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Monsanto has announced that its agricultural chemical wing will be spun off after shareholder concern. Its controversial genetically modified foods division is being retained, however.

The use of the maquiladora vehicle has proved to be efficient for US corporations operating in Mexico.

And so the EU's December conference in Helsinki ended not with a bang, but a whimper.

Global Crossing is seeking a $1.2 billion loan to to acquire Racal's assets.

The £114 billion ($XX) agreement will create the world's largest pharmaceuticals group, with combined annual sales of more than £15 billion. The new company, Glaxo SmithKline, will control 7.3% of the world's drugs market. Glaxo shareholders will receive 58.75% of the new company's share capital, with SmithKline taking 41.25%.

Many Canadian non-residents with no permanent establishment in Canada might well anticipate that remuneration for services rendered in Canada should not be subject to withholding tax. The federal authorities do not agree and require a 15% withholding on fees, commissions or other amounts paid to a non-resident in respect of services rendered within Canada. (A further 9% Quebec withholding is required in respect of non-resident services rendered in that province.) If the non-resident is not subject to Canadian tax, they must apply for a refund by filing a Canadian tax return. If the non-resident is subject to Canadian taxation, the withheld amount can be applied to the non-resident's Canadian tax liability.

At present, in Ireland, there is a difference in the tax treatment of unit-linked investment products in the form of life assurance policies or mutual funds, dependant on whether they are available to Irish residents (Domestic Funds) or are exclusively available to non-residents (IFSC Funds). In the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) where such products are sold exclusively to non-Irish residents, both the fund itself and the policy holders are exempt from Irish tax. In the case of such products outside the IFSC, however, Irish residents may be unitholders and the fund is subject to tax on an ongoing basis at the standard income tax rate of 24% (22% from April 6 2000).

Corporate tax

The UK Inland Revenue issued a press release on January 14 announcing that legislation would be introduced in the next Finance Bill to widen the circumstances in which companies can calculate their taxable profits in a currency other than sterling. The new rules will apply to accounting periods beginning on or after January 1 2000.

Dividends received by a Finnish company on direct foreign investment are generally exempt from tax. If the Finnish company has distributed the dividend received from a foreign country to its foreign owners, it may previously have been subject to a supplementary tax. As a result, income received from another country may also have been taxed at a corporate tax rate in Finland.