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Flaherty’s back-to-back loan proposals could face a taxpayer backlash Jim Flaherty, Canadian finance minister, continued the theme of recent years when he delivered his 2014 Budget speech last week, focusing on improving the integrity of the country's tax system. He also announced measures that could see Canada acting unilaterally on issues being discussed at OECD level. With a pre-election Budget set to be handed down next year, any taxpayer-friendly measures were always likely to be overlooked this time around, so the lack of such announcements was no surprise. However, Flaherty did announce consultations on tax planning and treaty shopping, while there were also changes to the passive income rules for foreign subsidiaries.

Finance ministers from France and Germany met in Paris to discuss the future of the financial transaction tax (FTT). Officials from both parties will be hoping to find common ground with regard to the definition and scope of the proposal.

See who has done the tax work on this month’s biggest deals.

Luxembourg will be hit hard by next year's changes to the EU digital VAT rules.

Frederick Chilton Jr has joined KPMG as the international tax lead for the firm's technology sector, based in Silicon Valley.

Dorina Asllani Ndreka The Albanian Parliament has approved the Law No. 8438, dated December 28 1998, which has entered into force since January 2014, regarding one of the most important taxes in Albania, the tax on income. This tax comprises the personal income tax, the profit tax and the withholding tax. From January 1 2014 the income tax rate is no longer 10%, but 15%. The income tax relates to incomes gained from sale of real estates, profits from commercial activities, interests or dividends, profits from copyright, etcetera. Apart from the change in the tax rate, there have been several changes to the personal income tax on employment salaries. The main consequence is the reduction of the overall tax on employment incomes for all salaries up to ALL130,000 ($1,250). This reform is implemented through a specific progressive tax scheme as shown in Table 1.

Andrés Edelstein

Read this month's special feature on tax audits.

Tom Seymour The base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) debate has been active in Australia over the last year. A number of initiatives have been introduced domestically and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is gearing its administration to address the challenges presented by BEPS. However, many of the themes arising from the BEPS debate have been on the agenda in Australia for a number of years. In fact, it could be argued that through recent reforms in transfer pricing and anti-avoidance legislation, Australia has already implemented many of the legislative tax tools equipped to deal with risks associated with profit shifting.

Dajana Topic Non-residents, either physical persons or legal entities, can claim all property rights including possession of real estate, in the same manner as the domestic residents on the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). Therefore, foreign investors are given full legal protection and undisturbed transfer abroad of their profits originating from investment in B&H. The Assembly of the Brcko District adopted the Decision on fixing the property tax rate at 0.05% for 2014. The Decision was accepted on December 4 2013 and published in the Official Gazette of Brcko District on December 13 2013.