International
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June 18, 2025
Toyota Says DOJ Has Closed Thai Bribery Probe
Toyota said Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Justice has closed a long-running Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigation concerning allegations of bribery at its Thai subsidiary, the latest such probe to be dropped under the Trump administration.
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June 18, 2025
Seychelles Co. Brings $22M Guinea Award To DC Circ.
A consulting company is asking the D.C. Circuit to revive its bid to enforce a $22 million arbitration award against the Republic of Guinea, contending that the lower court was wrong to toss the case on jurisdictional grounds.
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June 18, 2025
Fed. Circ. OKs How Commerce Filled Blank In Steel Duty Case
The U.S. Department of Commerce may apply adverse facts to a company that fails to propose reasonable alternatives for collecting information that would be unreasonably hard to obtain in an antidumping investigation, the Federal Circuit said in a precedential opinion upholding steel duties on German companies.
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June 18, 2025
£20M Buybacks Weren't Mainly For Tax Benefit, UK Court Says
Obtaining a tax advantage wasn't the main purpose of two businessmen arranging £20 million ($26.8 million) in share buybacks, despite that being the effect, so they aren't liable for an anti-avoidance action by HM Revenue & Customs, the U.K. Upper Tribunal said in overturning a lower court's ruling.
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June 18, 2025
Billabong Founder Must Split Costs In AU$50M Tax Bill Loss
The founder of surf brand Billabong and the Australian tax authority must split the costs of litigation that ultimately put the founder on the hook for AU$50 million ($33 million) in taxes, the Federal Court of Australia held Wednesday.
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June 18, 2025
Mich. Housing Co-Op Suit On Hold After Disclosure Exemption
A Michigan federal judge hit pause on a lawsuit from a group of housing cooperatives to escape requirements of the Corporate Transparency Act after the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said it would give U.S.-based entities a break from the rules.
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June 18, 2025
EU Refers Portugal To Court Over Excise Duty Harmonization
Portugal is three-and-a-half years late in transposing a pair of European Union directives related to excise duties into domestic law, the European Commission said Wednesday, referring the country to the European Court of Justice to face a potential fine, among other announced infringement decisions.
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June 17, 2025
Wyden Vows To Fight For Energy Credits Facing GOP Repeal
The top Senate Democratic tax writer vowed Tuesday to try to protect clean energy tax provisions of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that would face an early repeal under the sweeping tax and budget legislation released by Republicans in the Senate Finance Committee.
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June 17, 2025
AbbVie Can Get Deduction For $1.6B Payment, Tax Court Says
AbbVie can claim a deduction for the $1.6 billion it paid under a merger agreement, the U.S. Tax Court held Tuesday, rejecting the IRS' contention that the payment was a capital loss that raised the pharmaceutical giant's tax bill by $572 million.
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June 17, 2025
Ill. Toy Makers Seek Justices' Early Review Of Trump Tariff Suit
Illinois-based toy makers challenging President Donald Trump's emergency tariffs on Tuesday requested the U.S. Supreme Court consider their case before it is reviewed by the D.C. Circuit, arguing a stay to an injunction is allowing duty collections to continue and is damaging the companies.
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June 17, 2025
DOJ Seeks 5 Years, $10M For Fla. Man Hiding Swiss Accounts
A Miami man who lied to authorities and others for decades about his Swiss bank accounts should pay $10.3 million in unpaid taxes and face a maximum five-year prison sentence based on his plea agreement, the U.S. Department of Justice told a Florida federal court.
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June 17, 2025
Poland Calls For EU Digital Services Tax In Revenue Package
The European Commission should consider previous proposals for a digital services tax regime across the European Union as part of its revenue package, the Polish presidency of the Council of the EU said in a report.
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June 17, 2025
Tax Admins In OECD Group Largely Using AI, Report Says
Of the 54 members of the OECD's Forum on Tax Administration, over 70% are using artifical intelligence in some way to improve services, most often to detect tax evasion and fraud, the OECD said in a report Tuesday.
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June 17, 2025
IRS Updates Prefiling Program For Large Biz, Int'l Taxpayers
The Internal Revenue Service has made several changes to its prefiling agreement program, including updating the guidelines to help large corporate and international taxpayers flag potential issues before submitting returns, the agency said Tuesday.
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June 17, 2025
Swedish Tax Agency Asks For Greater Enforcement Powers
The Swedish Tax Agency is looking to enhance its ability to address tax crimes, it told the country's Ministry of Finance on Tuesday, sharing proposals that would strengthen its law enforcement powers and grant it the power to store biometric data.
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June 17, 2025
Norway Looks To Adopt Updated Pillar 2 Guidance
The Norwegian Ministry of Finance proposed updating its adoption of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's global minimum tax to integrate administrative guidance issued over the past year.
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June 17, 2025
HMRC Challenges Tax Treatment Of Partnership Awards
HM Revenue & Customs told the U.K. Supreme Court on Tuesday that partnership awards allocated to a corporate entity and then distributed to partners should be taxed as if they were allocated to individual members.
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June 16, 2025
US, UK Reach Trade Deal On Cars; Steel Tariffs Still Unresolved
President Donald Trump signed an order Monday enshrining the nation's new trade deal with U.K. governments under which the U.S. agreed to slash tariffs on 100,000 imported U.K. automobiles and auto parts, while eliminating tariffs on certain aerospace products but leaving steel and pharmaceuticals tariffs for future negotiations.
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June 16, 2025
Senate Bill Sticks With TCJA's $10,000 SALT Cap
The Senate Finance Committee's tax portion of the chamber's budget reconciliation bill released Monday follows the House's lead on some provisions while breaking with the lower chamber's hard-won compromises on an increased state and local tax deduction and the phaseout of green energy credits.
