Driven by a record-breaking M&A market and historically low credit spreads, the leveraged loan market was white-hot in the second quarter of 2018.

This edition of the Taxand Global Guide to M&A Tax has been designed as a desktop reference book covering 33 countries and to provide at-a-glance insight into the tax treatment of global mergers and acquisitions.

H1 2018 saw a record total value of European deals in the TMT sector for more than a decade. Transaction value almost tripled to €103 billion (473 deals) from €35 billion (618 deals) last year.

Building digital financial services in countries where many lack access to traditional banking is opening up economic opportunities for the millions of people known as the “unbanked.” It is also boosting efforts to transform companies’ and broader organizations’ ability to deliver services in emerging markets.

Every industry, at some point, will experience a downturn. Those companies that strategically plan for these events, foreseen or unforeseen, are more likely to survive and thrive in a difficult market. In some respects, all industries are cyclical, differentiated only in their severity and the duration of the cycles.

Since the enactment of the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act (PATH) in December 2015, private Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) have become the vehicle of choice for many foreign pension funds investing in U.S. real estate.

Deyan Mollov takes a timely look at what The Guidance for Tax Administrations on the Application of the Approach to Hard-to-Value-Intangibles entails.

In this issue of Raising the Bar, Cristal Brun explores how the shift from volume-based incentive bonus plans (primarily focused on sales) to targeted incentive-based bonus plans (focused on a wider array of criteria) can impact competitive position, profitability and the customer experience.

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) modified Section 162(m) in several significant respects. While the TCJA provided some transition relief for the amendments to Section 162(m), it also introduced a "grandfather rule" that has been the subject of much debate. Notice 2018-68 answers many questions surrounding this grandfather rule and brings some certainty to this area of the tax law. This article will address a few of these issues at length.

Back office spending made in the past is now becoming irrelevant, such as call centers built offshore or in cheaper locations at home, as well as huge data centers. Now companies can buy all the server capacity they need from Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services more cheaply, and telephone services can be provided by robots responding to voice commands.

In this article, we discuss the new IRC Section 199A Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction and key definitions and terminology contained in the proposed regulations.

Few people have heard of the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), an agency of the Commerce Department. The BEA provides the U.S. government with statistical information regarding the U.S. economy. To aid in this endeavor, it does periodic surveys of cross-border investments (U.S. investments abroad and foreign investments in the U.S.).

Mexico’s Fintech industry is poised for growth, leveraging recent regulations, a growing middle class population and increasing capital allocation.

he MiFID II approach to Product Governance has created a benchmark for investment services and products, but the same principles can be applied across all activities and services.

On August 3, 2018, the IRS released proposed regulations (REG 104397-18) on the modifications made to additional first-year depreciation deductions as provided by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). The proposed regulations contain several significant provisions for partnerships and real estate businesses.