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UK law firm Freshfields has opened an office in Amsterdam, and recruited four lawyers from major Dutch firms. Three of the lawyers are from Stibbe Simont Monahan Duhot, including tax specialist Charles Langereis. The remaining lawyer is from de Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, the Dutch Linklaters & Alliance member.

Regional and district level lawmakers have used the opportunity to grant tax exemptions as a tool to attract investment to their localities. Since 1991, when the fundamentals of the Russian tax system were first established, a wide range of local tax incentive legislation has been put in place. While the basic principle of these various pieces of legislation is similar, namely to provide investment incentives for certain types of taxpayers, the mechanisms employed are often very different in character and have grown in sophistication with practice and experience.

Multinationals operating in India have recently used treaties to challenge the application of different tax rates to domestic and foreign companies. Jignesh R Shah of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Mumbai analyses the court decisions and their consequences

The days when the Netherlands was the location of choice for all foreign holding companies are over. As EU tax rates converge and the parent-subsidiary directive takes effect, competition for business is hotting up. Allan Cinnamon of BDO Stoy Hayward, London reports

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu to integrate globally, De Beers in diamond value dispute, Sweden’s finance minister resigns in tax row, Japan gives break to petrol groups

UK Customs & Excise have lost a landmark case on VAT to credit company FDR. The decision, by a VAT tribunal, places pressure on the government to scrap the measure it introduced in the March Budget, stating that outsourced financial services are subject to VAT.

The Chairman and Deputy Chairman of KPMG in Canada have resigned following weeks of controversy involving the firm. J Spencer Lanthier and D Hugh Bessell were closely involved in negotiations that would have led to the merger of the Canadian branch of KPMG with big five rival Arthur Andersen. When the merger broke down, the two felt that they had no option but to resign.

Hale & Dorr in Boston is representing real-estate firm Berkshire Realty in its merger with management group Brekshire Realty Holdings. The transaction is valued at $1.3 billion. Realty Holdings is a partnership formed by chairman Douglas Krupp, affiliates of Blackstone Real Estate Advisors and Whitehall Street Real Estate Limited Partnership XI (an affiliate of Goldman Sachs & Co.)

A new Accounting Act and two Joint Stock Companies Acts were introduced with effect from January 1 1999. These may have some effect for the companies tax position, and distribution capacity.

On March 23 1999 the Austrian coalition. government reached political agreement on the essence of the tax reform for 2000. The following text introduces the subject and takes into account the opinion of the Federal Ministry of Finance on how to implement the political agreement.