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Foreign investment flooded into Latin America in 1997, but investors should note that the region cannot be treated as a homogeneous unit, both in terms of tax rules, and in terms of the level of advice provided. Phillippa Cannon and Moray Borthwick report

British Aerospace and Daimler-Benz Aerospace have made a joint purchase of the Siemens Defence Electronics Group. British Aerospace will acquire Siemens Plessey Systems in the UK, and Siemens Plessey Electronic Sytems in Australia. Daimler-Benz Aerospace will acquire Siemens Bereich Sicherungs-technik in Germany. The total value of the deal has not been announced, but British Aerospace is to pay Dm930 million ($530 million) for the two businesses. The deal represents British Aerospace's third acquisition in Germany this year.

Publishing groups Reed Elsevier of the UK and Wolters Kluwer of the Netherlands have reached agreement to merge, in a £20 billion ($33 billion) deal. The combined market capitalization of the merged group will be £17.5 billion.

Tomkins has made a £70.5 million ($114.2 million) successful bid to acquire Golden West Foods.

US investment bank Merrill Lynch has made an agreed bid of £3.1 billion ($5.3 billion) to buy Mercury Asset Management, the UK's largest fund management group.

In an attempt to circumscribe tax planning, the UK government is toying with a general anti-avoidance provision. Peter Nias and Gareth Amdor, of Simmons & Simmons, London, argue that such a provision should be judged against first principles – not least fairness

International Tax Review takes you behind the scenes of this year’s deals. Advisers from Ernst & Young, Herbert Smith, KPMG, Haarmann, Hemmelrath & Partner and Revisuisse Price Waterhouse examine deals in which tax played a decisive role

The US Internal Revenue Service has announced its intention to revoke a long-standing ruling on contract manufacturing. Alan Granwell and Dirk Suringa of Ivins, Phillips & Barker, Washington DC, assess the restructuring implications for US CFCs

Nico Burki, tax partner at Bar & Karrer, has made the bold decision to set up his own law firm in Zurich.

On November 12 1997, the UK Inland Revenue published draft legislation bringing controlled foreign corporations (CFCs) into the corporation tax self-assessment regime. Under the current system, a direction must be made by the Inland Revenue Board before a CFC tax charge can be imposed. Once self-assessment is underway, UK companies will be responsible for self-assessing and reporting their CFC liabilities.