Blog

The Belgium Ministry of Finance recently published updated Business Rules and Example Scenarios to aid financial institutions in creating compliant CRS XML files for reporting purposes. These most recent updates include changes to important elements critical to a successful transmittal. The Business Rules, which lay out the multitude of requirements for each field in an […]

West Virginia’s State Tax Department has released a new publication TSD-100, “West Virginia Business Taxes.” The publication provides guidance to Business who need to register for business tax purposes. The six page document is merely instructive and does not function as a legal document. The last time West Virginia published a similar document was November, […]

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in newly-published 2017 Guidelines for VAT/GST, has opined on how they believe VAT should be assessed on services and intangibles. Their primary recommendations are that countries adopt regimes which: 1. Tax services and intangibles at the place of consumption; 2. Tax business-to-business (B2B) transactions at the location […]

Earlier this year we reported about the legal status and trends regarding scanning of inbound paper invoices in Europe. One of the topics raised in that post was that France was in the midst of legal reform in this area: for some time the French framework entirely prohibited the concept of conversion of form for […]

The IRS has released an updated version of Publication 1281, Backup Withholding For Missing and Incorrect Name/TIN(S). There are a couple of changes from the previous revision: • Form 1099-G payments made under IRC 6041 and 3406(b)(3)(A), which include taxable grants and agricultural payments, are now subject to backup withholding o New code for the […]

Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) legislation is constantly evolving worldwide as the standard is rolled out around the world. The Sovos research team continually monitors new regulations and updates across the globe and publishes them in our Taxport Compass tool. Here are some important changes that occurred in recent weeks: Cayman Island Publishes List of […]

Paul Banker, General Manager – Sovos Compliance, attended a meeting of Working Party No. 10 on Exchange of Information and Tax Compliance, as a member of the CRS Business Advocacy group that works with the OECD on the automatic exchange of information (AEOI). ‘Roles are now at stake’ in financial institutions around the world as […]

Alabama has recently enacted legislation that permanently changes the date of the state’s Back to School Sales Tax Holiday. The Alabama Sales Tax Holiday, which has traditionally been held during the first weekend of August, will now take place during the third weekend of July. For more information, visit the DOR’s Web site.

We are seeing a lot of vendor scope evolution on the market. Examples include EDI vendors that are developing business network-style services; another one is that platforms focused on procurement of indirect supplies are moving into strategic sourcing and vice versa. A trend that receives less attention from analysts and specialized press is the journey […]

New Jersey’s limousine industry won a major legislative battle on February 10, 2017, when Governor Chris Christie signed into a law a bill eliminating sales tax on intra-state limousine services. The tax had been in force since 2006, surviving several challenges in the state legislature. It will officially be phased out on May 1, 2017. […]

Financial institutions (FIs) will face major challenges when preparing for the Common Reporting Standard (CRS). Among the most significant of these will be compiling and organizing their data at the risk of failing to achieve compliance and suffering from damaged reputations. According to Corinna Hedtke, Senior Manager for Client Tax Information Compliance, Europe at Standard […]

Singapore’s Inland Revenue Authority has released a paper form that Reporting Financial Institutions may use to file a nil report. Nil reports are required whenever an FI does not have any U.S. Reportable Accounts. A Singaporean FI may elect to file an electronic nil through the IDES Gateway, as it would a typical FATCA return. […]

New regulations came into effect this week for CRS in Singapore. The Minister for Finance has published Amendments the last year’s Regulations. Many of the Amendments concern due diligence procedures, including the self-certification process. Singapore is a late adopter. Financial Institutions are required to complete the due diligence procedures this year, and then report in […]

The Tax Information Authority for the Cayman Islands has published its list of Reportable Jurisdictions in the Cayman Islands Gazette (beginning on page 15). This list is important because it instructs Reporting Financial Institutions which foreign account holders must be reported. In addition, Cayman’s list of Participating Jurisdictions has also been updated.

The Icelandic Directorate of Internal Revenue has released information about its domestic schema to be used for both FATCA and CRS reporting. There is a new section in the schema, <FatcaCrs í framtalsgögnum> (FATCA CRS tax return data), which is meant to allow for either FATCA or CRS data to be reported. Additionally, there is […]

As European governments trend toward electronic invoicing mandates to gain visibility into corporate tax liability, all eyes are watching Hungary. The NAV, Hungary’s tax authority, announced in late 2016 that it would implement mandated real-time reporting starting July 1, 2017. As that date draws near, technical specifications for the program have yet to be released, […]

Hungary’s tax authority announced in late 2016 that it would implement mandated real-time reporting starting July 1, 2017. As that date draws near, one certainty exists – companies with VAT liability in Hungary need to prepare now so they can nimbly adapt to new process and reporting requirements. As European governments trend toward electronic invoicing […]

Arizona has released its 2017 Quarterly Withholding Tax Return, the A1-QRT. This form is the quarterly reconciliation and reporting form used for withholding payments made over the course of a quarter. The form has undergone extensive formatting changes, but relatively few material changes. The form now requests more detail related to business closures and successive […]