The University of San Diego School of Law-Procopio International Tax Institute presented its fourth annual conference, "International Update: U.S.-Mexico-Canada Cross-Border Tax Issues," May 1-2.

David Laro, long-time judge for the U.S. tax court and visiting professor at USD, international tax attorney Jack Anderson and ambassador Jeffrey Davidow, president of the Institute of the Americas, delivered the keynote addresses at the intensive, two-day educational and networking event.

U.S. Treasury lawyer Ginny Chung confirmed the Treasury Department will continue to study the Mexican IETU for several more years before they will be able to make a final determination of whether the IETU tax will definitively be a tax eligible for a foreign tax credit.

IRS attorney John Merrick confirmed various U.S. tax treatment of cross-border structured investments on the panel discussion "Cross Border Tax Planning Strategies for Real Estate: How to Structure Private and Public Real Estate Holdings." He confirmed the ability of U.S. investment funds to be eligible to a reduced U.S. tax rate of 15 percent on qualified dividends structured from Mexican business trusts and Mexican companies that operate a real estate joint venture development in Mexico.