, to claim the maximum tax benefit for projects (i.e., projects the construction of which begins on or after 29 January 2023).
Amount B was introduced as a “fixed return” on “baseline marketing and distribution activities” in the October 2020 Blueprint of Pillar One, and was seen as a critical component of the Pillar One deal. Nevertheless, over the past two years, in respect of Pillar One developments, the focus of the OECD Inclusive Framework members has been primarily on Amount A. However, on 8 December 2022, the OECD finally released the long-awaited consultation document and hosted a webinar on the proposed design of Amount B, putting Amount B back into the international tax spotlight. The OECD has now requested input from stakeholders on the technical design of Amount B, with comments to be received no later than 25 January 2023.