On July 24, 2018, the Ninth Circuit reversed the Tax Court decision in Altera Corp. v. Commissioner, 145 T.C. 91 (July 27, 2015), which had invalidated Treas. Reg. § 1.482- 7A(d)(2). The regulation requires taxpayer to include the cost of employee stock options in the pool of costs that must be...

On June 21, 2018, the US Supreme Court decided South Dakota vs. Wayfair. It overruled its previous precedents to hold that US states can require remote sellers to collect sales tax when they ship items to in-state purchasers. This decision has some implications for the EU's current struggle with...

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”) signed into law by President Trump on 22 December 2017 contains multiple provisions that significantly impact Europe and the way European corporations are being taxed by the US. The US corporate tax rate is set to be 21% (reduced from 35%). Most importantly,...

Customary international law is law that “results from a general and consistent practice of states followed by them from a sense of legal obligation.” “International agreements create law for states parties thereto and may lead to the creation of customary international law when such...

Since the 1990s, the US tax treaty network has expanded to include most large developing countries. However, there remains a glaring exception: The US only has two tax treaties in Latin America (Mexico and Venezuela), and one pending tax treaty (Chile). The traditional explanation for why the US...

Following the financial crisis and ensuing austerity, politicians discovered the problem of tax avoidance. In response, the OECD and G20 launched the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project in 2013, and this has in October, 2015 culminated with the release of a series of action steps...

On October 5, 2015, the OECD and G20 released the final BEPS package. It included the following new preamble to the OECD model tax treaty:(State A) and (State B)…Intending to conclude a Convention for the elimination of double taxation with respect to taxes on income and on capital without...