International taxes

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the U.S. tax reform will cut profit this year by about $5 billion, mainly because of a tax targeting earnings held abroad.

A provision in the new tax law, intended to prevent American companies from shifting profits abroad to benefit from a lower overseas rate, might also hit the largest foreign banks with significant U.S. operations.

Fund manager David Gorton sued a U.S. law firm for fraud after its lawyers convinced him to buy into a carbon-credit investment that they had an undeclared financial interest in, according to a London lawsuit.

The top tax rate that U.S. companies would pay on an estimated $3.1 trillion in earnings they’ve stockpiled overseas crept up to 15.5 percent in the final version of the GOP tax bill released Friday.

Ikea is the latest company ensnared in the European Union’s sprawling tax probes as regulators look at whether the retailer’s revenue deals in the Netherlands allowed it to avoid hundreds of millions of euros of taxes.

Amazon.com Inc. will pay 100 million euros ($118 million) to the Italian tax authorities for the period of 2011-2015 in a settlement that closes the fiscal probe by the country’s tax police, Italy’s Revenue Agency said in an emailed statement Friday.

Facebook Inc. is changing its tax structure so that it will pay taxes in the country where sales are made, rather than funneling everything through its Irish subsidiary.

Brooke Harrington, an American tax expert with a PhD from Harvard University, was about to make Copenhagen her home when she found out she was facing criminal charges.

As legislators in Washington work to get the most sweeping rewrite of the U.S. tax code in three decades, regions including the European Union and China are expressing their concern that the bill may not comply with international rules and frustration about the effect it may have on local markets.

A former Swiss banker was acquitted of helping U.S. clients dodge taxes, dealing prosecutors a dramatic loss in their efforts to hold individuals responsible after the government successfully targeted financial institutions.

Senate Republicans tucked some multibillion-dollar tax increases for corporations into the 515-page tax bill they released this week—spring-loaded hikes that would begin after 2024 if the economy doesn’t grow as fast as GOP lawmakers have promised.

Ireland is set to miss a deadline to hire managers for Apple Inc.’s tax billions during an appeal of a European Union antitrust ruling, the latest delay in a saga that has dragged on for more than a year.

In Vanuatu, a remote archipelago in the South Pacific, a popular tourist attraction is something called land diving. Villagers on the lush outer island of Pentecost jump headfirst from a tall wooden tower with tree vines tied to their ankles to break their fall. For the divers, the rite of passage is a plunge into the unknown—and that’s not a bad metaphor for where this secretive tax haven is headed these days.

U.S. companies that make billions of dollars from patents and other intellectual property held offshore would be eligible for a special 12.5 percent tax rate on those earnings under the Senate tax plan.

The House Ways and Means Committee approved revisions to the GOP tax legislation—changes that would trim the bill’s cost, putting it within the $1.5 trillion limit set by the congressional budget.

The Internal Revenue Service’s Large Business and International division is launching 11 more compliance campaigns looking at various ways to ensure companies are meeting their tax obligations.

The tax reform bill introduced last week includes major provisions related to the taxation of companies’ foreign income and of foreign persons.

The days in paradise may be numbered for those seeking refuge from heavy tax burdens in remote islands. Finance ministers representing the world’s largest market vowed to take action following the leak of records exposing prominent members of the global business A-list.

Multinational companies including Apple Inc., Pfizer Inc. and Ford Motor Co. would face a new tax on payments they make to offshore affiliates under the House Republicans’ tax bill—a surprise provision that has stunned tax experts.

Governments around the world are driving for a more integrated taxing environment.