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June 16, 2025
The Tax Angle: EITC Audits, UTPR, Energy Credits
From a look at Republicans' efforts to audit the earned income tax credit, complaints about unfair foreign taxation under the OECD's Pillar Two framework and Democrats' push against Republican plans to strip the Inflation Reduction Act's energy credits from the code, here's a peek into a reporter's notebook on a few developing tax stories.
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June 16, 2025
Book Profits Much Higher Than Taxable Income, Paper Says
Companies report about three to four times higher profits on financial statements for investors compared with the taxable income they report to authorities, a phenomenon most prevalent among multinational corporations, which suggests book profits underestimate profit shifting, the EU Tax Observatory said Monday.
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June 16, 2025
G7 Could Raise $214B Yearly From 2% Wealth Tax, Group Says
The Group of Seven countries could raise $214 billion a year if each government imposed a 2% wealth tax on fortunes above $100 million, with the U.S. potentially raising $161 billion by itself, a group of wealthy Canadians said Monday in support of such measures.
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June 16, 2025
Trump Eyes Trade Deal With Canada During G7 Summit Talks
President Donald Trump said at the G7 summit Monday that he would work with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to reach a trade deal, raising the possibility that an agreement could be struck before the multilateral meeting concludes.
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June 16, 2025
Wealth Taxes, End Of Profit Shifting Worth $2.6T, Group Says
World governments could raise about $2.6 trillion annually, more than enough revenue to finance most climate-related needs, if they collectively adopted low-rate wealth taxes beginning with the richest 0.5% and stopped multinational corporations from shifting profits, the Tax Justice Network said Monday.
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June 16, 2025
HMRC Warns Umbrella Co. Employees Of Tax Risks
Employees and contractors of temporary worker agencies known as umbrella companies need to be vigilant to make sure they aren't unwittingly involving themselves in tax avoidance schemes, HM Revenue & Customs said, laying out ways to spot such avoidance issues.
Expert Analysis
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4 Ways Women Attorneys Can Build A Legal Legacy
This Women’s History Month, women attorneys should consider what small, day-to-day actions they can take to help leave a lasting impact for future generations, even if it means mentoring one person or taking 10 minutes to make a plan, says Jackie Prester, a former shareholder at Baker Donelson.
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A Judge's Pointers For Adding Spice To Dry Legal Writing
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery shares a few key lessons about how to go against the grain of the legal writing tradition by adding color to bland judicial opinions, such as by telling a human story and injecting literary devices where possible.
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7 Tips For Associates To Thrive In Hybrid Work Environments
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
As the vast majority of law firms have embraced some type of hybrid work policy, associates should consider a few strategies to get the most out of both their in-person and remote workdays, says James Argionis at Cozen O’Connor.
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IRS Should Revise Overbroad Microcaptive Regs
Rather than seeking to curtail use of congressionally sanctioned microcaptive insurance programs by imposing burdensome disclosure obligations, the Internal Revenue Service should revisit its recently finalized regulations and implement rules tailored to address areas of specific abuse, say attorneys at Zerbe Miller.
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What's Next For Russia Sanctions After Task Force Disbanded
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s recent disbanding of Task Force KleptoCapture, which was initially aimed at seizing Russian oligarchs’ funds and assets, is unlikely to mean the end of Russia sanctions enforcement and other economic countermeasures, as the architecture for criminal enforcement remains in place, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.
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How Law Firms Can Counteract The Loneliness Epidemic
The legal industry is facing an urgent epidemic of loneliness, affecting lawyer well-being, productivity, retention and profitability, and law firm leaders should take concrete steps to encourage the development of genuine workplace connections, says Michelle Gomez at Littler and Gwen Mellor Romans at Herald Talent.
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5 Keys To Building Stronger Attorney-Client Relationships
Attorneys are often focused on being seen as the expert, but bonding with clients and prospects by sharing a few key personal details provides the basis for a caring, trusted and profoundly deeper business relationship, says Deb Feder at Feder Development.
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Attorneys Must Act Now To Protect Judicial Independence
Given the Trump administration's recent moves threatening the independence of the judiciary, including efforts to impeach judges who ruled against executive actions, lawyers must protect the rule of law and resist attempts to dilute the judicial branch’s authority, says attorney Bhavleen Sabharwal.
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Rethinking 'No Comment' For Clients Facing Public Crises
“No comment” is no longer a cost-free or even a viable public communications strategy for companies in crisis, and counsel must tailor their guidance based on a variety of competing factors to help clients emerge successfully, says Robert Bowers at Moore & Van Allen.
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Reading The Tea Leaves On Mexico, Canada And China Tariffs
It's still unclear whether the delay in the imposition of U.S. tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports will result in negotiated resolutions or a full-on trade war, but the outcome may hinge on continuing negotiations and the Trump administration's possible plans for tariff revenues, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.
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How Design Thinking Can Help Lawyers Find Purpose In Work
Lawyers everywhere are feeling overwhelmed amid mass government layoffs, increasing political instability and a justice system stretched to its limits — but a design-thinking framework can help attorneys navigate this uncertainty and find meaning in their work, say law professors at the University of Michigan.
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The Pros And Cons Of A 2nd Trump Term For UK Tech Sector
While U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionist stance on trade could disrupt global supply chains on which many U.K. tech firms are reliant, anticipated deregulation could provide fertile ground for investment and growth, and the U.K. tech sector is bracing for a mix of opportunities, say lawyers at Shoosmiths.
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Corp. Transparency Act's Future Under Treasury's Bessent
The Corporate Transparency Act’s ultimate fate faced uncertain terms at the end of 2024, but new U.S. Department of the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's statements and actions so far demonstrate that he does not intend to ignore the law, though he may attempt to make modifications, say attorneys at Taylor English.