Marriage has become as globalized as business today. If one spouse is a non-citizen, there are some minor challenges in drafting estate planning documents to minimize United States estate taxes, and we recommend consulting with counsel in the non-citizen’s home country. If the non-citizen’s family has substantial wealth, there are opportunities to reduce, or even eliminate, U.S. estate and gift tax on transfers to that individual ...
In prior years, certain tax-exempt organizations whose gross receipts did not normally exceed $25,000 were exempt from filing the standard Form 990. Now, this threshold is $50,000, and for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2010, such organizations must submit a Form 990-N “e-Postcard” annually (rather than the Form 990-EZ or Form 990 required of larger organizations). Private foundations and supporting organizations may not file the Form 990-N ...
HARMONIZATION OF CLINICAL RESEARCH CONTRACTS IN QUEBEC OLGA FARMAN and MARIE-ÈVE CLAVET [email protected] [email protected] Over the past few decades, a high-quality system of research and innovation has been built in the Province of Quebec. The contractual research conducted by university-affiliated health-care institutions in Quebec has become a fundamental scientific, economic and social activity ...
The last minute compromise which averted the expiration of the Bush tax cuts included a two-year modification of the estate, gift, and generation-skipping taxes. For 2011 and 2012, every individual will have a $5 million gift tax exemption. For individuals dying in 2011 or 2012, the estate tax exemption is also $5 million, and the generation-skipping transfer (“GST”) tax exemption for transfers during life or at death is $5 million ...
On February 8, 2011, the IRS announced a second voluntary disclosure program that will allow U.S. taxpayers to disclose offshore accounts that were previously kept secret from the IRS. U.S. citizens and resident foreign nationals are required to pay U.S. federal income tax on their worldwide income. The objective of this initiative is to bring taxpayers that have used undisclosed foreign accounts to avoid or evade taxes into compliance with United States tax laws ...
Recently, the Exempt Organizations Office (“EO”) of the IRS released a list of 2011 initiatives, including international activities and compliance. The following are just a few of the items on the IRS’s radar for the coming year. Employment Tax Examinations. In 2011, the EO plans to conduct full examinations of 500 exempt organizations to determine compliance with employment tax rules as part of a project reviewing employment tax practices of both taxable and tax-exempt organizations ...
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has recently announced two significant enforcement actions against health care providers for violating the HIPAA Privacy Rule. In the first matter, Cignet Health Care of Prince George’s County, MD was fined $4.3 million for failure to provide patients with access to their health records and for failing to cooperate with the ensuing OCR investigation ...
How is health care in your jurisdiction organised? The basic principles of the organisation of the health-care system are governed by Act CLIV of 1997 (the Health-care System Act), more specifically by sections 141 et seq. Pursuant to section 141, the state is ultimately responsible for the state of health of the population, and for the creation of a system that protects, promotes and – if necessary – restores it ...
These days many US businesses are looking north to Canada for new markets. This paper discusses when a US business needs to worry about the Canadian tax system. The short answer comes from some of the oldest provisions in the Income Tax Act. US businesses need to worry about Canadian tax when they have a physical presence in Canada. To read this paper, click here. For more information please contact Len Glass at [email protected] or 604.631.9140 ...
* The New Act Respecting the Legal Publicity of Enterprises and Trusts * New Filing Requirements for Partnerships * Requests for Production of Documents by the Tax Authorities * Your’re Fired!: The Impact on the Exercise of Stock Options THE NEW ACT RESPECTING THE LEGAL PUBLICITY OF ENTERPRISES AND TRUSTS André Paquette apaquette@lavery ...
Contents* Major Relief for Non-Residents of Canada * A New act on Legal Publicity * Stock options Can Be advantageous, But Be Careful! * Adoption of IFRS and Recent GaaP Changes: The impact on Credit agreements MAJOR RELIEF FOR NON-RESIDENTS OF CANADAPhilippe Asselinpasselin@lavery ...
Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) will face large start-up costs under proposed rules issued on March 31, 2011 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), with an uncertain outlook for savings and even possible losses. An ACO is an organization of health care providers that agrees to be accountable for cost, quality and the overall care of Medicare beneficiaries who are assigned to it ...
As we stated in our bulletin last week, on March 31st, the federal government outlined proposed actions relating to Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), a key component of the healthcare reform legislation (the Affordable Care Act, or ACA) enacted in March 2010. In this bulletin, we provide some additional information regarding each of the March 31st releases ...
On April 18, 2011, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began the attestation phase under its $27 billion Medicare EHR Incentive Program. Incentive payments for the meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR) will begin in May 2011 and will continue over the next several years. Eligible professionals (i.e ...
It currently appears that Texas may join a growing number of states that have passed laws aimed at increasing tax collection from online retail transactions. On Wednesday, April 27, 2011, the Texas House passed H.B. 2403, which provides that out-of-state retailers that have relationships with certain Texas “affiliated” entities will be deemed to be doing business in Texas for purposes of the sales and use tax. H.B. 2403 will now be sent to the Texas Senate for consideration ...
A former GlaxoSmithKline attorney, Lauren Stevens, was acquitted on May 10 of all criminal charges stemming from her response to an FDA investigation. The acquittal, ordered by U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus, is a stunning defeat for the government’s anti-fraud enforcement measures. The judge also severely rebuked the government’s efforts in the matter, stating the case should never have been prosecuted. Had she been convicted, Stevens would have faced a prison term of up to 60 years ...
Southwest Health Alliance (“Southwest”), an independent practice association with approximately 900 member-physicians, has agreed to a proposed order recently entered by the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) settling charges that it engaged in anticompetitive conduct in its dealings with insurers and other payors for the provision of physician services (collectively, “insurers” or “payors”) ...
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the creation of so-called “Pioneer ACOs” on May 17 in an attempt to blunt heavy criticism over the draft regulations on Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) issued on March 31, 2011 (the “Draft Regulations”).1 The Draft Regulations have been criticized due to their burdensome data collection requirements, large start-up costs, uncertain savings, possible losses and troublesome governance mandates ...
On May 25, 2011, the en banc Federal Circuit announced its decision in Therasense, Inc. v. Becton, Dickinson & Company regarding the appropriate standards for succeeding with an inequitable conduct defense ...
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the Department of Health and Human Services today proposed an expansion of the rights of individuals to obtain reports from health providers and insurers about how their protected health information (PHI) is used.1 The draft regulations will require health providers and insurers (called “Covered Entities”) to provide more data faster and in a variety of formats as requested by individuals ...
The interaction between the Treaty and Uruguayan tax rules Permanent establishment (Pe)1 and Fixed base for business (Fbb)2 The concept of permanent establishment3 for corporate activity, and the concept of a fixed base for business4 for independent individual workers establish the mechanism for apportionment of tax-raising powers between both countries for income of a nature defined in those countries ...
With the U.S. economy not as robust as it once was, it seems that Americans are currently more interested in selling their Canadian assets, particularly recreational property, than buying Canadian assets. It is therefore useful to consider the issues that arise when a U.S. person sells Canadian real estate. The following points are relevant: The U.S ...
On May 4 2011 the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation published on its website the draft law on transfer pricing, which includes the amendments introduced after the first reading held o February 19, 2010 ...