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Thirteen partners and 38 staff from DJ Freeman are joining Olswang on May 1 2003. As well as the majority of the firm's property practice and media experts, tax partner Graham Chase is joining the firm. Chase specializes in corporate tax, value-added tax (VAT) and stamp duty planning. DJ Freeman is rebranding as Kendall Freeman and focusing purely on insurance, corporate and litigation.

The European Commission has decided to refer Spain to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for failing to comply with its decisions on tax aid in the provinces of Alava, Guipúzcoa and Vizcaya. The decisions made by the EC in July 2001 found that certain tax aid schemes granting tax credits and tax holidays introduced in the provinces were illegal because they did not comply with the rules on regional aid from the national government to small-to-medium-sized enterprises. Despite several reminders, Spain has not carried out the European Commission's instructions to discontinue the schemes and recover all aid already paid out.

With less that a month until the UK Budget is revealed, the Institute of Directors (IoD) has claimed that almost 80% of UK businesses are paying more tax than ever before

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) voted last week to reexamine stock options expensing, increasing the likelihood of major accounting changes for US companies

Ernst & Young has launched a global indirect tax group with a trio of fee-earners from PricewaterhouseCoopers

A European Court of Justice (ECJ) advocate general opinion on a personal tax case could lead to similar cases being brought by businesses

The EU Council of Economics and Finance Ministers (ECOFIN|) failed to reach final agreement on its package of three tax measures aimed at tackling harmful tax competition at its March 7 meeting. According to press reports the deal was blocked by Italy. The Council will resume discussions at the Council of Finance Ministers on March 19 in Brussels and still aims to adopt the package by March 21 this year.

The European Commission has launched open consultations on EU company taxation. The first consultation involves using International Accounting Standards (IAS) to develop an EU-wide consolidated tax base for companies. The second involves a pilot of the home state taxation scheme for small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that would allow an SME to account for EU-wide profits in one tax declaration.

The Venezuelan government has decided to extend its tax on financial transactions by another year to help repair the country's damaged economy. A two-month strike, which began at the end of last year, virtually brought the country to a standstill with the oil industry, businesses and the stock exchange shutting their doors. The transaction tax will gradually fall from 1% to 0.5%.

The Australian tax commissioner, Michael Carmody, last week announced changes to the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) position on employee benefit arrangements