Tax & Accounting

The world’s richest countries are getting tougher on corporate tax avoidance. But experts predict that, new guidelines notwithstanding, companies will still find ways around the system.

Trends | Taxation
Brazil is well known in the global business sector for its tax complexity, heavy tax burden (around 35% of GDP) and high use of technology for tax collection. Not for nothing do Brazilians call their tax authority—Receita Federal do Brasil—“the Lion.”

Executive Pay | Since the global financial crisis of 2008, corporate boards have been under pressure to tie executive pay to performance.

Management | Tax Policy
In an effort to clamp down on tax avoidance by multinationals, the European Commission has announced plans to revive a proposal to unify the corporate tax base across Europe.

Special Report | Global Payments
When it comes to enriching corporate card programs, the focus is on technologies and policies that can boost efficiency, visibility and controls.

Trends | Money Market Reform
Seven years have passed since investor panic during the financial crisis set off a run on money market funds. Since that time, the Securities and Exchange has adopted reforms aimed at reducing MMFs’ credit and interest rate risks and boosting their transparency.

Management | Metrics
Corporations and analysts turn to scores of metrics—return on assets, working capital and others—to determine a company’s financial health. Another, the ratio of debt to internal funds, is one of the most widely used benchmarks. But a new study suggests that the debt-to-funds ratio isn’t all that accurate in predicting or explaining default risk.

Trends | US Dollar/Corporate Earnings
As corporate guidance goes, it was not the most upbeat news ever.

Management | Corporate Reporting
For Petróleo Brasileiro, or Petrobras, as the giant Brazilian oil company is called, the time to present audited 2014 results, including the write-downs associated with the highly publicized historical corruption scandal, is running out.

Newsmakers | United States
A new crack appeared in the corporate glass ceiling in February, when Cathy Engelbert was appointed CEO of Deloitte US, becoming the first woman to lead one of the Big Four audit and consulting firms in the United States.

Milestones | China
New legislation will lower the regulatory hurdles for foreign companies entering the Chinese market, but it is restricted to particular industries.

Milestones | European Union
Regulators had Web giants like Google and Apple in their sites when they framed a new value-added tax (VAT) regulation for businesses selling digital products into the European Union
 

Regulation | Management
In October the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project released a report outlining its progress on a series of steps it was taking to combat tactics—often legal but ethically questionable—used by many multinational companies to reduce or eliminate tax liabilities across their operations. 

Corporate Tax | Trends
By replacing cascading sales taxes with a value-added tax (VAT), Africa has succeeded in lowering its total tax rate to 46.6% from a peak of 72.2% in 2005.

UK Corporate Tax | Trends
Britain likely will succeed in taxing multinational companies at a 25% rate on their UK operations beginning in April, without violating international tax treaties, analysts say, but tensions are rising between countries on suspicions that MNCs are engaging in global tax evasion.

Capital Markets | Mergers & Acquisitions
Global cross-border mergers and acquisitions totaled $1.1 trillion during the first nine months of 2014, more than double the level of the same period a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters.

MANAGEMENT | TAX PLANNING
When Congress returns following the November elections, the issue of what to do about US companies making foreign acquisitions to relocate overseas and save on taxes will be high on the agenda.

Global Finance sat down with Russell Golden, chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, to discuss the current activities of the FASB—including its recently issued standard on revenue recognition, a joint effort with the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

Global Finance sat down with Brian Loughman, Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services (FIDS) Leader, EY Americas (formerly Ernst & Young), to discuss how greater regulation and increased efforts by countries to fight fraud are leading to greater demand for services by corporations around the world.

MANAGEMENT | TAX PLANNING
Gregory Wasson, president and CEO of Walgreen, says the company “concluded it was not in the best interest of shareholders to attempt to re-domicile outside the US” to cut its tax bill.