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Kristian Jensen, the Danish minister of taxation, has published draft legislation to tighten the country’s transfer-pricing regime

Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw's Trefor John has joined Lovell's UK tax practice in London. John specializes in the tax aspects of share sales and acquisitions, reorganizations, financing and leasing transactions and international tax planning. He moved to Lovells on November 1 2004 to lead the firm's tax knowledge management team.

Despacho Albiñana & Suárez De Lezo, a full-service Spanish law firm with a well-respected tax practice, has joined forces with CMS as one of their alliance members. The firm will practice under the CMS banner from January 1 2005. The CMS alliance includes firms in Italy, France, the UK, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and Austria.

Koen van’t Hek, who left Ernst & Young at the beginning of July this year, has returned to the big-four firm

The EU has expressed concerns about some of the provisions in the $137 billion corporate tax bill signed by US President George Bush last month. The bill was intended to do away with a tax cut for exporters that was declared illegal by the World Trade Organization. But although the EU has promised to lift sanctions imposed on the US in response to the bill, it has also raised concerns about measures that give a grace-period of three years where the old tax cuts will still apply to many large US corporations.

The EU and Switzerland on October 26 signed the savings tax agreement they had committed to sign in May. The agreement is scheduled to take effect on July 1 2005, but must still be ratified by the Swiss parliament. The agreement commits Switzerland to a withholding tax on interest payments to EU residents. Swiss tax authorities will then share the withholding tax revenue with the EU member states.

The Frankfurt tax practice of German law firm Haarmann Hemmelrath will be strengthened in January 2005 with the arrival of Joachim Krämer and Roderic Pagel, two international tax partners

The leaders of the UK’s biggest companies have urged Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the exchequer, to take some “early action” to eliminate so-called “tax nothings” in the corporate tax system

The tax authorities have sent the Congress a tax bill including proposed legislation concerning additional interest deductibility restriction to be effected through a series of thin capitalization rules that would enter into force on January 1 2005.

Faced with pressure from the OECD and the EU, many low-tax jurisdictions have fulfilled their outstanding international tax responsibilities. Now they want everyone to know about it. Simon Briault uncovers the changing face of the international tax haven