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Anne Bennett Proposed changes to the Income Tax Act, contained in the 2017 draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill (draft TLAB), were released for comment on July 19 2017. This article discusses some of the international tax related proposals. The amendments discussed below, other than the last one, will, if enacted, apply in respect of tax years starting on or after January 1 2018.

Luxembourg has released draft legislation on its intellectual property (IP) box regime that could offer more benefits to companies’ R&D activities.

As disruption layers new complexity, pressure and opportunity onto business, the digital tax function is rapidly evolving. Shawn Smith, EY global tax technology and transformation leader, explores the needs of organisations as these developments occur.

Ian Caines Bill Maclagan On June 7 2017, Canada was among 68 countries to sign the OECD's Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (the MLI). The MLI is an instrument developed as part of the OECD's project on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS), in order to allow participating countries to efficiently implement BEPS recommendations in their tax treaties, without needing to individually renegotiate each treaty.

Ignacio Rodríguez On July 21 2017, a new amendment protocol to the double tax treaty (DTA) between Argentina and Brazil was signed. The subsequent exchange of instruments of ratification, which is expected to occur soon, will make it effective from January 1 of the year following the completion of this ratification process.

Melissa Lim The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has released a draft practical compliance guideline (PCG 2017/D4) (the guideline) on its compliance approach on transfer pricing issues associated with related party cross border financing arrangements. This guideline, once finalised, will have effect from July 1 2017 and will apply to existing and newly created financing arrangements. This guideline is not intended to constitute technical advice or guidance. Rather, this guideline is a risk assessment framework tool that sets out how the ATO will assess compliance risk attaching to cross-border related party financing arrangements and invites companies to self-assess their compliance risk.

Maria Nicolaou Anastasia Sagianni As of July 1 2017, the tax treatment of intra-group financing arrangements has been amended in Cyprus.

Astrid Schudeck Gregorio Martínez For a significant amount of years, Chilean taxpayers have preferred life insurances with savings over other saving mechanisms. Until now, it was always understood within the market that no tax impact derived from this type of savings tool.

Irina Lopatina On June 22 2017, the parliament of Kyrgyzstan approved the bill ratifying the tax treaty signed with Georgia on October 13 2016. Currently, the ratification from the Georgian side is still pending, and in order to become law and to be ratified, the bill still needs to be signed by the presidents.

Samar Abdel Rahman The Egyptian Minister of Finance Amr El Garhy has announced that the VAT rate will increase by one percentage point, effective July 1 2017. The general VAT rate will now be 14% instead of 13%, subject to the provisions of the Egyptian VAT Law No. 67/2016.