Chile: OECD Compliant Tax Transparency

Chile has enacted legislation enhancing access to bank information for the purposes of improved compliance with OECD standards on tax information exchange and increased transparency in financial transactions. Previously, legal restrictions prevented Chilean tax authorities from obtaining and…

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Canada: Sending the Right Message – Competition is Good

The Canadian Government took a decisive step in supporting a competitive environment in wireless telecommunications, with a decisions to overrule the Canadian Radio and Television Commission’s earlier decision not to approve Globalive’s entry into the Canadian market at…

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Ireland: Remains “Pro-Business” in Recent Announcements

The Irish government reaffirmed its commitment to both the 12.5% corporations tax, and the tax holiday for business start-ups.  The minister also announced accelerated capital cost allowance, and reaffirmed his support of R&D tax credits regime. Independent (Ireland)…

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UAE: Forth Best Tax Regime

In stark contrast to the prior post on the state of Russian tax administration, the same Big 4 accounting firm study has determined that the UAE has the forth best tax regime in the world.  While debt obligations…

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Russia: 103rd in Ease of Paying Taxes

The absence of strong constitutional safeguards and basic constitutional rights, including weak legislation in a number of critical areas (e.g. taxation being one significant area of weakness), continues to hinder economic reform in Russia. In a recent study…

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India: Unfair Tax Equilization

While the “mainstream media” is full of commentary, some of which is useful and informative, regarding proposals to curb anthropogenic (i.e. derived from human activities) climate change, it is interesting to view the comments of the news media…

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South Africa: Tax Agency – search and seize without a warrant

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) wants the power, without a warrant, to conduct a search and to seize documents if it believes you are about to destroy records and evidence of fraudulent activities or income earned.  This…

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US: Provisional Patent Applications

Although the legislation establishing the provisional patent application (US), has been around since the Clinton Administration (e.g. 1994), the benefits of the procedure are not always well understood.  The provisional patent application process enables inventors to have the…

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Australia: Taxation on Subsequent Transfer of Art

The Resale Royalty for Visual Artists Act 2009, which was passed by the Australian Senate into law last week (November 26th) will mean Australia’s visual artists will receive a portion of the proceeds from the resale of their…

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Canada: Policing Canadian Companies Actions Aboard

In quite staggering fashion, and on the basis of a private members bill no less, the Canadian House of Commons is considering a  bill to withhold federal investment dollars (in the form of loans and loan guarantees from…

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