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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Measuring And Mitigating Harm From Discriminatory Taxes
In response to new tariffs and other recent "America First Trade Policy" pronouncements, corporations should assess and take steps to minimize their potential exposure to discriminatory and reciprocal tax measures that are likely to come, say economists at Charles River Associates.
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Adapting To Private Practice: From DOJ Leadership To BigLaw
The move from government service to private practice can feel like changing one’s identity, but as someone who has left the U.S. Department of Justice twice, I’ve learned that a successful transition requires patience, effort and the realization that the rewards of practicing law don’t come from one particular position, says Richard Donoghue at Pillsbury.
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How The CRE Industry Is Adapting To Tariff Uncertainty
Amid uncertainty about pending tariffs and their potential ripple effects, including higher material costs, supply chain delays and tighter margins, commercial real estate industry players are focusing on strategic planning and risk mitigation, says Daniel Diaz Leyva at Day Pitney.
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Law Firm Executive Orders Create A Legal Ethics Minefield
Recent executive orders targeting BigLaw firms create ethical dilemmas — and raise the specter of civil or criminal liability — for the government attorneys tasked with implementing them and for the law firms that choose to make agreements with the administration, say attorneys at Buchalter.
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Trade Policy Shifts Raise Hurdles For Gov't And Cos. Alike
The persistent tension between the Trump administration's fast-moving and aggressive trade policies and the compliance-heavy nature of the trade industry creates implementation challenges for both the business community and the government, says Sara Schoenfeld at Kamerman.
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Firms Must Embrace Alternative Billing Models Or Fall Behind
As artificial intelligence tools eliminate inefficiencies and the Big Four accounting firms enter the legal market, law firms that pivot from the entrenched billable hour model to outcomes-based pricing will see a distinct competitive advantage, says attorney William Brewer.
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How Attorneys Can Master The Art Of On-Camera Presence
As attorneys are increasingly presented with on-camera opportunities, they can adapt their traditional legal skills for video contexts — such as virtual client meetings, marketing content or media interviews — by understanding the medium and making intentional adjustments, says Kerry Barrett.
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Firms Still Have Lateral Market Advantage, But Risks Persist
Partner and associate mobility data from the fourth quarter of 2024 shows that we’re in a new, stable era of lateral hiring where firms have the edge, but leaders should proceed cautiously, looking beyond expected revenue and compensation analyses for potential risks, say Julie Henson and Greg Hamman at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.
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We Must Allow Judges To Use Their Independent Judgment
As two recent cases show, the ability of judges to access their independent judgment crucially enables courts to exercise the discretion needed to reach the right outcome based on the unique facts within the law, says John Siffert at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.
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Preparing For Tariffs On Canadian Power In The Northeast
The on-again, off-again risk of import and export tariffs on energy transactions between the U.S. and Canada may have repercussions for U.S. energy stakeholders in the ISO New England and New York Independent System Operator electricity markets — but there are options that could help reduce cost impacts, say attorneys at Husch Blackwell.
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Making The Case For Rest In The Legal Profession
For too long, a culture of overwork has plagued the legal profession, but research shows that attorneys need rest to perform optimally and sustainably, so legal organizations and individuals must implement strategies that allow for restoration, says Marissa Alert at MDA Wellness, Carol Ross-Burnett at CRB Global, and Denise Robinson at The Still Center.
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Mitigating Tariff Risks For Healthcare In US And Canada
Healthcare stakeholders should take steps to evaluate the impact of cross-border tariffs, as the historically strong ties between Canada and the U.S. demonstrate the potential for real disruption and harm to the healthcare industry in both countries, say attorneys at Norton Rose.
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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.