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KPMG's new Tax Governance Institute will "explore and debate aspects of tax oversight and management, including tax risk, control, and reporting". Members will include company directors and executives, and government officials and will discuss governance issues through webcasts, roundtables and larger events

The Russian tax authority has said that it is pressing charges against PricewaterhouseCoopers Russia because of the firm's handling of now-bankrupt oil company Yukos's audit in 2002.

Masaaki Honma, chairman of the influential Tax Commission, has resigned amid revelations that he was living in a heavily subsidised Tokyo apartment reserved for civil servants with his mistress. Honma is succeeded by Yutaka Kosai, formerly a senior adviser at the Japan Center for Economic Research.

Joseph Bachar, finance ministry director general, has temporarily replaced Jackie Matza, the suspended head of the Israeli tax authority. Matza suspended himself after it emerged he was facing tax corruption charges.

In a move to expand its tax controversy practice, McDermott, Will & Emery has raided Miller & Chevalier in Washington, DC.

American businesses are waiting to see whether rumours of changes to the way they are taxed will become reality after the Democratic takeover of the US Congress.

French President Jacques Chirac has suggested that the corporate tax rate could tumble from 33% to 20% in the next five years. He made the comments in his New Year speech. The cut could revive the ailing economy and encourage new investment in the jurisdiction.

Marc Gerson, former majority tax counsel to the Ways and Means Committee of the US House of Representatives, has become a member of the tax department of Miller & Chevalier in Washington, DC. He will also join the tax legislative practice of the firm's government affairs department. Gerson acted as staff liaison to the members of Ways and Means, the Senate Finance Committee, the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Treasury and participated in the framing of all the significant tax legislation of the 109th Congress.

The Venezuelan tax agency (SENIAT) has demanded payment of around $880,000 in back taxes from an oil operation partially controlled by France's Total SA and Norway's Statoil.

Following years of speculation, China looks set to pass a bill unifying the tax codes for foreign and domestic companies in 2007 with a merged code coming into force at the beginning of next year.