In This Issue:

- U.S. International Tax Policy: 10 Questions for 2015

- The New UK Diverted Profits Tax

- France Implements Horizontal Tax Consolidation

- China’s New General Anti-Avoidance Rules: An Overview

- Renewable Energy Tax Update

- Excerpt from U.S. International Tax Policy: 10 Questions for 2015:

The year 2015 promises to be an active one in U.S. international tax policy, as new players take the stage in the tax reform debate, the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) effort continues to develop and even begins to go into effect around the world, and corporate inversions remain a hot tax policy topic after a year of intense publicity and aggressive executive action. Against this backdrop, 2015 likely will feature a great deal of activity in the international tax arena, even if fundamental changes to the U.S. international tax regime remain unlikely in the near term. Here are 10 pressing questions that may be answered as the year unfolds.

1. Can “business only” tax reform be made to work?

It is widely agreed that President Obama and congressional Republicans are too far apart on individual income tax policy to make that a productive area of discussion. On the other hand, it is often said that the two sides “are not that far apart” on business tax reform, in the sense that almost everyone agrees that the U.S. corporate income tax rate is too high and that the tax base should be broadened in at least some respects as part of a rate reduction effort. Thus business tax reform could be an area of constructive engagement during 2015. More detailed discussions over the course of this year will reveal how much agreement there really is between the two sides, as well as how challenging it will be to design a coherent business tax reform approach without broadly implicating the individual income tax rules, in light of the fact that so much business is conducted through pass-through entities whose income is taxable under the individual regime.