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Following in the footsteps of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's strategies to curb base erosion and profit shifting, in April 2022, the Department of Finance released legislative proposals to address hybrid mismatch arrangements implemented by multinational enterprises. The authors provide a primer on the draft rules for hybrid mismatch arrangements to help readers understand these complex rules and their implications for multinational enterprises. They also illustrate the application of these legislative proposals to some common structures that will be affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the various forms of Roman taxes that existed during the period of the Roman Empire. The first section of this paper reviews the tremendous growth of the Roman Empire over several hundred years. In order to fund the expansion of the empire and fund the armies, Roman rulers utilized a wide variety of taxes. The intent of this paper is to review the extremely large amount of taxes that were extracted from inhabitants of Roman conquered lands. Roman taxes were in addition to religious taxes paid by Jewish inhabitants of all Roman controlled lands. This created a system of double taxation which became very oppressive to those affected. The first portion of this paper briefly traces the growth of the Roman Empire over the period from 753BC to 476AD. The major portion of this paper, however, reviews the Roman taxation system in existence during the years that the empire existed. Following the brief summary of the growth of the Roman Empire, but prior to an analysis of the Roman taxation system, is a discussion of the occupation of the "tax collector" or "publican." The occupation of tax collector or "tax farmer," during this period, was one of very low social status equal to that of prostitutes and other unsavory vocations. The final portion of this paper reviews the question of whether or not the inability to assess and collect these various taxes may have contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fiscal policy in Romania hardly required in the European economic space, because it targets both the elimination of double taxation and tax evasion, as well the correlation with European tax legislation, the ultimate goal being to harmonize. Without the existence of effective measures simplification of taxation cannot ensure a long-term sustainable tax system, which will result in the development of public and private economic environment. Fiscal policy must pursue fulfilling some realistic goals, to lead the economic growth sustainable, coherent strategies on the foundation of long-term, monitored and adapted quickly to changing economic and social environment. The easing of legislative measures through the new Fiscal code, allows a better compliance with the declaration and payment of tax liabilities, as a medium-term increase in income to the State budget, but at the same time leaves room for interpretation in the way of settlement and collection of certain taxes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The panellists discuss the role of the competent authority, the key aspects of the mutual agreement procedure (MAP), the role of the taxpayer in the competent authority process, the implementation of agreements reached under MAP, advance pricing arrangements, and future developments in the competent authority process that may result from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD's) BEPS (base erosion and profit shifting) project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Comptroller of the Treasury of Maryland v. Wynne, the Supreme Court ruled that Maryland's personal income tax scheme is unconstitutional as it violates the dormant Commerce Clause. It taxes its residents' income earned from sources within and outside Maryland without providing a tax credit against the "county" tax for the taxes paid to the other states where the income is sourced. The Court relied on its precedents that the dormant Commerce Clause precludes states from discriminating "between transactions on the basis of some interstate element." It noted a state may have authority to tax a taxpayer without violating the Due Process Clause, but the tax may nonetheless violate the Commerce Clause. Ruling that the tax is discriminatory double taxation, creating an incentive to engage in intrastate rather than interstate economic activity, the Court applied the internal consistency test, which "looks to the structure of the tax at issue to see whether its identical application by every State in the Union would place interstate commerce at a disadvantage as compared with commerce intrastate." It held that Maryland's tax scheme is inherently discriminatory and operates as a state tariff, which are "the quintessential evil targeted by the dormant Commerce Clause." The Court provided that a state has flexibility in curing an impermissibly discriminatory tax. It may provide a tax credit or some other method of fair apportionment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investing or conducting business in the United States is often accompanied by a myriad of tax issues. Recent legislative changes have expanded the definition of an "inversion" for US federal income tax purposes. Certain common transaction structures result in an inversion, which, depending on certain facts, either limits the use of certain US tax attributes or treats a Canadian company as a US company for US federal income tax purposes. The addition of an anti-hybrid article in the Canada-US tax treaty has increased the number of ways in which the use of US limited liability companies can create Canadian and US tax issues, including potential double taxation. Certain transaction structures also result in unintended consequences under the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act regime when investments are made in US real property. Finally, the reporting of income and financial assets held in foreign jurisdictions has recently increased in complexity for persons who are determined to be "US residents" for US federal income tax purposes. In this article, the authors provide a broad overview of these tax rules and their application to Canadian citizens investing or conducting business in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on pass-through entities and the concept of double taxation in sales and business. The federal tax purposes related to tax return filing in case of partnership and entities filing of S corporations and C corporations are discussed. There is flexibility in the partnership status of in case of federal income tax of limited liability companies (LLC) than S corporations. The Medicare tax on investment income is also discussed.

The article focuses on the offshore trust and estate-planning issues arising from the legislative and jurisprudential developments in Canada with respect to international tax treaties. It examines the concept of trust residence for the purposes of the bilateral income tax convention of Canada. Furthermore, it mentions planning arrangements containing non-resident trusts that can obtain good personal and fiscal outcomes for taxpayers.

Information regarding competent authority on taxation discussed during the panel discussion in the 61st annual conference of the Canadian Tax Foundation held November 22-24, 2009 in Toronto, Ontario is presented. Topics include roles and responsibilities of competent authority which are the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), limitation-on-benefits, and arbitration. The symposium featured speakers including Karen Brodman, Douglas W. O'Donnell, and Patricia Spice.