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Tax is an important instrument in Switzerland's long-standing aim provide a business friendly location for companies, explains Armin Marti and Robert Desax of PricewaterhouseCoopers

Certainty, simplification and transparency are three of the goals for the VAT reform, explains Niklaus Honauer of PricewaterhouseCoopers

In Corporate Tax Reform III it is the turn of large companies to benefit from changes to the rules, reveal Marcel Widrig and Sofia Rutz of PricewaterhouseCoopers

By Catherine Snowdon

Krzysztof Flis The new Excise Duty Act will come into force on March 1 2009. The provisions of the new Act revoked the previous law which was applied by the taxpayers only five years. The change of law is the result of adjusting Polish provisions to the EU directive 2003/96/WE in the scope of electricity taxation. In simplifying the issue the new law transfers the tax liability from producers and importers on entities which sell electricity toward end users. This change should be have been made as of January 1 2006. However the Polish legislator decided to pass a new Excise Duty Act only now.

Akio Takisaki Under existing Japanese tax rules, a foreign partner of an investment limited partnership or similar type of partnership formed in a foreign country (collectively, LPs) is treated as having a permanent establishment (PE) in Japan if a general partner of the LP executes invests business in Japan. In that case, the foreign partner is taxed on the LP's income and required to file a tax return. Also, 20% withholding tax applies on distribution of the LP's earnings. Under the proposed reforms, foreign partners will not be treated as having a PE and therefore, will not be subject to withholding tax or required to file tax returns if they are limited partners and meet certain conditions.

Marius Ionescu Lucian Barbu With a view to stimulating the real-estate sector, the Romanian government introduced in December 2008 a 5% reduced VAT rate for the sale of social dwellings as defined by the law.

By International Tax Review

John Brown has joined the transfer pricing practice as a vice president in the New York office. He has experience of economic analysis of transfer pricing matters in industries such as telecommunications, tool manufacturing and chemicals manufacturing.

In a recession transfer pricing risk is intensified as tax authorities scrutinise intercompany payments rigorously in an attempt to recover cash. Joanna Faith finds out what tax departments can do to improve their positions and avoid aggressive auditing in the downturn.