In brief: 14 March 2019

Double taxation agreements

HMRC has published a paper setting out its double taxation agreement priorities for 2019. This includes plans to begin negotiations on treaties and protocols with New Zealand Peru and Sri Lanka and to continue discussions on such with Costa Rica Ghana Greece Kazakhstan Lebanon Luxembourg Malawi Nepal Portugal Romania and Russia.

tinyurl.com/hmrcdta2019

Loan charge

The House of Commons Treasury Committee has published a series of letters relating to the disguised remuneration loan charge.

tinyurl.com/hoctc1

Digital services tax

The Chartered Institute of Taxation considers that the government’s planned digital services tax on digital companies should be a temporary measure and ideally last no longer than five years. The institute wants the tax repealed as soon as there is a multilateral agreement through the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on a global method to tax such companies on the...