Legal challenge to the EU FTT – what happens now?
On Thursday April 18, the UK launched a legal challenge against the EU Financial Transaction Tax (“FTT”). The UK has now received support for its challenge from Luxembourg, which publicly supported the UK’s position on Monday. In this Newsalert we set out the background to this challenge, its implications for the EU FTT and what
IRS releases draft FATCA registration forms and additional information on FFI lists
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released draft Form 8957, Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) Registration, for public review and comment on 5 April 2013. No accompanying instructions were included. Form 8957, when issued in final form, may be used by foreign financial institutions (FFIs) to register for FATCA purposes. In the IRS release of
Belgium: Discrimination of foreign investment companies – A first practice note published
The Belgian tax administration has recently published a practice note dealing with the consequences of the CJEU’s decision of 25 October 2012 Although restrictive on many aspects, this practice note nevertheless constitutes a positive sign and addresses various topics of importance for foreign investment companies having filed withholding tax claims in Belgium: Priority Handling: First
Impact of EU Financial Transaction Tax on the asset management industry
On 14 February 2013, the European Commission issued a new draft Council Directive to implement an EU financial transaction tax (FTT) in 11 countries. We previously highlighted that the Directive has a very broad scope and will impact both EU and non-EU Financial Institutions. The costs of the tax (coupled with the major operational changes
TRACE Implementation Package announced by the OECD
After years of technical discussions, the Committee on Fiscal Affairs of the OECD approved the TRACE Implementation Package (“TRACE”) at its meeting of 23 January and presented it at the OECD conference on TRACE/FATCA in Paris on 12 February 2013. TRACE, which stands for “Treaty Relief and Compliance Enhancement”, is a regime to allow for
EU Commission adopts its new proposal for an EU Financial Transaction Tax: further details
On 14 February 2013 the European Commission has presented its “new” draft proposal for a Council Directive implementing a financial transaction tax (FTT) in 11 countries. The draft is largely the same as the original proposal released in September 2011 but contains some important changes. The draft Directive continues to have a very broad scope
Germany – New legislation on taxation of portfolio dividends and introduction of refund procedure – impact on Fokus Bank claims
Background In October 2011 (case C-284/09) the CJEU held that the German taxation of portfolio dividends paid to non-resident shareholders was not in line with the free movement of capital (see NA 2011-013). The judgment left Germany the choice between rendering all portfolio dividends (i.e. those paid to residents and non-residents) chargeable to corporation tax
EU Financial Transaction Tax: new proposal for a Directive published today
On 22 January 2013 the ECOFIN Council (EU Finance Ministers) adopted a decision by qualified majority authorising 11 of the 27 EU Member States to proceed with the introduction of a harmonised EU FTT through Enhanced Cooperation in their countries. Today, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a Council Directive implementing enhanced cooperation in
