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Foreign investors in the People’s Republic of China take note – the PRC tax authorities have turned on the transfer pricing heat. May Huang and Alan Tsoi of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Beijing, analyze the contents of a new circular on the subject

Lonhro, the UK-based mining group and former conglomerate, has agreed to sell its interests in Princess Hotels to Canadian Pacific, the largest hotel group in Canada. The deal is valued at $540 million. The disposal signals Lonhro's move towards the sale of all but its core mining interests.

We finally have it. After months of internal argument, Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand have finally produced a name for the merged firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers. In the end it has come down to simple arithmetic, adding together the two old names. The result reflects the determination of both firms to preserve what are seen as strong brand names. The firm will be informally known as PwC.

A Danish company threatened to stop flying the national flag in a dispute over proposed taxation changes. The company, AP Moller Maersk, also refused to sign new North Sea oil exploration licences. The protest was over an 8% cut in corporate income taxes which would have excluded companies in the oil and gas sector. The Danish government has been forced to abandon the plan to reduce corporate income taxes from 34% to 26%. The move came as the government made an agreement with left wing parties that will ensure the passage of a series of tax changes. A condition of left wing support was the removal of the proposed corporate tax cut.

In a surprise move, the UK government announced a withdrawal of the Foreign Earnings Deduction in its March budget. This presents a major headache for many UK residents working overseas, and will significantly increase the costs of all those companies which have employees working abroad. Action needs to be taken now.

French telephone company Alcatel-Alsthom has agreed to buy DSC Communications, in a deal valued at $4.4 billion. DSC designs and manufactures systems for the telecommunications industry.

The stars are out in ITR’s fifth survey of North America. Sophisticated clients demanding round-the-clock access and better value add pressure to the tax adviser’s role. Oliver Ralph and Phillippa Cannon identify advisers who excel under pressure

The final part of ITR’s survey brings together traditional and emerging oil and gas locations. By Mark Campbell, Mike Kubena and Varinder Matharu of PricewaterhouseCoopers, Baku and Moscow, and Michael Thompson of Freshfields, London

The UK Inland Revenue has called for an international task force to combat tax evasion. Nick Montagu, chairman of the Inland Revenue, believes that the G8 countries should create a combined detective force. Montagu cites electronic commerce as a new threat, which requires concerted global action if tax revenues are to be defended.

The European Commission has ruled out the establishment of a new tax on electronic commerce. Instead, the Commission wants to adapt existing taxes, particularly value-added tax (VAT), to transactions that take place via electronic systems such as the Internet. In a new set of guidelines on the taxation of electronic commerce, the Commission outlines four key principles: