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Vitor Gaspar took up his position as director of the IMF's fiscal affairs department in early June. The appointment of the former Portuguese finance minister was announced by Christine Lagarde, the Fund's managing director, in February.

President Obama has nominated Cary Pugh to be a judge of the US Tax Court for a term of 15 years. She will replace Robert Wherry Jr, who became a senior judge of the court in April. Her appointment must be ratified by the Senate.

Giulia Cipollini Giulia Cipollini has joined Withers, the international law firm, in its Milan office as a senior counsel and head of tax in Italy. The contentious and transactional tax specialist was formerly with tax boutique Studio Legale e Tributario Cordeiro Guerra & Associati and before that, Legance Studio Legale Associato and Gianni Origoni Grippo Cappelli & Partners. Cipollini is regarded as one of Italy's leading trust law experts and has practised Italian tax law since 2003. She also teaches tax law at leading institutions.

Ferdie Schneider Ferdie Schneider has joined BDO South Africa as head of tax. He was a partner of KPMG from March 2005 until now, specialising in VAT. Before that, he was a partner of Deloitte for more than six years. Between January 1990 and December 1996, he worked in government, first as chief taxation officer of the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and then as senior economist in the National Treasury of South Africa.

Double Irish arrangement and small domestic market to blame for haven status Ireland's tax system is frequently in the headlines, with numerous references made to its scope for aggressive tax planning and active role as a tax haven. The UK, on the other hand, is being applauded for its competitive structure. This leads many to question why Ireland's tax system is viewed as a haven for avoidance rather than simply competitive.

Jean-Louis Huchant, a former chief financial officer in France, explains what information and support a CFO requires from a tax director to ensure that tax considerations are taken into account, though do not dominate, business decisions.

Rajendra Nayak

"To access overseas cash, even for domestic investments, there is a significant incentive for tax headquarters to migrate abroad. The ideal solution is for Congress to rewrite the corporate tax code… So far, nothing has happened. As a consequence, US companies are finding alternative approaches such as tax inversions."

Elena Kostovska The corporate income tax system in FYR Macedonia – since its groundbreaking revamping in 2011 – has been mostly concerned with the unrecognised (non-deductible) expenses of a company for the purposes of determining its tax base, as opposed to the actual profit of a company. However, within the past three years of the validity of this novel corporate income tax regime, and due to the resulting shrinking of the tax base of companies, the government and tax authorities are finding themselves in a constant loop of amendments aimed at widening the tax base by effectively introducing new categories in the so-called unrecognised expenses list.

Chris Harker New Zealand's Inland Revenue has recently finalised a series of public rulings (BR Pub 14/01 to 14/05) regarding the ability of a New Zealand resident partner of an Australian limited partnership (ALP) to claim foreign tax credits for tax paid by the limited partnership. The rulings apply from the 2013/2014 income year. The rulings concern ALPs that are treated as companies for Australian tax purposes, but are fiscally transparent for New Zealand tax purposes. The rulings will, however, be of general interest to persons that are considering New Zealand inbound or outbound investment involving a hybrid entity (that is, an entity that has transparent tax treatment in one jurisdiction, but that is taxed as an entity in its own right in another).