Natalie Olivo

Malawi has bolstered its bid for a Washington federal judge to reconsider his decision barring the country from pursing discovery against a gemstone company that partnered with a mining outfit the country claims dodged billions of dollars in taxes and export royalties.

The use of artificial intelligence has skyrocketed in tax administrations around the world, leading to increased efficiency but also increased risks of data quality issues, according to an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development report released Monday.

The U.S. Tax Court granted a Minnesota woman only partial relief Monday from shared tax liabilities with her former husband, holding that an Internal Revenue Service agent's visit marked "the dividing line" when she could no longer claim not to know about their unpaid taxes.  

HM Revenue & Customs has flagged an emerging trend where organized crime groups market fraudulent payroll services to U.K. companies by falsely claiming they can offset employment taxes by using tax credits from a third-party business, the agency said Friday.

Italian financial police seized corporate assets Friday as part of an investigation into a criminal ring suspected of evading €260 million ($302 million) in value-added taxes on fuel, European Union authorities said.

Montenegro has signed the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's convention to align bilateral tax treaties with global standards aimed at preventing corporate tax avoidance, according to the organization.

Fuel excise taxes are the most common measure aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report released Thursday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which noted that these provisions covered 24% of 79 countries' emissions in 2023.

The OECD flagged tax transparency shortcomings in three countries — Vietnam, Jordan and Eswatini — that were the latest jurisdictions assessed under global standards designed to help tax authorities exchange financial information, according to reports released Monday.

Switzerland's canton of Geneva is issuing delayed corporate tax bills that are expected to bring in up to 800 million Swiss francs ($994 million) partly due to high profits from energy and commodity trading companies, the Swiss government announced Monday.

Kazakhstan's value-added tax on digital services has brought in 118.4 billion tenge ($226 million) from global online platforms since its enactment in 2022, the country's Ministry of Finance said.

The upper house of Brazil's National Congress voted Thursday to approve income tax breaks for those earning up to 7,350 Brazilian real ($1,373) a month, while creating a progressive tax rate for high-income earners.   

European Union authorities carried out search and seizure operations Thursday in Austria as part of an investigation into a suspected cross-border value-added-tax fraud scheme that has purportedly resulted in an estimated total of €61.5 million ($71 million) in unpaid taxes.  

Italian authorities have seized about €1.2 billion ($1.4 billion) worth of shares in Campari Group as part of a tax investigation into the drink maker's Luxembourg-based majority stakeholder, which announced the asset seizure.

Five German residents have been indicted on charges related to their participation in a €188 million ($217 million) value-added tax fraud scheme, European Union authorities said Friday.

The European Union's top court declined Thursday to revive a Dutch company's case against an EU directive that implements an international minimum tax agreement known as Pillar Two, holding that the business lacked standing to challenge the law.

Amendments clarifying rules on securitization entities are among updates proposed by the Australian Treasury for the country's legislation that implements the Pillar Two international minimum corporate tax agreement.

The Internal Revenue Service said Thursday it intends to propose regulations that would have it look to the borrower of certain securities, rather than the lender, when determining whether related payments are sourced from the United States.

Republican lawmakers are likely to revive what is commonly known as the revenge tax if countries are unable to flesh out a tentative agreement to effectively exempt U.S. companies from the 15% global corporate minimum tax regime known as Pillar Two, practitioners said Tuesday.

The U.S. Treasury Department proposed regulations Monday that would remove rules that allow revenue officials to, in a manner of speaking, look through the corporate owners of real estate investment entities to determine whether they are domestically controlled.

A French court decision that upheld the nation's digital services tax could bolster similar measures in other European Union member states, but legal backing may mean little if countries use DSTs as bargaining chips in tariff negotiations with the United States.