Finance Bill 2016 - Third match of the day. Worth the wait?

Like the third big name match on Centre Court at Wimbledon, the Finance Bill debate today had to wait its turn. And the preceding games were certainly four set, if not five set marathons, with David Davis on Brexit and Jeremy Hunt on the junior doctors.

So it was nearly 7:30pm before we started. Everyone settled down for some long rallies, including on public country-by-country reporting ("CBCR").

Here are some highlights of the debate as it related to direct taxes, and tax transparency.

Dodd-Frank 1504: Six years in the making

The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has finally released the rules for the transparency provision, Section 1504, of the Dodd-Frank Act.

Section 1504 requires oil, gas and mining companies listed on US stock exchanges to publicly report, by project, the payments made to US and foreign governments for access to natural resources in all countries of operation. Sound familiar? Yes, that is pretty much the same as the EU rules for extractives companies.

The irony is that the Dodd-Frank Act actually pre-dates the EU rules, but a series of delays, including lawsuits and counter lawsuits, have taken six years to resolve.

Brexit – We DO want to hear from experts!!

Tonight, 11KBW hosted a Brexit event entitled “Where Next?” with a fabulous panel of experts.

Indeed, given the short notice planning of the event, and the large attendance, it is clear that we have NOT had enough of experts, particularly not now!

Here are some highlights of what was said.

OECD Updates on CBCR and Non-Cooperative Jurisdictions

The OECD has just provided an update on the CBCR and "non-cooperative jurisdictions" work via a webcast. Pascal Saint-Amans and Achim Pross set out the latest thoughts. Here are the highlights.

The BEPS Multilateral Instrument – symphony or cacophony?

Today was the latest Public Consultation as part of the OECD BEPS process. This particular consultation focused on the BEPS Action 15, the creation of a multilateral instrument to amend the numerous double tax treaties between countries, to reflect the key proposals of the BEPS project.

The draft text of this instrument has not been published yet, and so the discussion today was more about principles.

One key question came up, and is quite fundamental to how the MLI will operate. I have focused here on the discussion of that one point only.

Should the MLI directly amend perhaps 2,000 bilateral treaties, or sit as a multilateral overlay to adopting tax treaties in perpetuity?

Oxford Summer Tax Conference 2016 - Session 1 - Michael Graetz

Today marks the latest in the Oxford University Centre for Business Taxation Summer Tax Conferences. The first session of the day started with Michael Graetz of Columbia University and Yale University.

He started the conference with his thoughts on the current landscape, and the place BEPS had had in the reform process. 

Le gouvernement français accroit ses efforts pour lutter contre l’évasion fiscale

English version

L’évasion et la fraude fiscales constituent l’un des principaux thèmes abordés ces dernières années lors des G7/G20 et au sein de l’UE. Ces thématiques sont inscrites au sein des programmes de François Hollande, de David Cameron mais aussi, quelque peu ironiquement, du Président de la Commission européenne et ancien Premier ministre du Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker. Dans l’actualité récente, des articles impliquant Google, McDonalds, de même que les LuxLeaks, SwissLeaks ou les Panama Papers, ont tous fait de la fiscalité un sujet à la une des journaux.