The row between commercial banks in the Caribbean and the larger ones on the American mainland just would not go away. In the past week, finance officials from across the globe and from multilateral institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) flew to Antigua for a conference on the… – Continue reading
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued its most recent report on Belize on Monday, following its September 2014 mission to the country, led by Jacques Bouhga-Hagbe. Much of the economic data included in the report has been the subject of recent discussions in Parliament in the context of the 2016-2017… – Continue reading
The Colorado House of Representatives advanced a measure to close offshore tax loopholes on Monday. The move comes on the heels of a new report showing companies are doubling down on efforts to stockpile profits overseas and avoid paying U.S. taxes. Richard Phillips, senior analyst with Citizens for Tax Justice,… – Continue reading
HONG KONG: In the space of about five years, the offshore market in Chinese yuan has gone from the poster child of Beijing’s financial market liberalisation to a battleground to regain control of the currency, spooking investors and raising questions about the future of the market. While investor appetite for… – Continue reading
U.S.-based multinational corporations are allowed to play by a different set of rules than small and domestic businesses or individuals when it comes to the tax code. Rather than paying their fair share, many multinational corporations use accounting tricks to pretend for tax purposes that a substantial portion of their… – Continue reading
If taxed on the nearly $100 billion dollars they keep offshore, the largest U.S. financial institutions could cover the U.S.’s entire poverty-focused foreign assistance budget for 2014. Tax havens are a scourge. They allow individuals and institutions to cloak their financial activity in secrecy to escape and undermine other jurisdictions’… – Continue reading
The investigation and prosecution of tax evasion has, in the last decade, grown from a specialized subcategory of law enforcement into a first-tier policy concern for the global community. Starting with the U.S. government’s crackdown on Swiss bank UBS in 2008, there has been a steady drumbeat of news about… – Continue reading
Tata Steel’s Singapore arm T S Global Holdings Pte raised $1.5 billion debt to settle outstanding loans, the company said in a statement. Tata Steel group executive director-finance and corporate Kaushik Chatterjee said, “Tata Steel actively reviews all its financing options and seeks to continuously optimise its debt based on… – Continue reading
On September 16, 2015, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida entered an order allowing the IRS to proceed with “John Doe” Summonses seeking information regarding US persons who hold offshore accounts at Belize Bank International Limited and Belize Bank Limited (the “Belize Banks”).1 These summonses… – Continue reading
On a warm afternoon last month, Mexican central bank Governor Agustin Carstens looked out over sun-drenched piles of dirt and construction equipment near Guadalajara and hailed the groundbreaking of a new currency-printing plant as a sign of a solid economy. There’s one catalyst for rising cash demand that isn’t a… – Continue reading
The most common error NRIs commit while filing tax returns is to use the status of residents in India. Non-resident Indians (NRIs) in the UAE enjoy the twin advantages of not having to pay tax in their country of domicile and most sources of income are exempted from tax in… – Continue reading
Nearly three-quarters of Fortune 500 companies booked their profits to tax havens last year, with just 30 companies accounting for 62 percent of earnings stashed offshore, according to a new report. The report, “Offshore Shell Games,” released Tuesday by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund and Citizens for Tax Justice, found… – Continue reading
Six of the nation’s largest banks — Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs — utilize a combined 395 known tax havens to avoid potential tax bills in the billions, according to a new analysis. In total, the big six banks kept $126 billion… – Continue reading
Two banks owned by former Tory Party vice-chairman Lord Ashcroft are at the centre of a major US tax evasion investigation. Authorities are probing whether wealthy Americans have been using the banks, based in the Central American tax haven Belize, to shelter funds offshore. Billionaire Lord Ashcroft is the majority… – Continue reading
AS the more lurid and unproven claims in Lord Ashcroft’s self-published hatchet job on the prime minister attract widespread ridicule, more embarrassment looms for the Tory peer concerning his banking operations in shady Belize. The US Department of Justice recently issued a summons for details of so-called correspondent bank accounts… – Continue reading
US taxpayers with secret bank accounts in Belize are about to feel the full force of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). A federal court in Miami has issued summonses against Belize Bank International and Belize Bank aiming to identify accounts controlled by US taxpayers from 2006 until 2014. Belize banks… – Continue reading
U.S. authorities have targeted Belize-based banks in a new expansion of their hunt for Americans suspected of evading taxes by hiding income and assets in offshore accounts. A federal court in Miami on Wednesday approved special “John Doe” legal summonses seeking information about U.S. taxpayers who may hold undeclared accounts… – Continue reading
Stimulus unleashed by China’s central bank will cushion Chinese companies –the region’s biggest dollar debt issuers — from a potential Federal Reserve interest rate increase, making cheaper yuan funds available. Five interest rate cuts by the People’s Bank of China since November and rules to relax yuan bond issuance onshore… – Continue reading
