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One year after the introduction of the Belgian Pan-European Pension Fund (OFP), the Belgian regulator has created a flexible framework for asset pooling by qualified investors, such as pension funds. A royal decree of December 7 2007 sets out the rules for Belgian institutional undertakings for collective investment with a variable number of shares/units.

Bob van der Made On December 10 and 11 2007, a joint meeting of the European Commission with business representatives (including the European Business Initiative on Taxation and Business Europe) and academics took place in Brussels, with the EU member states attending as observers. The purpose of the meeting was to give participants an update of the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) working group's work to date, focusing especially on a number of discussion documents on the possible outline of a CCCTB. The main points coming out of these discussion documents are summarised below.

Rajendra Nayak Ganesh Pai The Kolkata Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) in the case of Van Oord Atlanta B.V. v Asstt Director of IT (2007) 112 TTJ (Kol) 229 recently examined the question of existence of a permanent establishment (PE) in India. Van Oord Atlanta BV (BV co) was a company incorporated in the Netherlands. BV co had undertaken a sub-contract for dredging to be executed in India. As a result of this sub-contract, BV co had a project office and a dredger in India for a period of 153 days. Once the project was completed, the dredger sailed out of India, but BV co maintained a bank account and books of accounts in India, even after this period. BV co claimed that maintenance of a bank account and books of accounts could not be termed as "business carried on" from a "fixed place of business". The issue before the ITAT was, whether the mere activity of maintenance of a bank account and books of accounts, could create a PE for the BV co in India as per article 5 of the India - Netherlands double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA). BV co was a resident of the Netherlands within the meaning of article 4 of the treaty and was eligible for the DTAA benefits.

Due to a query regarding the application of the double tax convention between Chile and Spain (DTC), the Chilean tax authority (SII) has clarified some issues relating to the application of article 7 in case of the provision of services by a foreign company.

Joanna Faith goes in search of the precise blend of personalities and professional experience which make for a successful tax director

The Finance Bill 2008 was published on January 31. Some of the more salient provisions introduced by the Bill are:

By Ralph Cunningham

Iwona Kaczanowska Since Poland's EU accession and implementation of the common system for VAT, taxation of incentive schemes designed to boost sales has been governed by interpretation issued by the Polish Ministry of Finance on December 30 2004. Two types of incentive have been in use: rebates, which are strictly related to specific supplies and which reduce the sales price, and other incentives, which are not related to any supply, for example, offered to customers for reaching an agreed level of purchases or for prompt payment, and which have been regarded as a supply of services by the purchaser. The interpretation concerning the second group of incentives is not in line with EC VAT Directive regulations. However, to avoid any potential disputes with the Polish tax authorities, taxpayers have been documenting sales incentives, such as, for reaching particular purchase levels, with VAT invoices and treating their receipt as a supply of services.

Consistency has been the hallmark of Ireland's approach to tax policy and foreign direct investment since governments decided in the 1980s that low rates had to be an essential element of any plan to attract multinationals to trade in Ireland and from Ireland, and to attract financial investors to base their transactions in the country.

Nélio Weiss Philippe Jeffrey For a third consecutive year and with the objective to minimise the effect for Brazilian exporting companies from the appreciation of the local currency in relation to foreign currencies (more specifically the US dollar and the Euro), the Brazilian authorities issued on December 28 2007, ordinance 329 and normative instruction 801 which amended the Brazilian transfer pricing legislation. As per the ordinance and normative instruction, Brazilian exporting companies will be allowed to increase their export revenues for calendar year 2007 (for transfer pricing calculation purposes) using the ratio of 1.28. This measure will apply for the fiscal year 2007. As mentioned, a similar measure was also adopted for fiscal years 2005 and 2006, allowing the Brazilian exporting companies to increase their export revenues using then a ratio of 1.35 and 1.29 respectively.