Isabel Gottlieb

Governments landed agreement on some of the global tax deal’s biggest open issues earlier this month. But major political questions remain.

Taxpayers can temporarily go back to following the former rules on the foreign tax credit in most respects, while the IRS considers whether to modify its newer, controversial standards for claiming the credit.

Countries have agreed to a “transitional safe harbor” that could temporarily protect US companies’ US income from other governments’ application of the global minimum tax.

Many companies are likely to face higher taxes if Switzerland adopts the 15% global minimum tax rules approved in a referendum yesterday—erasing some of the benefits they currently enjoy.

The OECD’s global tax deal is approaching a milestone: The organization expects to see the release this summer of major remaining pieces of the agreement that have been under negotiation.

Brazil’s newly passed transfer pricing bill would give multinationals a choice of adopting the rules a year earlier than the law’s effective date, but there’s a catch: They don’t have clarity on whether they would qualify for foreign tax credits in the US for taxes they pay in Brazil.

Belgium will stop sharing the data of “accidental Americans” with US tax authorities after the country’s Data Protection Authority declared the information transfers unlawful, the government announced Wednesday.

Governments are on track to complete by the end of July a multilateral treaty that would implement a large remaining piece of the OECD-led global tax deal, the organization’s new tax head said.

Countries are working on further guidance on the OECD’s 15% global minimum tax that will address issues related to accounting, as well as timing differences, an official said.

Governments have agreed on the answers to several crucial questions about the OECD’s global minimum tax, helping set the stage for countries to start applying the rules next year.