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The international e-commerce company, Amazon, has failed to resolve elements of its transfer pricing dispute with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The case revolves around the retailer’s use of a European subsidiary to reduce its tax bill which, if it loses, could cost the company billions.

Constanze Adolf, of Green Budget Europe, looks at environmental fiscal reform (EFR) in a post-crisis context, assessing the prospects for EFR to raise government revenue and promote the polluter-pays principle.

The corporate income tax rate in Japan is known to be one of the highest worldwide. To encourage foreign companies to do business in Japan and make Japan a more attractive location for investments, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering reducing the corporate income tax rate to a "competitive rate in the global market".

Type of Deal Value Acquirer Target Adviser to acquirer (tax) Adviser to target (tax) Acquisition $1.8 billion Gannett Cars.com Davis Polk & Wardwell Acquisition $230 million Rocket Fuel Inc. X Plus Two Solutions Inc. Fenwick & West Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian Acquisition Undisclosed Facebook PrivateCore Fenwick & West - Larissa Ushakova-Stein Acquisition Undisclosed Square Inc. Caviar Inc. Fenwick & West - Ronald Schrotenboer Type of Deal Value Issuer/Borrower Lead managers/arrangers Adviser to issuer/borrower (tax) Adviser to lead managers (tax) Unsecured Term Loan Facility $8 billion Synchrony Financial Barclays Bank PLC, Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Goldman Sachs Bank USA, JPMorgan Securities LLC, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc., Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc. Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Covington & Burling Davis Polk & Wardwell Revolving Credit Facility $6 billion Merck & Co. Inc. JPMorgan Chase Bank Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson Davis Polk & Wardwell Initial Public Offering $3.3 billion Synchrony Financial Goldman, Sachs & Co. and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC Weil, Gotshal & Manges and Covington & Burling Davis Polk & Wardwell Concurrent Offerings of Class A Common Stock and Tangible Equity Units $2.4 billion Tyson Foods Inc. Davis Polk & Wardwell - Po Sit, Adam Perry, Adam Bedzow Weil, Gotshal & Manges Accelerated Share Repurchase $750 million Ashland Inc. JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, London Branch and Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch Davis Polk & Wardwell Senior Notes Offering $686 million Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, RBC Dominion Securities Inc., Scotia Capital Inc., TD Securities Inc., Mitsubishi UFJ Securities (USA), Inc., BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., CIBC World Markets Inc. and National Bank Financial Inc. Davis Polk & Wardwell - Lucy Farr, Andrew Smith, Vanessa Rakel Sidley Austin and Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg High-Yield Notes Offering $300 million Kosmos Energy Ltd. Barclays Capital Inc. and BNP Paribas Conyers & Pearman Ltd., Slaughters & May and Davis Polk & Wardwell - Michael Mollerus, Ameya Bapat High-Yield Notes Offering $185 million Ipreo Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc., Goldman, Sachs & Co., Credit Suisse Securities LLC, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, and RBC Capital Markets, LLC Kirkland & Ellis Davis Polk & Wardwell - Harry Ballan, Dao Fu Common Stock Offering $44.9 million Mavenir Systems Inc. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. Andrews Kurth Davis Polk & Wardwell - Michael Mollerus, Ameya Bapat

Prior to joining Blakes, Alexandra Brown was a partner at a small litigation firm and served as senior counsel at the Department of Justice (Canada), where she practiced for over 20 years.

Type of Deal Value Acquirer Target Adviser to acquirer (tax) Adviser to target (tax) Acquisition $270 million Telstra Corporation Ltd. Ooyala Inc. Fenwick & West - Adam Halpern, Ora Grinberg, Elnaz Manoucheri, Jennifer Johnson Acquisition Undisclosed Answers Corporation Apax Partners Fenwick & West Type of Deal Value Issuer/Borrower Lead managers/arrangers Adviser to issuer/borrower (tax) Adviser to lead managers (tax) Senior Notes Offering $3.6 billion Synchrony Financial Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Goldman, Sachs & Co., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC Weil Gotshal & Manges, Covington & Burling, Sidley Austin Davis Polk & Wardwell - Harry Ballan Senior Notes Offering $3.25 billion Tyson Foods Inc. Davis Polk & Wardwell - Neil Barr, William Curran, Adam Bedzow Weil, Gotshal & Manges Credit Facility $3.2 billion Eli Lilly & Co. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Covington & Burling Davis Polk & Wardwell Notes Offering $2 billion Comcast Corporation Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Lloyds Securities Inc., Mizuho Securities USA Inc., and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc. Davis Polk & Wardwell - Rachel Kleinberg MTN Program $2 billion Greenland Hong Kong Holdings Ltd. Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Ltd., The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd., BOCI Asia Ltd., J.P. Morgan Secrurities plc, and Morgan Stanley & Co International plc Conyers Dill & Pearman, AllBright Law Offices, Davis Polk & Wardwell - Alon Gurfinkel, Rhiannon Nakano Linklaters, Commerce & Finance Law Offices Senior Notes Offering $575 million Jazz Pharmaceuticals J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and Barclays Capital Inc. Davis Polk & Wardwell - Michael Farber, Rachel Kleinberg, Aaron Weil Notes Offering $500 million Greenland Hong Kong Holdings Ltd. Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Ltd., The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd., BOCI Asia Ltd., J.P. Morgan Secrurities plc, and Morgan Stanley & Co International plc Conyers Dill & Pearman, AllBright Law Offices, Davis Polk & Wardwell - Alon Gurfinkel, Rhiannon Nakano Linklaters, Commerce & Finance Law Offices Notes Offering $500 million KEXIM ANZ Securities, BNP Paribas, Citigroup Global Markets Inc., The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, Standard Chartered Bank and Daewoo Securities Co., Ltd. Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, Lee & Ko Davis Polk & Wardwell - Alon Gurfinkel, Lena Qiu Term Loan Financing $350 million Tribune Publishing Company J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Merrill Lynch, Pierce Fenner & Smith Inc., Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Barclays Bank PLC Debevoise & Plimpton Davis Polk & Wardwell - Michael Farber, Adam Perry Block Trade $243 million Umpqua Holdings Corporation J.P. Morgan Securities LLC Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, Weil Gotshal & Manges, Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. Kirkland & Ellis Davis Polk & Wardwell - Michael Farber ABL Financing $140 million Tribune Publishing Company Bank of America, N.A. Debevoise & Plimpton Davis Polk & Wardwell Initial Public Offering $68.4 million Loxo Oncology Inc. Cowen and Company LLC and Stifel, Nicolaus & Company Inc. Fenwick & West Davis Polk & Wardwell - Rachel Kleinberg, Sam Van Peperstraete Initial Public Offering $56.4 million Auris Medical Holding AG Jefferies LLC, Leerink Partners LLC Davis Polk & Wardwell - Harry Ballan Latham & Watkins, Homburger AG

A Swedish committee on corporate taxation has proposed reforms to limit interest deductibility in the country. Borje Noring, tax auditor at the Swedish Tax Agency, Skatteverket, reacts to the proposals, which have drawn criticism from US business representative groups.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has opened a consultation into how the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) should be incorporated into UK law.

The Delhi High Court has decided, in Zaheer Mauritius vs Director of Income Tax, that the sale of compulsory convertible debentures (CCDs) should be classified as capital gains and exempt under the India-Mauritius double tax treaty (DTT). The decision will mean most to real-estate taxpayers who use Mauritius to invest in India.

Tax has escaped a prohibition on audits by Ukrainian state agencies.