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Glenn Hubbard has resigned from his role as chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Hubbard, who played a key role in President Bush's tax-cutting programme, is expected to return to Columbia University where, until joining Bush's government in 2001, he was a professor of economics. Bush intends to nominate Nicholas Gregory Mankiw, an economics professor at Harvard University, to replace him.

Grady Bolding has joined Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe as a tax partner in the San Francisco office. Bolding joined the firm from the defunct Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison that folded in February this year.

Toronto

The budgetary measures for 2003 include new rules on the place of supply of services for value-added tax (VAT) purposes.

A new notice issued by the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation exempts enterprises from business tax on the disposal of equity or shares which were initially invested in the form of buildings, land use rights, technology or other intangible assets. Prior to the issue of these rules, intangible assets or real property transferred to a company as capital contribution were exempt from business tax until the investor disposed of the equity or shares, which then subjected the disposition to a 5% business tax. However, there was a lack of guidance on how the 5% would be calculated and this new notice clarifies this issue. The notice takes effect from January 1 2003.

Elimination of capital tax

Energy companies initially embraced President Bush's proposal to eliminate taxes on dividends, but some pulled back after reading the fine print. Keith Martin of Chadbourne & Parke explains why

Canadian and foreign multinationals should be aware of proposed amendments to the Canadian foreign affiliate and foreign accrual property income regime. Nick Pantaleo of PricewaterhouseCoopers explains why

The Brazilian Central Bank issued on March 6 2003, the new Circular 3181. The circular updated the requirements for individuals and corporate entities resident, domiciled or with its headquarters in Brazil, to report annually to the central bank their receivables of any nature, assets in currency and assets and rights maintained abroad (such requirements were previously covered by Circular 3071 for the year 2001). The information must be disclosed through a declaration, which is available on the central bank website (www.bcb.gov.br).

The European Union Council has issued new regulations related to financial aid, technical assistance and economic cooperation with developing countries in Latin America and Asia. In this regard, a decree was published in the February 28 2003 Mexican official gazette enacting the Model Convention between Mexico and the European Union that is in effect retroactively as from January 17 2003.