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Tax disputes involving two or more treaty countries giving rise to an issue of double taxation are often resolved through discussions between the competent authorities under the mutual agreement procedure of most tax treaties. Canadian taxpayers that have been reassessed have the choice of disputing the reassessments in the domestic appeals branch of Canada Custom and Revenue Agency (CCRA) and/or submitting the case to the competent authorities.

In a July 11 2002 decision (Marks & Spencer Plc v Customs & Excise Commissioners), the European Court of Justice (ECJ) held that the retroactive imposition of a three-year time limit on claims for refund of overpaid value added tax (VAT) was unlawful. The decision is particularly unusual in that it goes beyond the issue that had been referred to the court by the UK Court of Appeal.

In 1996 the Norwegian bank CBK (now Nordea Bank Norge) sold its shares in two subsidiaries to two other subsidiaries, seemingly realizing a huge taxable loss. Immediately afterwards the two subsidiaries that had been sold were merged - tax free - into the two respective subsidiaries that had bought them (see diagram 1 below).

The Brazilian tax authorities have for the past few months issued a number of regulations and rulings designed to preserve and/or modify the relevant tax basis. Some recent rulings and rules that are worthwhile to be mentioned are the following.

The Civil Rehabilitation Law (minji saisei-ho) went into effect on April 2000 and replaced the Composition Law (wagi). It outlines the basic restructuring procedures in Japan. By introducing a new legal framework, the main intention was to make it easier for small-and-medium-sized enterprises to take advantage of the provisions.

PricewaterhouseCoopers is the leading tax firm in the UK according to a survey carried out by International Tax Review

Tax professionals across Europe are being pushed out of their comfort zone. Georgina Stanley finds out why they are avoiding risk and how they are trying to adapt the new landscape

European and other non-US based multinationals investing in the US face the prospect of substantial increases in the corporate income tax liabilities of their US operations, if a series of legislative proposals are passed. By Peter H Blessing, Shearman & Sterling, Munich

America's accounting standards setter is considering changes to rules for stock option accounting for companies switching from one form of accounting to another. Financial Accounting Standards Board chairman Bob Herz told a meeting of the New York Society for Security Analysts on Tuesday that the standard setter was considering a number of approaches to setting rules for a transitionary accounting period to apply to the increasing number of companies choosing to book stock options as costs in their accounts.

The Chilean government has announced amendments to its reform package announced on July 18 after admitting that the original package was flawed. The amendments were submitted to congress on August 13 and remove some of the more controversial aspects of the reform package aimed at increasing the use of Chile as a gateway to investment in Latin America. Despite the amendments critics argue that there are still problems with the package and that it may not be sufficient to provide the desired boost in foreign investment. The central provision of the original package was beneficial tax treatment for investments abroad through Chile and this has been left relatively untouched.