Tax Relief

International Tax Review is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 1-2 Paris Garden, London, SE1 8ND

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2025

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

Tax Relief

Vanity tax

vanity.jpg

After the failed tax, politicians will be hoping to gloss over the incident

A proposed 'vanity tax' in the Philippines has been slapped down after an online campaign urged lawmakers: "#DontTaxMyBeauty".

The country's plan to tax the "multibillion-peso beauty industry" went down as well as a broken nail in a manicurists' parlour, with the beauty industry also railing against the plan. Politicians will be left red-faced (unless they use concealer) after the failed attempt, and feel the whole incident wasn't worth it. Unlike you, dear reader.

Tax Relief is relieved: a lot of shimmer goes into making these pages look so glossy.

It does not make much cents

pennies.jpg

Staff counted the pennies by hand because the counting machines kept jamming

A man from Virginia in the United States has paid his tax bill, something most tax administrations are accustomed to dealing with. However, he used 300,000 pennies to do it. His sterling attempt to annoy the department was successful, with staff taking at least several hours to count the five wheelbarrows filled with coins that made up the $3,000 tax bill. The penny pincher told the BBC that he did it as a protest because he wanted government departments to "be more responsive to public inquires". Tax Relief thinks the man has likely put pay to any chance of making it through the next year audit free.

Quotes of the month

"Looks like it's on"

Peter Davidson, social and economic policy analyst, on the corporate tax 'race to the bottom.'

"Full customs union membership prevents us from negotiating our own comprehensive trade deals"

UK Prime Minister Theresa May, who suggested the UK may seek "associate membership" of the EU's customs union.

"Intaxication: [The] nice feeling you get when you receive your tax refund, until you realise it was your own money in the first place #TaxJoke"

US Tax Practice's founder Patrick Evans said via Twitter.
more across site & shared bottom lb ros

More from across our site

The threat of 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods coincides with new Brazilian legal powers to adopt retaliatory economic measures, local experts tell ITR
The country’s chancellor appears to have backtracked from previous pillar two scepticism; in other news, Donald Trump threatened Russia with 100% tariffs
In its latest G20 update, the OECD also revealed tense discussions with the US where the ‘significant threat’ of Section 899 was highlighted
The tax agency has increased compliance yield from wealthy individuals but cannot identify how much tax is paid by UK billionaires, the committee also claimed
Saffery cautioned that documentation requirements in new government proposals must be limited if medium-sized companies are not exempted from TP
The global minimum tax deal is not viable without US participation, Friedrich Merz has argued
Section 899 of the ‘one big beautiful’ bill would have spelled disaster for many international investors into the US, but following its shelving, attention turns to the fate of the OECD’s pillars
DLA Piper’s co-head of tax for the US and Latin America tells ITR about her fervent belief in equal access to the law, loving yoga, and paternal inspirations
Tax expert Craig Hillier agrees with the comparison of pillar two to using a sledgehammer to crack a nut
The amount is reported to be up 57% from the £5.6bn that the UK tax agency believes was underpaid in the previous year
Gift this article