A new tax treaty between Japan and Hong Kong will reduce withholding tax rates on investment income by 5% to 10%, and allow the governments to exchange information on taxpayers to ensure proper enforcement of tax laws. Our Japan and Hong Kong lawyers report.
A UK tax court has ruled that transfer pricing regulations can be applied to a non-contractual arrangement between related parties, even when an independent party was involved in the business transaction. The ruling also raised the level of comparative analysis companies need to conduct to justify the arm's length nature of intercompany transactions, as principal tax advisor Richard Fletcher and senior economist Nigel Dolman report.
Companies doing business in Belgium are now required to report payments of EUR100,000 or more to tax havens. To be tax deductible, payments must be part of an “actual and genuine transaction,” not a tax avoidance scheme. Our Belgium lawyers report.
After encouraging taxpayers to voluntarily disclose errors and omissions in their tax returns, Singapore tax authorities are expected to step up investigations and audits of income, goods and services taxes. Singapore tax lawyers Edmund Leow, Jack Wong and Allen Tan report.
In a surprising judgment with broad implications for other types of portfolio sale transactions, the European Court of Justice has ruled that the transfer of a portfolio of reinsurance contracts does not qualify for a VAT-exempt financial or insurance transaction. Tax lawyers in our Amsterdam office explain the court’s reasoning.
To discourage speculation, the Malaysian government is proposing to reinstate a tax on real estate sales gains. Our Kuala Lumpur office reports.