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An Australian judge has claimed that tax avoidance cases in Australia have become more complex than they need to be because of the way judges are interpreting the tax law.

Measures beyond the aggressive pursuit of tax evasion will have to be implemented if the Italian government fails to meet its target to reduce government deficit, the OECD warned.

Type of Agreement Country Country Date Signed Double taxation avoidance agreement Canada Turkey May 4 2011

At a packed conference wrapping up six months of public consultation on the future of the European VAT system, politicians and companies came together to conclude that it needs to be simpler and more efficient.

Opposition to the UK’s controversial decision to increase taxes on the country’s energy industry has gained pace, with major players active in the North Sea writing an open letter to finance minister George Osborne, telling him the move has damaged investor confidence and could cripple the country’s gas sector.

The Indonesian Tax Court has recently decided that the income of a permanent establishment whose main activity is providing oil and gas drilling services to a profit sharing contractor must not be considered as rental income.

President Hugo Chavez has unveiled a revamp of Venezuela’s upstream regime, hiking the already-hefty 60% tax rate on oil production to as much as 95%. But the massive rise may not be as onerous as it looks, and may not prompt an exodus from the nation’s oil patch.

Type of Deal Value Acquirer Target Adviser to acquirer (tax) Adviser to target (tax) Acquisition $8.5 billion Microsoft Skype Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; JP Morgan Chase; Goldman Sachs Acquisition Undisclosed Roland Rechtsschutz-Versicherungs-AG Talanx Group Hengeler Mueller - Martin Klein Acquisition Undisclosed HTP Group Halberg Guss Noerr - Oliver Trautmann, Utho Grieser Type of Deal Value Issuer/Borrower Lead managers/arrangers Adviser to issuer/borrower (tax) Adviser to lead managers (tax) Acquisition financing $2 billion Applied Materials Inc JP Morgan Securities; Morgan Stanley; Citigroup Global Markets Dewey & LeBoeuf Davis Polk & Wardwell Acquisition financing $1.7 billion Maju Investments Pte Ltd Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith; Citigroup Global Markets Jones Day Davis Polk & Wardwell - Michael Farber, Changsheng Song Senior secured notes offering $12 million K Hovnanian Enterprises Inc Credit Suisse Securities Simpson Thacher & Bartlett Davis Polk & Wardwell - Lucy Farr, Ryan LaRosa, Rachel Lerner

The US and UK governments rarely see eye-to-eye with Venezuela, but tax policy in all three countries looks set to make life more difficult for oil companies.

As President Obama prepares a proposal to overhaul the corporate tax system in the US, the top tax policy adviser in the Treasury is leaving his post.