French top court throws out 1.8 billion euro tax fraud penalty against UBS, but lets fraud finding stand.
- Parisians will vote Feb. 4, 2024, on Mayor Anne Hidalgo‘s plan to hit owners of sports utility vehicles and other heavy vehicles taking up too much of the city’s road and parking space, including electric ones, with a “significant” parking tax, the mayor said. Hidalgo, who’s facing a big tax revenue shortfall because of the city’s sagging real estate market, said the tax won’t apply to neighborhood residents and will have other exceptions. (L’Automobile Magazine)
- France’s highest appeals court, the Cour de Cassation, this week voided tax penalties of 1.8 billion euros ($1.96 billion) on Swiss bank UBS in a cross-border tax fraud case, remanding the case to a lower court for a new ruling on the penalties. The Cassation Court upheld the lower court’s finding that the bank helped wealthy clients evade taxes. (UBS.com) (Reuters)
- Professional services giant Ernst & Young LLP picked vice chair and regional Americas financial services managing partner Janet Truncale to be its next global chief executive effective July 2024. The appointment makes her the first woman to lead a Big Four firm. She’s set to take over from Carmine Di Sibio, who is retiring in June after the failure of a plan to split EY’s consulting and auditing arms into separate companies. EY in September named its UK and Ireland tax practice head Jeff Soar to replace the retiring Cornelius Grossman as global law practice chief. (EY.com)
Belgian Government Argues Fatca Transfers Are Legal
- The Belgian government Wednesday defended in Brussels Market Court its sharing of American born residents’ financial data with the US Internal Revenue Service to comply with the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. The government is appealing a ruling by its own data privacy watchdog that found those transfers violate the European Data Protection Regulation. A decision in the case is expected in December. (Courthouse News Service)
- The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, for its annual tax certainty day Tuesday, among other things released its latest statistics on mutual agreement procedures. During the four-hour event, tax directors from two major corporations expressed tax certainty concerns about parts of the OECD’s two-pillar plan for reforming the global tax framework. Jason Wiegand, North America senior director for tax at consumer products giant Procter & Gamble, suggested a need for MAP-like dispute resolution mechanisms to ensure that companies have effective procedures to contest jurisdictions’ application of upcoming Pillar 2 global minimum tax rules starting next year. (YouTube.com, Wiegand’s comments start at about 1h:38m) (OECD.org)
- Kuwait joined the OECD’s inclusive framework on base erosion and profit shifting. It’s the last of Gulf Cooperation Council countries to join, following Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Oman. (LinkedIn)
- The island nation of Fiji joined the OECD’s Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, which now has 169 members. (OECD.org)
- The Platform for Collaboration on Tax, whose members include the OECD, International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, and the World Bank, released its latest progress report. (Tax-Platform.org)
White & Case Promotes 42 Lawyers to Partner
- White & Case promoted 42 attorneys across 18 offices worldwide and 11 practice areas, effective Jan. 1, 2024, including Washington-based Eric Urschel, who advises on domestic and international tax, mergers and acquisitions, and technology.
(WhiteCase.com) - Spanish law firm Montero Aramburu hired longtime government tax official María José García-Serrano, recently regional team leader for inspection, as partner. (Montero-Aramburu.com)
Ryan Launches Product for Automating Foreign Tax Payments
- Ryan, a tax services and software provider, said it launched Ryan TaxPay, a platform for automating global tax payments. The tool is aimed at companies that need to make regular payments to one or multiple foreign tax authorities to meet tax payment obligations, Ryan said. (Ryan.com)
