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Burt Rosen, a senior tax partner at Debevoise & Plimpton, a US law firm, has been appointed head of the tax department. Rosen specializes in M&A and the tax aspects of capital markets transactions. Rosen replaced Bruce Haims, who stepped down to devote more time to his clients.

Robert Kirschenbaum, formerly with the US Department of the Treasury, has moved to Baker & McKenzie, an international law firm. Kirschenbaum was the Japan case coordinator for the advance pricing agreement programme's competent authority negotiations.

Darrin Litsky, a senior US transfer-pricing specialist, has become the latest in a string of high-profile hires for Baker & McKenzie. The international law firm has been expanding its global transfer-pricing capability with senior hires from big four rivals.

The Warsaw office of Baker & McKenzie has announced the launch of Baker & McKenzie Doradztwo Podatkowe Sp z o o, a company set up to provide tax consultation services. The new company will operate from the law offices of Baker & McKenzie Gruszczy´nski & Partners.

After years of promising such a step, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued Revenue Procedure 2005-12 revising its pre-filing agreement (PFA) programme to provide for advance rulings on whether a taxpayer has a permanent establishment (PE) or a US trade or business (USTB).

The Ministry of Finance announced a tax reform plan for 2005 on December 19 2004. The plan includes significant changes in the area of international taxation as follows:

Two important decisions on the judicial approach to the construction of taxing statutes were handed down on November 25 2004. The cases confirm the following points in connection with the construction of a taxing statute:

When dealing with the Netherlands, entities that are tax transparent in their home jurisdiction often find that they are regarded as taxable entities for Dutch tax purposes. The reason for this is that, in the Netherlands, a foreign entity's tax status is determined on the basis of the civil laws of its country of residence, its articles of association or the contractual arrangements governing its existence, as well as the Dutch tax rules. In December 2004, the Dutch tax authorities issued new guidelines to determine the tax status of most types of foreign entities that seek to earn income from business activities or passive investments. The guidelines distinguish between entities that are comparable to a Dutch limited partnership (commanditaire vennootschap or cv) and other types of entities. A limited partnership type of entity is only tax transparent if the admission and substitution of partners is subject to the consent of all partners. In respect of other types of entities, the guidelines provide for four tests:

On December 21 2004, the Luxembourg Parliament passed the Budget Law for 2005. Although there will be no changes to tax rates, the Budget Law provides for an extension of the law of July 30 2002, which was due to expire in 2004, until the end of 2007. This law grants, among other things, reduced tax rates on capital gains realized upon disposal of land, higher depreciation rates for residential buildings and reduced real-estate transfer taxes. Capital gains from the disposal of real estate are taxed at 25% of the normal income tax rates, depreciation of qualifying buildings is 6% for the first six years and a credit of up to €20,000 ($26,000) is available for transfer taxes.

In case of Hindustani Powerplus (141 Taxman 658), the Authority for Advance Rulings (AAR) examined the issue of tax implications of allowances and benefits given to expatriates deputed to India.