News

The OECD has released its annual Consumption Tax Trends report, which highlights that with VAT rates at an all-time high, governments should ensure they have effective VAT frameworks in place to tax e-commerce.

The Government of the British Virgin Islands has announced that it will seek to boost tax collections by modernizing tax administration, not by imposing new taxes.

French Minister of Finance Bruno Le Maire has reportedly said that France intends to collect the country's digital services tax in December 2020.

Cyprus has announced that a deal for the exchange of country-by-country reports between the territory and the US is expected to become effective and cover reporting years starting on or after January 1, 2020.

German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz is optimistic that an international agreement on taxing the digital economy will be reached this year.

The OECD has released peer review reports reviewing nine territories' progress towards implementing the BEPS Action 14 standard, on improving tax dispute resolution.

The United States Council for International Business has called on US authorities to focus its efforts on working with other countries to arrive at an international tax solution to the digitalized economy, rather than tackling countries' unilateral responses.

On July 13, 2020, the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a progress report on the last two years' work of the J5 group of five advanced countries, who are working collaboratively to tackle cross-border tax fraud.

US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told a congressional hearing on June 17, 2020, that the US Government has withdrawn from international negotiations on new global tax rules for digital companies at the OECD.

On May 19, 2020, the United States Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service issued an Announcement which clarifies the interpretation of references in US income tax treaties to the North American Free Trade Agreement once it is replaced by the Agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada.