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Belgium's tax authorities have issued guidance on how they shall interpret the country's tax treaty with Hong Kong. The guidance discusses Hong Kong profit repatriation to Belgium, explain Kurt De Haen and Guy Ellis of PricewaterhouseCoopers

Global VAT obligations can overwhelm a company with no system to deal with them. Some careful planning can help companies to cope, argues Chris Walsh of Vertex

Type of deal Valuer Acquirer Target Adviser to acquirer (tax) Adviser to target (tax) M&A A$9.2 billion ($7.05 billion) BHP Biliton launched a successful bid for WMC Resources WMC Resources Blake Dawson Waldron, Melbourne, Duncan Baxter, Teresa Dyson, Geoff Mann; Sydney, Richard Dukes, Len Hertzman Allens Arthur Robinson, Melbourne, Sarah Bernhardt, Michael Perez M&A Undisclosed Wizard AcquisitionCo, a company specially formed by The Blackstone Group International, acquired Merlin Entertainments Group International Hermes Private Equity agreed to sell Merlin Entertainments Group International The Blackstone Group International was advised by Ashurst, London, Nicholas Gardner Hermes Private Equity was advised by Linklaters, London, Lynne Walkington, David Sheen M&A £504 million ($913 million) William Hill Organization, a subsidiary of William Hill Stanley Leisure agreed to sell its retail betting operations (including licensed betting offices) in the UK, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Jersey and the Isle of Man Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, London, Richard Ballard Ashurst, London, Alex Cox Robert O'Hare M&A $620 million eBay Shopping.com Cooley Godward, San Francisco, Robert Miller Fenwick & West, New York, Ron Schrotenboer, Tony Cipriano M&A $460 million Établissements Maurel & Prom Knightsbridge Petroleum agreed to sell the holding companies of its Colombian and Venezuelan assets Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Paris, Philippe Grudé Lawrence Graham, London, Robert Field, Jonathan Legg M&A Undisclosed Merger of BAE Systems Avionics and Galileo Avionica to form a new avionics business and the dissolution of AMS, a 50:50 joint venture between BAE Systems and Finmeccanica N/A BAE Systems was advised by KPMG, London, Caroline Austin, Claire Barker; Linklaters, London, Ian Bowler, Elliot Weston, Ben Ferry Finmeccanica was advised by Allen & Overy, London, David Lewis, Miles Perryman M&A Undisclosed Torreal S.C.R. Richemont agreed to sell Hackett Farrer & Co, London, Peter Davis Slaughter and May, London, Sara Luder, Sara Stewart M&A Total transaction value: €17.2 billion ($20.8 billion) Weather Investments II S.a.r.l, an entity owned by members of the Sawiris family and represented by Naguib Sawiris, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Orascom Telecom Holding Enel agreed to sell Wind Telecommunicazioni Weather Investments II S.a.r.l was advised by Dewey Ballantine, Milan, Luca Dezzani Studio Chiomenti, Milan, Ugo Tribulato, Michelle Carpinelli M&A $221 million ScanSoft Nuance Communications Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, San Francisco, David Gerson; Reston, Eileen Marshall Fenwick & West, Mountain View, California, Barton Basset M&A $2.1 billion Ripplewood Holdings Maytag Corporation Cravath, Swaine & Moore, New York, William Brannan, Alyssa Wolpin, Darren Heil Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, New York, David Einhorn M&A $800 million Coty Unilever agreed to sell its prestige fragrance business to Coty Covington & Burling, New York, Harry Hives, Robert Heller Cravath, Swaine & Moore, New York, Michael Schler, Megan Healey M&A $600 million Groupe Danone agreed to the transfer of its 33% shareholding participation in Mahou using a share capital reduction and a partial sale of shares to the shareholding families Herráiz Mahou and Gervás Sanz Mahou Group Danone was advised by Uría & Menéndez, Barcelona, Juan Antonio Fernández-Velilla Mahou was advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Madrid, Miguel Klingenberg M&A $990 million PR Donnelly & Sons Company The Astron Group Ashurst, London, Ian Johnson, Tom Cartwright Clifford Chance M&A $4.9 billion ProLogis Catellus Development Corporation Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, Chicago, Bruce Gelman, Jeffrey Bruns O'Melveny & Myers, San Francisco, Dean Weiner M&A $2.8 billion ING Clarion Partners Gables Residential Trust King & Spalding Goodwin Procter M&A Undisclosed Société Générale and the other founding member of Infrastructure Investors L.P. 3i Herbert Smith Macfarlanes Type of deal Value Issuer Lead managers Adviser to Issuer Adviser to lead managers IPO €540 million ($653 million) TomTom completed an IPO and listing on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange Goldman Sachs International and Lehman Brothers Stibbe, Amsterdam, Stef van Weeghel De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, Amsterdam, Dick Hofland, Sacha Leeman Securitization £430 million ($783 million) The Scottish Retail Property Limited Partnership secured a loan on two shopping centres, structured in the form of a securitization Eurohypo Simmons & Simmons, London, Nick Cronkshaw, Mark Sheiham Allen & Overy, London, Mark Brailsford, Amrit Dehal IPO $648 million Shanghai Electric Group Company Credit Suisse First Boston (Hong Kong) Limited Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Washington, DC, Claude Stansbury, Emily Antosh Allen & Overy IPO £123 million ($223 million Empire Online Numis Securities Nabarro Nathanson, London, Jim Mottram, Graham Muir N/A Refinancing £515 million ($937 million) Bristol International Airport, which is owned by South West Airports Limited Calyon and Société Générale Clifford Chance, London, David Harkness, Jonathan Kandel, Sara Taylor Ashurst, London, Richard Palmer

The tax director of one of Denmark's most famous multinational companies has labelled the country's new domestic transfer-pricing regime, which requires affiliated companies to document domestic transactions for tax purposes, "foolish and unnecessary".

International Tax Review's 2005 Global Transfer Pricing Forum, in association with Baker & McKenzie, is being held on September 29 & 30 at the Hotel Arts in Barcelona. The event, in its fifth year, aims to build on previous successful editions in Berlin, New York, Amsterdam and Paris.

The UK government has disclosed its agenda on tax issues for its six-month EU presidency, which began on July 1. It will advocate movement on value-added tax dossiers and the code of conduct on business taxation. The newly implemented savings tax directive could be subject to adjustments and there will be efforts to halt European Court of Justice rulings becoming law in the member states.

Congressman Gephardt: time for new challenges DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary has announced the appointment of former Congressman Richard Gephardt in the firm's Washington, DC office.

Constantine Lusignan-Rizhinashvili:

Ernst & Young has announced the establishment of national financial services asset management tax practice in the US. Michael Serota, chief of the firm's global hedge fund tax practice will be Market Leader of the new group.

When South Africa introduced capital gains tax (CGT) in 2001 it modelled the applicability of its domestic law, in relation to non-residents, on lines similar to those adopted in the OECD model.