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The world’s largest advertising and marketing group, WPP, has announced that it is planning to move its headquarters back to the UK, after the government committed to reforming the country’s controlled foreign company (CFC) rules.

Damon Wright has joined MHA MacIntyre Hudson, an accounting firm in the UK, as director of VAT services. Formerly with Grant Thornton, he has 20 years experience in indirect tax and VAT, including a spell as an HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) senior VAT inspector.

Type of Deal Value Acquirer Target Adviser to acquirer (tax) Adviser to target (tax) Acquisition $828 million Kirkbi A/S Dong Energy Hengeler Mueller Acquisition $334 million AMD SeaMicro Fenwick & West - Larissa Neumann Acquisition $309.5 million Fiera Natcan Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt McCarthy Tétrault Acquisition $271 million Cisco Lightwire Fenwick & West - Matthew Noerper Acquisition $146.3 million ShoreTel M5 Networks Fenwick & West - Ron Schrotenboer Acquisition $140.5 million Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Bank of Cyprus Freehills King & Wood Mallesons Acquisition Undisclosed SanDisk FlashSoft Fenwick & West - Natalie Pardo De Zela Type of Deal Value Issuer/Borrower Lead managers/arrangers Adviser to issuer/borrower (tax) Adviser to lead managers (tax) Registered Notes Offering $3 billion ArcelorMittal J.P. Morgan / Citigroup / Merrill Lynch Davis Polk & Wardwell - John Paton, Sarah Joy Notes Offering $750 million Korea Development Bank BNP Paribas / Citigroup / Deutsche / J.P. Morgan / KDB Asia / RBS Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton / Lee & Ko Davis Polk & Wardwell - John Paton, Sarah Joy Note Issue $650 million AGL Deutsche Bank / ANZ / NAB / Commonwealth BoA Freehills King & Wood Mallesons Notes Offering $300 million CSX J.P. Morgan / UBS Davis Polk & Wardwell - Rachel Kleinberg, Una Au Shearman & Sterling SEC-registered offering $250 million Westar Energy Barclays / Mitsubishi UFJ / Wells Fargo Davis Polk & Wardwell - Po Sit, Yuliya Epifantseva Dewey & LeBoeuf

It is no secret that the Greek tax authorities are not exactly up to scratch. Inefficient tax collection and a lack of knowledge in specialist areas such as transfer pricing are just two of the problems preventing the government raising the tax revenue it so badly needs.

A First-tier Tribunal (FTT) decision that deals with the UK’s consortium relief rules and the non-discrimination article in double taxation conventions contains some positives and negatives for taxpayers.

Hiring the right external advisers can be one of the most difficult jobs for a tax department.

The most recent high-level hire in the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration (CTPA) has reiterated the department’s commitment to transfer pricing development, naming it as its highest priority.

Egypt is looking to alter its indirect tax system by replacing the sales tax with a VAT, on the instruction of the IMF.

In an exclusive interview, Carsten Ibsen, head of group tax at Danske Bank, explains why he believes the financial sector is not undertaxed, why the European Commission’s proposal for a financial transactions tax (FTT) is a bad idea and why Denmark’s largest bank is not going to become a tax exile.

A report from PwC assessing the total tax contribution of the Hundred Group – which consists of the finance directors of the UK’s biggest companies – shows that such companies contributed £67.7 billion ($108 billion) to the government in taxes for the year ending March 2011, but news such as the unveiling of avoidance schemes used by Barclays bank uncovers the fact that this could, or even should, be higher.