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A recent victory for Copesul in Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice (STJ) should encourage companies relying on provisions of Brazilian double tax conventions (DTCs) to cut their effective tax rates.

On May 23 2012, the Supreme Court in London handed down its lengthy judgment in Test Claimants in the Franked Investment Income Group Litigation v Commissioners for HM Revenue and Customs.

Type of Agreement Country Country Date Signed Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement Kenya Mauritius May 7 2012 Tax Information Exchange Agreement Czech Republic Isle of Man Entered into force May 18 2012

Type of Deal Value Acquirer Target Adviser to acquirer (tax) Adviser to target (tax) Acquisition $11.8 billion Eaton Cooper Industries Fenwick & West / Simpson Thacher & Bartlett / A&L Goodbody / Matheson Ormsby Prentice Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz / Arthur Cox Share Buy-back $7.1 billion Alibaba Group Yahoo! Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz - T. Eiko Stange / Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom / Munger Tolles & Olson Acquisition $4.3 billion SAP Ariba Jones Day Acquisition $2.6 billion Dalian Wanda AMC Entertainment Davis Polk & Wardwell Weil, Gotshal & Manges Acquisition $1.58 billion Lehman Brothers Archstone Enterprise Weil Gotshal & Manges Simpson Thacher & Bartlett / Kaye Scholer Acquisition $1.25 billion Silver Lake Global Blue Weil Gotshal & Manges Clifford Chance / Baker & McKenzie Acquisition $758 million Kabel Deutschland Holding Tele Columbus Group Hengeler Mueller Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom Strategic Investment $300 million GE EBX Group Davis Polk & Wardwell - Kathleen Ferrell Acquisition $282 million Technip Stone & Webster Process Technologies Davis Polk & Wardwell - Kathleen Ferrell Acquisition $99 million Ultra Clean Holdings American Integration Technologies Davis Polk & Wardwell - Rachel Kleinberg Acquisition Undisclosed Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Swiss Herbal Remedies Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt Stikeman Elliott Type of Deal Value Issuer/Borrower Lead managers/arrangers Adviser to issuer/borrower (tax) Adviser to lead managers (tax) Global Bond Offering $3.5 billion Province of Ontario CIBC / Citigroup / Deutsche Bank / Morgan Stanley Davis Polk & Wardwell Initial Public Offering $903 million Edwards Group Barclays / Goldman Sachs / Deutsche Bank Weil, Gotshal & Manges - Brenda Coleman, Sarah Priestley Davis Polk & Wardwell PAITREO $879 million AGL Citigroup / Deutsche Bank Freehills / Sidley Austin / Greenwood & Freehills King & Wood Mallesons - Scott Heezen Senior Unsecured Notes Offering $600 million Beam Barclays / Credit Suisse / Merrill Lynch Chadbourne & Parke Davis Polk & Wardwell - Lucy Farr Notes Offering $500 million Murphy Oil J.P. Morgan / Wells Fargo Davis Polk & Wardwell - Kathleen Ferrell Common Stock Offering $172 million Petroleum Development Merrill Lynch / J.P. Morgan / Wells Fargo Davis Graham & Stubbs Davis Polk & Wardwell - Lucy Farr Common Stock Offering $112 million GSV Capital Citigroup Davis Polk & Wardwell - Mary Conway Follow-on Stock Offering $110 million Angie's List Merrill Lynch / Stifel, Nicolaus & Co / Allen & Co / RBC / Oppenheimer & Co. / Wells Fargo Davis Polk & Wardwell - Rachel Kleinberg

COMMENT: The EU is not united about information exchange, one of the most important global tax policy issues of recent years, and Austria and Luxembourg are to blame.

Over the past six months, Shanghai has adopted a full set of laws and regulations for its VAT pilot programme. The move will help China’s economy evolve from a manufacturing hub and encourage the development of modern service sectors

An amendment to the Income Tax Law in India means taxpayers can use any method to justify their transfer pricing arrangements, which demonstrates a significant relaxation in the authorities’ approach.

The European Commission has said 99% of airlines flying to and from the EU complied with its March 31 2012 deadline for reporting emissions data under the emissions trading system (ETS), but global opposition to the scheme remains strong.

Complexity is driving governments, corporations and accounting firms to invest in tax technology, Brian Peccarelli of Thomson Reuters has told International Tax Review.

Börje Noring, tax auditor and national adviser at the large companies tax office of the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket), talks to International Tax Review about the agency’s plans for the year ahead, the challenges it faces, inter-jurisdictional cooperation, and why Sweden has such high compliance rates.