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Sandy Bhogal Mayer Brown has appointed Sandy Bhogal as head of the tax practice group in London. Bhogal joined Mayer Brown eight years ago, and takes over his new role from Peter Steiner. Steiner retired at the end of 2012, but remains with the firm as a consultant, focussing on real estate taxation issues.

Timothy McCormally Timothy McCormally has joined KPMG as a director in the firm's Washington national tax practice.

One week after George Osborne, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, delivered his Budget 2013, Stephen Herring, senior tax partner at BDO in London, looks at the impact on businesses.

Finland will cut its corporate tax rate from 24.5% to 20%, effective from January 1 2014. The move has been prompted by concerns about competitiveness and comes in response to falling rates around Europe.

Rajendra Nayak Aastha Jain The Andhra Pradesh High Court (HC) recently ruled on the issue of taxability of indirect transfers of shares of an Indian company in the case of Merieux Alliance, France (MA) and Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault (GIMD) (collectively referred to as taxpayers) [TS-57-HC-2013(AP)]. Taxpayers, tax residents of France, held shares in ShanH, a French company which in turn held shares of an Indian company. ShanH held no assets other than shares in the Indian company. The taxpayers transferred shares of ShanH to Sanofi Pasteur Holding (Sanofi), another French company. As per Article 14(5) of the India-France treaty, capital gains arising to a French tax resident from alienation of shares representing a participation of at least 10% in a company resident in India may be taxed in India. The taxpayers had earlier approached the authority for advance ruling (AAR) which held that the transfer of shares of ShanH was a scheme for avoidance of Indian tax and that the capital gains arising from the indirect transfer of shares of an Indian company was liable for tax in India, going by a purposive interpretation of the India-France treaty. This ruling was rendered before the decision of the Supreme Court of India in the case of Vodafone International Holdings BV (341 ITR 1) and the retrospective amendment to the Indian Tax Laws (ITL) on taxation of indirect transfers of Indian assets by Finance Act 2012. Aggrieved by the ruling of the AAR, the taxpayers filed a writ petition before the HC.

Jelena Zivkovic During February, the government adopted a decision on privatising more than 20 companies and utilising more than 30 business opportunities. The companies will be privatised through public tender, through stock exchange or public auction. The most interesting companies for international investors are:

Demands on companies for better disclosure of tax information are increasing. Australia is the latest jurisdiction to up the ante by looking to force the release of corporate tax returns. Country-by-country reporting (CBCR) is also gaining more traction (the standard will be imposed on EU banks from 2014). But there appears to be a worrying disconnect in that similar levels of transparency are not being demanded, nor expected, of tax authorities. Matthew Gilleard looks at whether a shift away from the one-sided approach to tax transparency is on the horizon, or whether the “do as I say, not as I do” mantra will continue to apply.

Taxpayers need to make a careful assessment of the best European jurisdiction for a central IP company, as the different regimes have their own features, explain Wim Eynatten and André Schaffers of Deloitte.

George Osborne, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, has delivered the 2013 budget, confirming a one percentage point cut in the corporate tax rate to 20% by April 2015, and claiming the government is building "the most competitive tax system in the world". But there was bad news for banks.

New Zealand taxpayers will be worried the country's general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR) is increasingly being used to effectively re-write deficient legislation and to set aside specific legislation, after the Court of Appeal found against Alesco in a tax avoidance case.