On September 16, 2014, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released its final guidance on transfer pricing documentation and country-by-country (CbC) reporting. Developed as a replacement for the existing Chapter V (Documentation) of the Transfer Pricing Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and Tax Administrations (OECD Guidelines) — last revised in 1995 — the new guidance...

by Mary Riley * It is a general maxim that taxpayers want to minimize their tax liability to the greatest extent possible. However, taxpayers who overzealously pursue this aim risk crossing the line separating permissible tax avoidance from impermissible tax evasion. In the realm of international business tax law, nowhere is this issue more pressing than in the arena of transfer pricing, in cases where the taxpayer...

Generally, [the 2012 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program] OVDP is designed for those delinquent U.S. taxpayers who have been holding financial assets overseas, have not been disclosing such assets to the U.S. government, have not been reporting the income produced from such assets, and/or have not been paying taxes on that income. The recently modified SFCP provides certain (not all) delinquent...

In United States v. Hom , [ enhanced version available to lexis.com subscribers ], 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77489 (N.D. CA 2014), here , Hom was an online gambler who held accounts at two online poker companies, PokerStars and PartyPoker. He used a financial organization, FirePay.com, to facilitate his gambling with the poker companies by transferring money to and from the poker companies. On September 20, 2011, the IRS...

The United States Attorney's office has announced the sentencing of "Dennis Duban, a Los Angeles-based accountant and tax return preparer." The press release is here . He was sentenced to 24 months in prison pursuant to his plea for one count of conspiracy to defraud (Klein conspiracy) and for one count of aiding and assisting (Section 7206(2), [ enhanced version available to lexis.com subscribers ]). The...

By Prof. William H. Byrnes IV and Dr. Robert J. Munro * Editor's Note : The following is an excerpt from the e-book only title Money Laundering, Asset Forfeiture, and Recovery and Compliance - A Global Guide , by William Byrnes and Robert Munro. Chapter contributors : Emmanuel Rayes is a May 2014 J.D. Candidate with Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, CA. Dr. David Utzke, MAFF, CFE, CFI is a Sr. Agent...

Today's [April 13, 2014] NYT has an article entitled " Buyers Find Tax Break on Art: Let it Hang Awhile in Oregon ." The artful dodge is accomplished via simple arbitrage between a source, an intermediary, and a residence jurisdiction, so the story gives a nice illustration of a phenomenon we see play out on the international stage every day, only we have generally been taught to associate tax avoidance...

by Dale Bond, Elizabeth Sweigart and Alan Fischl * Conventionally, the structuring and pricing of transactions between US taxpayers and their related parties — or transfer pricing — has been considered the realm of large, multinational enterprises with the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) focusing on intercompany transactions that give rise to income for US federal income tax purposes. Chief Counsel Advice...

In Sun Capital Partners III, LP v. New England Teamsters & Trucking Industry Pension Fund [724 F.3d 129 (1st Cir. 2013)], the First Circuit held that one of two private equity funds (the two funds were Sun Capital Fund III and Sun Capital Fund IV) with an investment in a portfolio company managed and operated by such funds was a trade or business for purposes of withdrawal liability under the Employee Retirement Income...

by David A. Nickson, Andrew J. Hwang and Elizabeth A. Sweigart * As multinational enterprises continue to expand through acquisition and organic growth, the need for accurate and timely reporting of operational and financial data has never been more critical. Companies rely on their management information systems to deliver reports that enable corporate executives to make informed decisions in real time. However, rapid...

by Jeffrey R. Simser and Robert G. Kroeker * Introduction ... The AML regime in any country is apt to be vexing and complex. Canada's is no exception.. Overview of AML Law in Canada Canada is a country of immense size, bordered by the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans as well as by the United States to the south. [General information about Canada can be found on the federal government website: http:...

James P. Fuller has an interesting summary of the recently-filed Caterpillar case in his latest U.S. Tax Review [ gated ], in which he laments the competent authority breakdown and argues that the case would have been better off going to treaty-based arbitration, rather than to domestic judicial decision-making channels. I disagree with this conclusion because, given the structure of tax treaty arbitration today, it would...

