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Attempts to introduce a new income tax in Bolivia collapsed after violent strikes left more than 10 people dead and many more injured in the capital city, La Paz. The Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez, announced that he was abandoning his Budget in light of the violent demonstrations in the city. The country descended into violence after the government announced its intention to bring in a tax of 12.5% to reduce the budget deficit.

The European Commission last week decided that tax breaks in Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands constitute state aid

There seems to be no escape for the big accounting firms in the US. Just after their fears were alleviated by the final wording of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which seemingly guarantees that they can continue providing tax services to audit clients, they face another attack. This time, the US government is cracking down on tax shelters

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

White & Case has hired two Ernst & Young tax advisers for its Slovakian tax group

The European Commission has dropped its state aid probe into an Irish tax scheme and given the Belgium and Dutch governments more time to phase out tax schemes it says are incompatible with state aid rules

The OECD's Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is meeting in Paris this week to discuss new methods of terrorist financing and money laundering as well as reviewing developments in non-cooperative countries.

The Czech Ministry of Finance and the country's Chamber of Tax Advisers are testing electronic VAT returns. They are looking at issuing, filing, receiving and recording the forms electronically with the system due to be fully active in March this year.

UK accounting firm BDO Stoy Hayward, has predicted that its big four rivals could lose hundreds of millions of pounds as a result of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. BDO has carried out research on the amount of fees at risk and estimates that in the UK alone, the big four could lose roughly £67 million ($108 million) purely on tax work while £252 million could be at risk in areas including valuation and forensic accounting work. Its research concluded that in total nearly £700 million in fees could be affected. While much of this will go to other big four firms, BDO is optimistic that mid-tier accounting firms could also benefit.

Proposals in Japan to allow the use of foreign company shares in stock-for-stock deals with domestic entities will be ineffective because the government will not remove prohibitive tax burdens