Daily Tax News

Germany's Merkel Reprimands Tax Rebels Determined to present a united front this week, as her party, the Christian Democratic Union, finally unveils its election programme, German Chancellor Angela Merkel successfully managed to silence remaining tax rebels ahead of the ratification meeting. Click Here for Full Story »»

Banks' Tax Avoidance Targeted By UK Government The UK government has published a consultation document on a code of practice on tax for banks. Click Here for Full Story »»

Austrian Finance Minister Rules Out New Taxes Despite a rising budget deficit, and spiralling state debt, Austria’s Finance Minister Josef Pröll has, nevertheless, firmly ruled out the idea of introducing new taxes. Click Here for Full Story »»

Italian Government Combines Tax Relief For Industry With Tax Collection Measures Italy’s Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has divulged that his government expects official tax receipts to fall by some EUR37bn this year. Italy’s public sector deficit would be a significant 5% of GDP, which is itself forecast by the OECD to fall by 5.5%. Those figures have placed the balancing act presented by the economic stimulus package of the recent Ministerial Decree into perspective. Click Here for Full Story »»

Insurance Intermediaries Saved Millions By UK High Court A judgment by the High Court in London has overturned on appeal a 2008 Tax Tribunal ruling that organisers and administrators of insurance contracts were liable to charge UK insurance premium tax. Click Here for Full Story »»

IRS Electronic Advisory Committee Delivers Report To Congress The Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee, which provides feedback on the development and implementation of the Internal Revenue Service’s electronic tax administration strategy, has presented its 2009 annual report to Congress. Click Here for Full Story »»

Amazon May Lose Californian Affiliates Over Sales Tax While the National Conference of State Legislators struggles to find a workable formula for a uniform national sales tax on internet sales, several individual states are pressing ahead with their own legislation. Online retailer, Amazon, has sent a letter to the Californian State legislature, threatening to cease doing business with marketing affiliates based in the State rather than accept the responsibility for collecting and distributing the State sales tax. Click Here for Full Story »»

Ireland Concludes TIEA With Gibraltar The Irish Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Martin Mansergh, on June 24 signed a Tax Information Exchange Agreement with Gibraltar, the Irish government has announced. Click Here for Full Story »»