As part of the ongoing work of the OECD/IGF partnership on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) in the mining program, the OECD is seeking public comments on two toolkits.

The first toolkit provides a framework that is designed to support developing countries in addressing the transfer pricing challenges faced when pricing minerals. The second toolkit applies this transfer pricing framework to a specific mineral (bauxite).

Comments on the toolkits must be received by July 14.

UK government, on April 27, announced a package of technical tax policy proposals aimed at simplifying and updating legislation on diverted profits tax and transfer pricing.

The government said that it will publish a consultation in May on simplifying and updating the following legislation: Diverted Profits Tax (DPT) (increased rate on diverted UK profits); and transfer pricing (TP) (related party transactions); among others.
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“This will ensure that their application is clear to taxpayers, and the outcome of their application remains consistent with the underlying policy intention, international standards and the UK’s bilateral treaties,” it said.

Brazil’s Finance Ministry has released a declaration, which states the government’s intention to update the existing tax treaty with Spain.

The treaty was signed in 1974. It is being updated to incorporate key BEPS measures that both nations have committed to implement.
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More details will be published once available.

A report published by the OECD acknowledges progress achieved in Asia between 2009 and 2022 in implementing transparency and exchange of information (EOI) for tax purposes.

All 22 Asian members of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum) are implementing the transparency and exchange of information on request (EOIR) standard and 16 of them are committed to starting automatic exchange of financial account information (AEOI) exchanges by 2024.
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Despite wide adherence to the international standards, their effective use remains uneven in Asia. Many Asian countries are not yet members of the Global Forum and some jurisdictions still make few EOI requests or have not yet committed to implement the AEOI standard by a specific date.

The Commission has today presented legislative proposals to implement the most comprehensive reform of the EU's economic governance rules since the aftermath of the economic and financial crisis. 

The central objective of these proposals is to strengthen public debt sustainability and promote sustainable and inclusive growth in all Member States through reforms and investment.
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The proposals address shortcomings in the current framework.

Indian Supreme Court has ruled that the High Court is not precluded from considering the determination of the arm’s length price determined by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, in exercise of its powers under Section 260A of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

The court, in its decision dated April 19, held that there cannot be any absolute proposition of law that in all cases where the Tribunal has determined the arm’s length price, the same is final and cannot be the subject matter of scrutiny by the High Court in an appeal under Section 260A.
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The court ruled that the High Court should examine whether the guidelines laid down in the Act and the Rules are followed while determining the arm’s length price.

The government is seeking stakeholders’ views on the exposure draft legislation and accompanying explanatory material implementing a public country-by-country reporting requirement.

As part of the October 2022‑23 Budget, the government announced a transparency measure for multinational entities to prepare for public release certain tax information on a country‑by‑country basis and a statement on their approach to taxation. The measure will enhance the tax information entities disclose to the public (for income years commencing from 1 July 2023).
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The consultation runs until 28 April 2023.

The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum) has published seven new peer review reports on transparency and exchange of information on request (EOIR).

The reports pertain to six of its members (Albania, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Nigeria, Saint Lucia and Togo) and one non-member, which had previously been deemed of relevance to its work on EOIR (Nicaragua).
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More than half of the Global Forum members have now been fully reviewed in the second round of EOIR peer reviews and the ratings assigned are generally very good with 87% of the jurisdictions obtaining satisfactory overall ratings (“Compliant” or “Largely Compliant”), while 11% were assessed as "Partially Compliant" and 2% as "Non-Compliant".

Today, at the OECD Headquarters in Paris, Mr. Cao Anh Tuan, Deputy Finance Minister of Vietnam, signed the world’s widest-reaching international treaty for multilateral tax co-operation, the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (or the Convention), bringing the total number of jurisdictions that participate in the Convention to 147.

With today's signing, Vietnam joins international efforts towards greater tax co-operation and exchange of information and further strengthens the reach of the Convention in Asia. 
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The signing will pave the way for Vietnam to engage in the exchange of information with 146 other jurisdictions, including all major financial centres. These exchange relationships will be added to over 8,000 exchange relationships already in place under the Convention.

OECD has released the latest peer review results assessing the actions taken by jurisdictions to prevent tax treaty shopping and other forms of treaty abuse under Action 6 of the OECD/G20 BEPS Project.

The Fifth Peer Review Report on Treaty Shopping, which includes data on tax treaties concluded by the jurisdictions that were members of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS on 31 May 2022, forms the basis of the assessment of the implementation of the BEPS Action 6 minimum standard.
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The report (also available in French) reveals that members of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS are respecting their commitment to implement the minimum standard on treaty shopping. It further confirms the importance of the BEPS Multilateral Instrument (MLI) as the tool used by the vast majority of jurisdictions that have started to implement the BEPS Action 6 minimum standard.

Cypriot Tax Authority has issued frequently asked questions (FAQs) on the country’s new transfer pricing law.

The tax authority has published a list of eight questions.
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The guidance is effective from January 2022.

Egypt and Qatar signed a tax treaty on 27 February 2023.
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Further details about the treaty would be reported as and when they occur.

On 28 February 2023, the Government of Andorra announced that it has signed a tax treaty with Iceland.
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Further details about the treaty would be reported as and when they occur.

The OECD will hold a public consultation meeting on compliance and tax certainty aspects of global minimum tax on March 16.

This public consultation meeting will discuss the input provided to assist members of the Inclusive Framework in completing the work relating to those aspects and preserve consistent and coordinated outcomes for MNEs while minimizing compliance burdens and avoiding the risk of double taxation.

Registration is open until March 10, 2023.

On 22 February 2023, the Financial Secretary of Hong Kong delivered the country’s 2023/24 Budget.

In the Budget, the Financial Secretary revealed that the government would soon launch a public consultation on the implementation of the GloBE Rules.
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The Budget also reveals that the government is considering to implement a domestic minimum top-up tax starting from 2025.