TAX NEWS - DECEMber 2009

Tax News

Czech Republic – The Chamber of Deputies has approved an amendment to the VAT Act that implements the EU directive on the new place of supply rules. If approved by the Senate of the Czech Republic, the new rules will come into effect on 1 January 2010.

Nigeria – A bill has been introduced that would levy a Tertiary Education Tax in place of the existing Education Tax in Nigeria. The Tertiary Education Tax would be imposed on Nigerian companies at a rate of 2% of assessable profit, as is the case with the Education Tax.

United Kingdom – As from 1 April 2010, businesses with an annual turnover of GBP 100,000 or more and all businesses registering for VAT, irrespective of turnover, will have to file their VAT returns online and pay any VAT due electronically. In preparation for this, the U.K. tax authorities have updated their "VAT Online" service, which should make it easier for new users to register and enroll for the service, file VAT returns online and set up an email reminder to let them know when a VAT return is due.

United States – The Internal Revenue Service on 24 November 2009 released its annual Priority Guidance Plan, listing the 315 projects it expects to complete between July 2009 and June 2010. Projects in this year's plan – the first under the Obama administration – cover a wide range of areas, including recent legislation, the current economic environment and international tax issues. While the list generally does not detail included items, priority items address: corporate guidance on the importation or duplication of losses; employee benefits guidance on various international tax issues related to taxfavored retirement plans; guidance on prepaid forward contracts (potentially implicating provisions covering tax on nonresident aliens, tax on a foreign corporation that is not effectively connected with a U.S. trade or business and, under the controlled foreign corporation rules, foreign base company income and investment of earnings in U.S. property); tiered investments and other passive foreign investment company issues; qualified intermediaries and other withholding tax issues; repatriation transactions; foreign tax credits (treatment of foreign and domestic losses, E&P computations and final regulations on foreign tax redeterminations); sourcing rules (e.g. income from mixed sources and final regulations for sourcing certain services compensation on an event basis); currency gain or loss; and the international tax aspects of shipping and air craft transportation.