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Directive 76/308/EEC – Mutual assistance for the recovery of customs duties – Application to claims which arose prior to the entry into force of the Directive.

A Brussels court has just ruled that a dividend of Hong Kong origin is entitled to Belgium's 95% participation exemption, according to Kurt De Haen and Magalie Delattre of PricewaterhouseCoopers

The Finance Bill passing through Parliament now proposes some significant changes to the offshore funds regime (Income Tax Act 1988 part XVII chapter V), which should enable more offshore funds to be certified as having distributor status. The regime was originally enacted in 1984 to counter roll-up of income in a non-UK-based, open-ended offshore fund. By investing in such a fund a UK investor would be taxed on what was effectively an income return on the more favourable capital gains tax basis. The regime as it emerged was, however, quite broad in its application; under it, an investor's gain, insofar as it represents capital gains of an offshore open-ended fund can be taxed as income.

As of January 1 2003, the Mexican tax authorities incorporated into the Mexican Income Tax Law tax incentives for Mexican real-estate trusts (MRET) where the primary activity is the construction or acquisition of real estate for sale or lease. However, some issues remain unclear in the application of the incentives' provisions. In this regard, on May 31 2004, the Mexican tax authorities published some rules in the Administrative Miscellaneous Resolution that clarify some of the issues related to income tax, asset tax (AT) and value-added tax (VAT).

Donald Korb, the new chief counsel of the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, DC, tells Sed Crest what taxpayers need to do to protect themselves and what they should expect from their advisers

In February 2004, the German tax authorities issued a directive addressing the landmark transfer pricing decision rendered by the Federal Tax Court (FTC) on October 17 2001 (see International Tax Review, February 2002, p22). The case involved a German marketing subsidiary of a foreign group; the new directive is limited to this situation. The directive instructs tax officials to disregard key aspects of the October 2001 decision in their future administration of the tax laws.

On May 25 2004 the French tax authorities released new administrative guidelines (Instruction 14 B-4-04) concerning the simplification of the procedure US partnerships need to follow to benefit from the French-US tax treaty's reduced withholding tax on French source interest, royalties and dividends.

One of the most basic responsibilities of boards is to balance risk and return so that shareholder value grows and is protected. How then should directors respond to the Taxman elevating tax risk management to the agenda of Australia's top 1500 boards?

Section 245 of the Income Tax Act (the Tax Act), enacted in 1988, contains a general anti-avoidance rule (the GAAR) that incorporates a modified business purpose test into Canadian tax legislation. The GAAR will apply if: (1) the taxpayer derives a tax benefit from a transaction or series of transactions, (2) the primary purpose of the transaction or series is to obtain the tax benefit, and (3) the tax benefit results in a misuse of the provisions of the Tax Act or an abuse of the Tax Act having regard to the provisions of the Tax Act read as a whole.

A low tax rate and membership of the EU are part of what makes Cyprus attractive for corporate tax planning, believes Pavlos Aristodemou of Michael Kyprianou & Associates