Search results for

The recent admission of accounting irregularities at Ahold shows Sarbanes-Oxley is having a positive effect on audit and corporate governance standards

A double tax convention between the UK and South Africa and the double tax agreement between the UK and Taiwan have come into effect. The agreements aim to eliminate the double taxation of income and gains flowing between the countries. The South African convention was signed in July 2002 and its provisions apply from April 1 2003 for corporate tax and from April 6 this year for income and capital gains tax. It replaces an existing convention, which was concluded in 1968.

WJB Chiltern has expanded its customs and excise team with a former HM Customs & Excise official. Allan Brown has joined WJB Chiltern's value added tax (VAT) and customs & excise investigations team which advises the accounting and legal profession and clients on litigation and fraud investigations by customs & excise.

After an unsuccessful attempt last December, the Argentine executive recently insisted that the Congress pass in February the proposal that abrogates inflation adjustment for tax purposes and temporarily reduces corporate income tax rate from 35% to 30%.

Treasury responds to the WTO decisions on the US extraterritorial income exclusion regime and the SEC adopts final rules to implement Title II of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. By Margie Rollinson, David Benson and Peg O'Connor of Ernst & Young

R&D tax credits, cost-sharing technology development agreements and capitalizing expenses for intangibles are all factors that should be part of an effective R&D tax strategy. Ronald B Schrotenboer of Fenwick & West puts it all into perspective

Type of deal Value Acquirer Target Adviser to acquirer (tax) Adviser to target (tax) Acquisition £325 million ($518.5 million) CIT Property investment Portfolio of 11 shopping centres previously held by Charterhouse Herbert Smith, London, Neil Warriner, Rob Young Lovells, London, Richard Stones; Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw, Jeremy Clay Acquisition Undisclosed Barclays Charles Schwab Europe Simmons & Simmons, London, Edward Troup, Lisa Cristie Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, London, Francis Sandison Acquisition ?300 million ($324.5 million) DiBa Allgemeine Deutsche DirektBank Entrium Direct Bankers KPMG, Frankfurt, Christian Janisch, Matthias Hogh; Beiten Burkhardt Goerdeler, Frankfurt, Gunther Bredow; Lovells, Fankfurt, Jorg Siegels Hengeler Mueller, Frankfurt, Ernst Thomas Kraft Acquisition ?377 million ($407.8 million) OMV 313 Aral & BP filling stations from Deutsche BP; 45% stake in Bayernoil; 18% stake in Transalpine pipeline KPMG, Frankfurt, Christian Janisch, Marion Arndt Linklaters, Oppenhoff & Rädler, Munich, Florian Lechner, Jens Blumenberg Acquisition Undisclosed Cognis Degussa sale of operations in Hythe, Southampton, Barry recommended by EC for Degussa acquisition of Laporte. Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, London, Julian Hickey Slaughter and May, London, Steve Edge, Edward Denny Acquisition ?100 million ($108 million) Pillar Retail and leisure park in the Nassica Complex owned by Neinver Uría & Menéndez, Madrid, Victor Viana In-house Disposal £848 million ($1.35 billion) GE Consumer Finance First National from Abbey National Linklaters, London, Yash Rupal, Jan Birtwell Slaughter and May, London, Graham Iversen, Clare Richardson Disposal Undisclosed Southern Water Investments Ltd First Aqua JVCo RBS - Linklaters, London, Martin Lynchehan, Liz Conway; Vivendi - Simmons & Simmons, UK, Nick Cronkshaw, Simon Yates, Martin Shah Clifford Chance, London, Douglas French Acquisition $2.4 billion Johnson & Johnson Scios Cravath Swaine & Moore, New York, Lewis Steinberg Latham & Watkins, Los Angeles, Laurence Stein, Silicon Valley, Joseph Yaffe Disposal ?560 million ($605 million) Nestlé Waters AS Watson & Co shareholding in Powwow Group White & Case, London, Anthony Concannon Baker & McKenzie, London, Alex Chadwick, James Smith Acquisition $675 million Bresnan Broadband Holdings Comcast Cable systems Paul Hastings, Janofsky & Walker Davis Polk & Wardwell, New York, Po Sit, Avishai Shachar, Christopher Peters, Avrohom Gelber, Menachem Neeman Acquisition £1.25 billion ($1.99 billion) Candover; Cinven Gala Group Ashurst Morris Crisp, London, Richard Palmer Clifford Chance, London, James Plummer Disposal $162 million Perenco UK BP's UK Southern North Sea gas assets Jones Day, New York, Vladimir Lechtman CMS Cameron McKenna, London, Richard Croker, Alison Hughes Disposal £95.3 million ($152 million) Moorfield & Westbrook Partners Woodside Estate from Woodside Limited Partnership Herbert Smith, London, Neil Warriner CMS Cameron McKenna, London, Mark Nichols Acquisition £70 million ($105 million) Graphite Capital Management Jane Norman Linklaters, London, Jan Birtwell, Simon Marks SJ Berwin, London, Michael Trask, Dominic Adams Disposal n/a Consortium private investors including Apax Partners, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Providence Equity Cable TV activities of Deutsche Telekom Debevoise & Plimpton, London, Peter Schuur; Frankfurt, Friedrich Hey; Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Cologne, Stephan Eilers Hengeler Mueller, Frankfurt, Christof Jackle Acquisition ?335 million ($362.4 million) ABN AMRO, BNP Paribas, Credit Lyonnais, ING Bank, Rabobank International, RBOS, Societe Generale, West LB NV Casema from France Telecom Norton Rose, London, Dominic Stuttaford, Annastasia Bond Gunning Nauta Dutilh, Allen & Overy Acquisition ?1.95 billion ($2.1 billion) DSM Roche's vitamins and fine chemicals unit Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton Homburger; Davis Polk & Wardwell, London, John Paton, Christopher Peters Merger combined revenue $4.2 billion Prudential Financial; Wachovia Corp n/a Debevoise & Plimpton, New York, Seth Rosen n/a Acquisition $6.75 billion BP 50% stake in TNK KPMG, London, Andrew Gavan; Moscow, Jim McKinven, Olga Stergiopoulos; BP, Bernard Logue, Lawrence Hanna, Peter Broughal; Jones Day, New York, Vladimir Lechtman; London, John Clark, Amanda Long

The Australian government has implemented many incentives to encourage VC investment. Rick Taylor and Max Persson of Deloitte, reveal what it means for foreign investors and fund managers

With its tax rate of 12.5% and a tax system that since 1997 has aimed to make securitization deals effectively tax-neutral, Ireland is already a popular onshore location for securitization. But changes announced in its Finance Bill in February 2003 should make the country even more attractive. The Bill announced changes to simplify and update the securitization rules to take into account a much wider range of transactions. It is due to be enacted by April 4 this year and changes are possible until then but it will be effective from February 6.

Tax obstacles to securitization are to be abolished in Germany but true-sale transactions will require careful structuring. Florian Schultz and Martin Krause of Linklaters Oppenhoff & Rädler explain why