Tax News Slaughter and May

Brazil has a highly litigious tax environment; companies rarely have fewer than ten ongoing disputes. To what extent is the environment improving through the introduction of a settlement process, legal reforms undertaken with a view to future OECD membership and the overhaul of Brazil’s complicated indirect tax system?
To find out, listen to this episode with Ricardo Bolan, Co-Head of Lefosse Advogados’ Tax Practice, Dominic Robertson, Co-Head of Slaughter and May’s Tax Disputes Practice, and Zoe Andrews, Slaughter and May’s Head of Tax Knowledge.
This is the first of six episodes in a series on tax disputes risks, their prevention and resolution. In addition to Brazil, the series covers the USA, Australia, India, Nigeria and France. Episodes are released weekly. Subscribe to the Tax News show to be notified of new episodes.

n this podcast, Zoe Andrews and Tanja Velling discuss the Court of Appeal’s decision in Prudential on the interaction between the VAT grouping and time of supply rules, and the Upper Tribunal’s decisions in Beard (which followed First Nationwide in holding that a distribution by a Jersey company out of share premium was an income dividend) and Sehgal which considered the remittance basis rules in the context of a transaction undertaken in lieu of an indemnity payment under a share purchase agreement.
The podcast also covers certain measures included in the Spring Finance Bill, most notably draft legislation to reverse the Supreme Court’s decision in Fisher (which rejected HMRC’s argument that, where a company makes a transfer, the shareholders could be treated as quasi-transferors for the purpose of the transfer of assets abroad rules). Zoe and Tanja further touch on the UK’s proposed carbon border adjustment mechanism and HMRC’s updated guidance on aspects of the new R&D relief regime. In terms of international tax topics, the podcast features the UK’s planned introduction of an anti-abuse rule to prevent the exploitation of the CbCR transitional safe harbour under Pillar Two and the OECD’s Sixth Peer Review Report on the Prevention of Tax Treaty Abuse.

In this podcast, Zoe Andrews and Tanja Velling share thoughts on the Spring Budget and the following recent cases: the Court of Appeal’s decision in Clipperton on a dividend replacement scheme, and the First-tier Tribunal’s decisions in Keighley, Stolkin and Mahmood, focussing respectively on the meaning of “control”, the question whether a company was trading following the appropriation to trading stock of land purchased as an investment, and whether a transaction was void because of a mistake as to its tax consequences.
The podcast also covers recent changes to HMRC’s guidance in respect of the salaried members rules and stamp taxes on shares as well as the call for evidence on the tax administration framework. Zoe and Tanja further touch on challenges to DAC6 and FATCA, the UN’s work on a framework convention on tax cooperation and other international tax news.

In this podcast, Zoe Andrews and Tanja Velling discuss two First-tier Tribunal decisions. One is a fun case and they’ve set this up a mystery to be solved in the first few minutes of the podcast. The other FTT decision is Bolt Services on the VAT treatment of taxi rides booked through a ride-hailing app. 
The podcast also covers the Court of Appeal’s decision in Dolphin Drilling considering the meaning of the word “incidental”; the immediate context for the decision is the hire cap under the oil contractors’ regime, but the decision may have implications in other tax contexts, such as for determining whether something is a “main purpose” for the unallowable purpose test in the loan relationships regime. 
Zoe and Tanja further discuss new HMRC guidance on transfer pricing, the summary of responses to HMRC’s consultation on reforming transfer pricing, permanent establishments and Diverted Profits Tax legislation and HMRC’s latest transfer pricing and DPT statistics, as well as the OECD’s ICAP statistics and Pillar 2 impact assessment.

To celebrate the launch of our new Tax News shows, we have released an extra episode so you can find out more about the hosts of our monthly episodes, Zoe Andrews and Tanja Velling.

In this podcast, Zoe Andrews and Tanja Velling discuss the First-tier Tribunal’s decision in Harber on the dangers of relying on legal research conducted by generative AI, certain points on tiered partnership structures and the Ramsay doctrine from the Court of Appeal’s decision in BCM Cayman, and the CJEU’s decision in the Amazon State aid case. The podcast also covers the summary of responses in respect of HM Treasury’s consultation on the VAT Treatment of Fund Management Services, changes to HMRC’s guidance on foreign entity classification and the latest Pillar Two-related materials published by the OECD and HMRC.