The amendment of December 22, 2003 to the EU Parent/Subsidiary Directive was officially published in the Official Journal on January 13, 2004. It enters into force 20 days later, that is on February 2, 2004. Member states have until December 31, 2004 to change their statutes, regulations and other provisions to comply.

The Supreme Tax Court has held that a parent may write a subordinated loan to a subsidiary down to its fair market value calculated on the same lines as for an equity investment

On December 14, 2006, a summary paper of the tax reform for the 2007 fiscal year (the “Summary Paper”) was released by the Japanese government. A draft bill of the tax reform was submitted to the Diet for approval last February, 2007.

A third supplementary protocol to the Dutch tax treaty was signed on June 4. It allocates the right to tax the profits of permanent establishments exactly on the border and the wages of their employees, frees German invalidity pensions to WW II Dutch forced labourers from the Dutch tax net, and grants a Dutch credit for the German withholding tax on portfolio dividends

The Supreme Court has allowed deduction of German VAT borne on inputs for a Dutch building let out to other businesses on the premise that the owner would have elected to charge the outputs to VAT.