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In a radical change, UK stamp duty is to be replaced by stamp duty land tax (SDLT). UK stamp duty is a tax on documents as to their effect(s) that relate to anything done or to be done in the UK. Stamp duty is voluntary in the sense that the Crown cannot generally sue for its recovery. It is often paid because an unstamped document cannot be used for any purpose whatever (such as proving and registering title).

The Spanish framework for research and development (R&D) and innovation activities has traditionally been extremely advantageous, especially with regard to tax incentives, advantages which have been enhanced by a recent reform.

The government announced several measures to relieve the financial pressure due to the adverse SARS effects. One way is to provide salary taxpayers with a tax rebate equal to half of the salaries tax paid for the year of assessment 2001/02 subject to a ceiling of HK$3,000 ($384). Taxpayers are not required to apply for the refunds. The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) will automatically work out their rebate amounts, and send the cheques to them by post. About 1.3 million refund cheques will be issued, and taxpayers will receive the refund from July 10-31 2003.

In a recent judgement (CIT v Vijay Ship Breaking Corporation and others [2003] 181 CTR 134), the Gujarat High Court has held that an Indian buyer is required to withhold tax from the usance interest paid to foreign suppliers.

Since late 2001 the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has made training materials developed by its advance pricing agreement programme for internal use available to the public on its website. These materials are frequently consulted and relied upon by transfer pricing practitioners, who see them as an indicator of the IRS's thinking on emerging or difficult issues. Because they have no formal standing as legal authority, they can be revised or updated relatively quickly.

Under Italian law, the sale of a going concern is outside the scope of value-added tax (VAT) - consistently with the EU VAT Directives - and is subject to registration tax, irrespective of the assets that are part thereof.

The 2003 Mexican tax reform restricted indirect foreign tax credits to only first-tier companies. This meant that any Mexican company that had an investment outside Mexico through a foreign-holding company would be unable to credit the foreign taxes paid by the second-tier company. Clearly, this had a significant negative effect on many Mexican multinationals or other transnational companies that used Mexico as a springboard for their Latin American investment.

International consulting firm LECG has hired a group of former Andersen staff to develop a European transfer pricing group in London. Former Andersen international tax partner Richard Fletcher is leading the group and has joined as a director. Senior economist Stephanie Pantelidaki and senior associate Darren Andrews joined the firm earlier this month. Both Pantelidaki and Andrews initially joined Deloitte & Touche when it merged with Andersen. Another ex-Andersen partner Nicholas Woolf is also working with the group as a consultant.

Jeffrey Friedman and Glenn Walsh of KPMG analyze efforts to streamline US sales and use taxes in the face of projected Budget deficits

Neil Byrne and Colm Halpin of Ernst & Young outline some of the issues facing companies in the 10 accession countries