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Bob van der Made In his keynote address to the International Fiscal Association (IFA)'s annual congress, which was held in Brussels from August 31 – September 5 2008, EU tax commissioner Kovács confirmed rumours that the draft legislative proposal for a directive on the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) will be delayed. The Commission needs to do a lot more work especially in some very detailed technical areas, in particular those related to the financial sector, before it can table a proposal, according to the commissioner. Kovács added that he "would rather present a perfectly elaborated and well justified product at the appropriate time than present an incomplete one just to meet an artificial deadline." The draft proposal was due to be presented to the College of Commissioners this autumn after which it would be formally proposed to Council. Kovács did not provide any clues in his speech as to a new possible deadline for the draft proposal.

Dirk Van Stappen Companies involved in business reorganisations or in a redesign exercise of the supply chain get special attention from the transfer pricing audit department of the Belgian tax authorities. This department hosts tax inspectors who specialise in transfer pricing matters and has the countrywide authority to carry out transfer pricing audits on top of the regular tax audits carried out by local tax offices.

Bill Maclagan Lisa Eastwood The issue of what constitutes a "permanent establishment" for purposes of the Canada-United States Tax Convention (the treaty) has recently been dealt with by the Tax Court of Canada in American Life Insurance Co v R and Knights of Columbus v R. In both cases the taxpayers were insurance companies, resident in the US, but carrying on an insurance business in Canada. The taxpayers were assessed by CRA on the basis that, in accordance with article IV of the treaty, they were carrying on business through a permanent establishment (PE) in Canada and thus subject to Canadian tax on such income.

Nélio Weiss Philippe Jeffrey On June 23 2008, the Brazilian Congress enacted Law 11,727/2008, which introduced, among other provisions, a broadened definition of low-taxed jurisdictions that will enter into force as of January 1 2009. Before the new law, low-taxed jurisdictions, also called tax havens, were considered countries which do not tax income or tax it at a rate lower than 20%. The latter definition is included as part of the Brazilian transfer pricing provisions, which comprise not only cross-border transactions with related parties, but also transactions with unrelated parties domiciled in a low-taxed jurisdiction.

Andrés Edelstein Ignacio Rodríguez During the last week of June, the Argentine government sent the formal notification to the Austrian government for terminating the double tax treaty with this country. In accordance with the provisions set forth in article 29 of the treaty, this termination will become effective on January 1 2009.

The 'in principle' acceptance by government, of the 26 recommendations made by the Tax Design Review Panel, in its report to the assistant treasurer and minister for competition policy and consumer affairs, is welcome news for taxpayers, and is a start in alleviating uncertainty that presently surrounds the enactment of many tax measures. For too long, affected taxpayers have been required to operate with a degree of uncertainty where an announced legislative change is not enacted expeditiously. With Australia seeking to market itself as a 'financial services hub' to the rest of the world, best practice in the area of policy design and implementation is fundamental and is generally expected in today's market place.

Georgiana Head talks to Tracy Wood about becoming Ernst & Young's youngest-ever partner and meeting the tax partner of the future

Andrés Edelstein Ignacio Rodríguez Argentine income tax law (AITL) provides that financial trusts organised in Argentina pursuant to law 24,441 are taxed at the same 35% tax rate as corporations. In this regard, individuals or legal entities acting as trustee are encompassed by the rules concerning administrators of third parties' net worth. Therefore, they are responsible for determining and paying the trust's income tax.

India has differences of opinion with the OECD over provisions of its Model Tax Convention. This could be bad for foreign investment, warn Srinivasa Rao and Rajendra Nayak of Ernst & Young

KR Sekar of Deloitte Haskins & Sells says that a UK decision represents multilateral opinion on the taxation of dual-resident entities, but that not every country agrees.