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Sony’s tax expense will be hundreds of millions of yen more than it thought for 2011, forcing the company to revise downwards its results forecast which it only released in February.

Sabrina Wong of Blake, Cassels & Graydon reports on a ruling that will make it harder for the country’s tax officials to deny treaty benefits.

On February 29 2012, the European Commission launched a public fact-finding consultation on the double non-taxation of companies within the EU and in relations with non-EU countries.

When undertaking a domestic transaction, all parties generally share the same principles regarding what needs to be done to close the deal. But this is not the case for cross-border transactions, where such harmony is often not achieved.

Ernst & Young has announced that David Holtze is the firm’s new global vice chairman for tax.

In late 2011 Lithuanian Parliament (Seimas) adopted changes to the Law on Corporate Income Tax extending corporate income tax incentives to companies investing into Lithuanian free economic zones, explains Rokas Daugela of Sorainen.

TYPE OF DEAL VALUE ACQUIRER TARGET ADVISER TO ACQUIRER (TAX) ADVISER TO TARGET (TAX) Merger $1.4 billion Justice Holdings / Pershing Square Capital Burger King Worldwide Sullivan & Cromwell - Davis Wang / Greenberg Traurig Kirkland & Ellis Patent Deal $1.1 billion Microsoft AOL Covington & Burling Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz / Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner Acquisition $1 billion Facebook Instagram Fenwick & West - Adam Halpern, Natalie Pardo de Zela Orrick Acquisition $950 million Cerberus Capital AT&T (Yellow Pages) Schulte Roth - Alan Waldenberg Sullivan & Cromwell - Andrew Mason Acquisition $221.4 million Witwatersrand Consolidated Gold Resources / Pan African Resources Evander Gold Mines (Harmony Gold Mining) Stikeman Elliott / Eversheds TYPE OF DEAL VALUE ISSUER / BORROWER LEAD MANAGERS / ARRANGERS ADVISER TO ISSUER / BORROWER ADVISER TO LEAD MANAGERS Notes Offering $3 billion Apache Citigroup / Goldman Sachs / J.P. Morgan Bracewell & Giuliani Davis Polk & Wardwell - Michael Farber, Juelle Gomes Notes Offering $2.15 billion Hartford Financial Citigroup / Goldman Sachs Davis Polk & Wardwell - Harry Ballan, Yuliya Epifantseva Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton Senior Notes Offering $1.5 billion Lloyds TSB Citigroup / Merrill Lynch / Morgan Stanley / Wells Fargo Linklaters / Dundas & Wilson / Davis Polk & Wardwell Allen & Overy Refinancing $1.25 billion Cargill ANZ / Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ / BNP Paribas / Deutsche Bank / HSBC / RBS / Standard Chartered WongPartnership Linklaters High-yield Notes Offering $1.1 billion OGX Davis Polk & Wardwell - Po Sit, Ankur Dalal White & Case / Machado Meyer Sendacz Opice Initial Public Offering $490 million Rexnord Merrill Lynch / Goldman Sachs / Credit Suisse / Deutsche Bank / Barclays O’Melveny & Myers Davis Polk & Wardwell - Samuel Dimon, Arie Rubenstein Initial Public Offering $100.1 million Merrimack Pharmaceuticals JP Morgan Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr Davis Polk & Wardwell - Neil Barr, Changsheng Song

At the beginning of this month, when Japanese reforms became effective, the US became the country with the world’s highest corporate tax rate. While some point to lower actual effective tax rates, for most this is the straw that broke the camel’s back, and Americans want the reform process to be sped up.

The OECD’s Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information identified serious deficiencies in the domestic laws of Costa Rica and Guatemala for exchange of tax information purposes.

Type of Agreement Country Country Date Signed Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement Hong Kong Japan Entered into force April 1 2012 Tax Information Exchange Agreement Faroe Islands Liechtenstein Entered into force April 3 2012 Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (Protocol) Italy South Korea April 3 2012 Tax Information Exchange Agreement Finland Liechtenstein Entered into force April 4 2012 Tax Information Exchange Agreement China Isle of Man Entered into force April 6 2012