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The Chartered Institute of Directors has called for Gordon Brown, the UK's chancellor of the exchequer, to introduce a taxpayers' charter of rights and duties in next April's budget.

Grant Clowery, a transfer pricing specialist, has set up consultancy firm Ceteris' Washington DC office.

OECD member economies have seen a rise in tax revenues because of strong economic growth according to the organization's Revenue Statistics publication. The revenue rises come in spite of lower tax rates.

Palaniappan Chidambaram, India's finance minister, said that businesses working in India must now e-file income tax returns. The deadline for last year's returns is October 31.

Rob Withecombe has become head of tax at Grant Thornton's London office. Former incumbent Ian Evans is now global head of tax, a newly created position, of Grant Thornton International.

Christine Stix-Hackl, an advocate-general of the European Court of Justice, has dismissed Germany's argument that a repayment of a dividend tax considered to contravene EU laws constitutes a serious economic burden. Stix-Hackl's opinion in the Meilicke case follows that of advocate-general Antonio Tizzano in November 2005 in the same case. Before 2001,German investors that bought stock in German companies were allowed to apply for a tax credit on dividend tax payments, but Germans paid dividends from EU companies based outside Germany could not claim a discount. Tizzano said this contravened EU law on the free movement of capital, but thought the financial burden of a European Court judgment that ruled against Germany and ordered repayment may have grave consequences in an economy that has been underperforming for more than a decade.

Following the European Court of Justice's Cadbury Schweppes verdict, Denmark is to change its rules regarding the tax treatment of controlled foreign corporations. The court in Cadbury Schweppes said that EU companies can reduce tax costs by locating subsidiaries in other EU countries with lower levies so long as the company's subsidiaries have employees and business assets. Several member states, including the UK, Germany and Sweden, have more stringent criteria for allowing parent companies with subsidiaries in other EU jurisdictions to benefit from reduced tax levies.

The new firm, KPMG Europe, will initially comprise the German and UK member firms. But it is hoped that other European member firms will follow the lead of the two largest European economies. KPMG Europe will be headed by John Griffith-Jones, head of KPMG UK, and Rolf Nonnenmacher, KPMG's German chair. The head office will be in Frankfurt, Germany.

The European Court of Justice has contradicted two advocate generals' opinions by ruling that Italy's IRAP tax, a regional levy on production, complies with EU law.

New laws allowing advanced rulings took effect on October 2. Submissions for rulings should be sent electronically to the South African Revenue Service from October 16