I have made only passing reference to so-called "leaver lists" in the U.S. - Swiss offshore account spat. Because of recent developments, I thought I would pass on what I know about those lists. I hope that readers with more nuanced information with add to, clarify or correct this blog by making comments. The U.S. needs information on U.S. depositors using Swiss banks for tax evasion. Relatedly, the U.S. needs...

... Gas taxes are not perfect. But they assign the costs of road maintenance more or less to those who use the roads. You drive more, you pay more. Wyoming, Vermont, California and other states have raised the gas tax in the past year. The main problem with the gas tax is that as people drive more fuel efficient vehicles they use less gas... Indiana considered imposing a licence plate tax to fund roads. Since having...

Budget & Taxes STATE REVENUES SURGE IN 1Q: States experienced a surge in tax collections in the first quarter of 2013, according to an alert released this month by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. Compared to the first quarter of 2012, tax revenues overall were up 9.3 percent, preliminary data show. North Dakota's revenue jumped 74.6 percent year-over-year, while California's rose 34...

One of the great charades of American public finance is that "states must balance their budgets." ... Total state government debt is about $4.17 trillion ... Forty-nine states have statutory or constitutional balanced budget requirements . But those good government limitations only cover operating budgets. And operating budgets are somehow only 60 percent of total state spending... The Pew Center on the...

by Robert Desiderio * ... For sales of tangible personal property, the guiding [state income taxation] principle for sourcing is that those sales are attributed to the place-of-delivery of the property--the destination state or market state. For sourcing sales of services and intangible property, however, UDITPA has a different sourcing rule. The principle on which the sourcing of sales of services or intangible property...

Budget & Taxes KS TAX PLAN SPURS POLITICAL POSTURING: The Kansas Legislature passed a new tax plan last week that will gradually lower income taxes over the next five years but keep in place part of a sales tax increase approved in 2010 to get the state through the recession. That 6.3 percent levy was supposed to return to 5.3 percent this summer, but it will drop to only 6.15 percent instead, generating $777...

Budget & Taxes CA RELEASES HEALTH EXCHANGE RATES: Last month, California released details about the insurers that will offer plans through the state's newly created health exchange and the premiums that millions of residents can expect to pay for that coverage. Thirteen companies will sell policies through the state marketplace, including three of the state's largest insurers, Anthem Blue Cross, Blue...

... [T]he worst example of political destruction of tax policy ideals comes from New York and Governor Andrew Cuomo. New York still faces relatively high unemployment, around 7.8 percent . Many parts of the state, particularly outside the city, are economically depressed. And my friends at the Tax Foundation remind us that New York has the worst business tax climate in the world . Such a dire situation requires action...

My friends at Good Jobs First released a report on Mississippi tax incentives recently that liberals, small government conservatives, and libertarians should find appalling... First, this is the epitome of government intrusion in the marketplace. A bunch of Mississippi politicians deciding what economy in their state will be is no different than Khrushchev and his cronies doing it... ... [S]econd, businesses do...

The new Lexis® State Tax Guide on Digital Content & Cloud Services is now available. This comprehensive guide provides an overview of the taxation of digital content and cloud services and state-by-state guidance on the taxation of digital content and cloud services. The guide covers each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, and each state-specific chapter discusses the state's sales and use tax...

Budget & Taxes CA GOV DAMPENS BUDGET SURPLUS JUBILATION: A couple of weeks ago California officials announced the state was running a $4.5 billion surplus this fiscal year due to a surge in income tax collections in April. (See TAX REVENUE SURGE YIELDS SURPLUS IN CA in May 13 issue of SNCJ.) Coming after years of multi-billion deficits and painful spending cuts, the news had Democrats who control the state Legislature...

The Governor of West Virginia recently signed legislation ( 2013 Bill Text WV H.B. 2754 , signed into law 4/30/13) which goes into effect January 1, 2014 and adopts an expanded definition of a 'retailer engaging in business in this state' for purposes of the West Virginia sales and use tax system. Under this new definition, the key determination is whether "any retailer that is related to, or part of a unitary...

It is no secret. This may hurt my libertarian credentials, but I believe the U.S. Congress should pass the Marketplace Fairness Act ... is good tax policy and anyone who disagrees has not done enough reading on what the giants in the study of sales taxation (think Bill Fox , John Mikesell , etc.) have been saying for decades. ... Many thoughtful conservatives criticize the overturning of Quill because it will lead...