International Tax Update | September 2018
Published on 18th Sep 2018
Welcome to our International Tax Update. In these updates we will bring you topical international tax developments and explain what they could mean for your business.
Osborne Clarke bolsters its international tax offering with appointment of new Dutch Partner
We are delighted to announce that we have hired tax specialist Job van der Pol to strengthen Osborne Clarke's international corporate tax team.
Job joins Osborne Clarke in the Netherlands as a Partner and head of the Dutch tax team.
Job has acted on a number of high-profile tax cases arising from the European Commission’s state aid investigations into tax rulings issued to multi-national companies – both during the investigations and appeals phases. He also assists clients on a wide range of tax related disputes.
Taxation of cryptocurrencies in Europe | an overview
The term "cryptocurrency" emerged as a reference to a Bitcoin-style digital currency whose ownership is recorded as a chain of digital signatures on a blockchain, secured by cryptography.
However, although the "coin" carries value which can be transferred, since that value is purely speculative (and not supported by underlying assets, economic activity or a central authority such as a bank), it can be very unstable. For that reason it is often considered to be a digital or crypto asset rather than currency.
At present, almost no jurisdictions have specific tax laws on the taxation of cryptocurrencies. The tax treatment is instead based on general principles and any guidance issued by Tax Authorities.
We look at the position across seven major European jurisdictions.
Taxation of digital multinational enterprises | where are we now?
International bodies and various countries continue to debate whether international tax rules need to change for multinational enterprises carrying on digital businesses and, if so, how?
The debate stems from the fact that the current rules were designed in a different era; intended to tax a non-resident company with a physical presence in a jurisdiction. Many digital businesses, though, can earn substantial revenues from a jurisdiction without creating a physical presence in that jurisdiction. A number of jurisdictions are looking closely at this issue, whilst the OECD is working on a longer-term global solution.
In this article, we consider the various proposals and the progress made so far.
