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By John Hatch and Bob Alltop of the Ballentine Barbera Group, a CRA International Company

Andrés Edelstein Ignacio Rodríguez Argentine government has enacted Law 26,154 which expedites VAT refunds and grants other attractive benefits to the oil and gas sector to encourage the exploration of the nation's hydrocarbons reserves.

Dirk Van Stappen The Belgian Government has drafted a Royal Decree providing for an additional exemption of withholding tax on dividends. It is the intention to extend the existing exemption provided for in the EU Parent-Subsidiary Directive to all countries with which Belgium has concluded a double taxation treaty. The exemption will be subject to the following conditions:

Nélio B Weiss Philippe Jeffrey The presidential election is over and the President Lula's government will remain in power for the next four years for a second mandate. Important tax and social problems remain and will need to be quickly addressed by the government. Some of the main issues that have to be dealt with are; the anticipated reform of the 27 state VAT (ICMS) laws into one federal rule, to reduce the number of applicable ICMS rates from 44 to much fewer, and a reduction of the high tax burden. The task will be onerous, but change is needed to maintain the country as an important player in the worldwide economy and an attractive market for foreign investors.

DLA Piper's Carlos Rodríguez Barrigüete in Madrid and Eric Ryan and Bernhard von Thaden in California explain how taxpayers should prepare for the new rules

Tax directors and advisers came to Hong Kong in November for International Tax Review's first Asia Tax Awards

Comprehensive reform of global financial structures may be required if capital flight and the resulting tax evasion is to be stopped, believes David Spencer

Japanese government officials are divided over plans to eliminate capital gains and dividend income tax breaks. But parliament appears to have resolved rows over plans to cut the corporate income tax rate.

Romano Prodi, the Italian prime minister, has pledged to crackdown on tax evasion in the 2007 Budget and will open up the economy with reforms to encourage M&A.

Sean Foley The Treasury Department and IRS have released new proposed regulations regarding the determination of the income and currency gain or loss of a section 987 qualified business unit (QBU). The intention is to prevent taxpayers from recognizing what are considered to be non-economic foreign exchange losses. The proposed regulations withdraw the existing proposed rules, which were issued on September 25 1991.