Recently, there’s been a lot of news about the difficulties that 2 banks in Belize have been having after their correspondent banking relationship was severed by the Bank of America. The Prime Minister has commented that it’s a situation that is lamentable, but inevitable. Not surprisingly, Opposition Leader Francis Fonseca… – Continue reading
While CIBC FirstCaribbean and Heritage Bank are working to formalize the sale of assets, another offshore institution operating from Belize is yet to secure a correspondent bank. As we’ve reported previously, Bank of America has severed ties with Atlantic International Bank Limited as part of an ongoing de-risking exercise. The… – Continue reading
A U.S. Senate investigative subcommittee, which has used its power for more than a decade to scrutinize corporations and financial institutions for wrongdoing, is shifting its focus to keeping tabs on the government. The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is slated to hold its first hearing under new leadership… – Continue reading
LAUSANNE — Julius Baer Group should have cash to purchase rivals even as it prepares to settle a four-year probe into tax evasion by the US justice department. Switzerland’s third-largest wealth manager said last month it set aside $350m to fund a financial agreement over the bank’s role in helping… – Continue reading
Banque Syz SA of Geneva is buying Royal Bank of Canada’s Swiss private bank as foreign financial firms retreat from Switzerland amid higher regulatory costs. The business, based in Geneva, had 10 billion Swiss francs ($10.5 billion) of client assets under management at the end of October, Royal Bank said… – Continue reading
A corporate tax reform coalition blasted President Obama’s international tax proposals on Tuesday, saying they would accelerate the sort of offshore maneuvers that Democrats want to eliminate. The Alliance for Competitive Taxation said that the White House’s proposal to impose a minimum tax on multinational corporations’ foreign earnings would only… – Continue reading
June 30 — Taxpayers continue to wrestle with big questions a year after the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act opened for business. Acknowledging that the Internal Revenue Service is doing its best to implement a complex law, issues still remain as the reach of FATCA goes global, practitioners told Bloomberg… – Continue reading
Julius Baer Group Ltd. rose the most in four months in Zurich trading on speculation a U.S. fine for helping Americans avoid taxes will be lower than analysts had estimated. Switzerland’s third-largest wealth manager said on Tuesday it will take a provision of $350 million this month to settle the… – Continue reading
Turnover at UK and offshore investment companies has risen rapidly, with almost one in five fund managers being replaced in the past 18 months amid growing pressure to improve performance, reports the Financial Times. Figures from the Association of Investment Companies showed that 18 per cent of funds had appointed… – Continue reading
Swiss banks that aren’t dependent on the country’s crumbling financial secrecy laws may find international expansion easier than those that sold hidden accounts in the past, according to Switzerland’s financial supervisor. “The shift away from businesses which rely on some elements of banking secrecy is changing the perception” of Swiss… – Continue reading
British Virgin Islands, Caymans and Turks & Caicos feature heavily in justice department indictment of senior football officials British overseas tax havens play a key role in what US authorities have called “rampant, systemic and deep-rooted” corruption in the world of football, analysis by the Observer reveals. The 164-page US… – Continue reading
Six of the biggest names in global finance shelled out billions of dollars Wednesday to settle charges of rigging currency markets, but liberal lawmakers complain the government is just doling out slaps on the wrist. On Wednesday, the Justice Department announced a settlement that also saw five banks plead guilty… – Continue reading
If Illinois small business owners were to collectively offset state and federal revenues lost annually due to corporations using offshore tax havens, they would each have to pay $4,570 in additional taxes a year. That what-if scenario is laid out in a recent report from the Illinois Public Interest Research… – Continue reading
The true cost of the debt that China’s real estate developers peddled to eager international investors during a five-year property boom is now becoming clear. Having found themselves shut out of local bond and loan markets seven years ago, a band of developers began looking elsewhere for funds. First an… – Continue reading
On Tuesday we told you about what the Prime Minister said at the Summit of the America’s about the perilous state of Belize and the Region’s banking industry after draconian anti money laundering measures were enacted by the US Government. He said, quote, “there is a crisis in my own… – Continue reading
Introduction Soft commodity prices, divergent monetary policies across major economies, high unemployment rates and weak world trade have all conspired to slow down global economic recovery over the past seven years. Consequently, governments have had to cut spending as future revenues remain uncertain. This has led governments to look for… – Continue reading
Apple is worth roughly 700 billion dollars. Microsoft is worth rough 70 billion. Over the past few years, congressional hearings exposed how both companies moved money overseas to avoid paying U.S. taxes. But as a new report shows, Apple and Microsoft are two of dozens of companies who take part… – Continue reading
Corporations like Apple shouldn’t get a sweetheart deal to “onshore” profits, tax expert Scott Klinger tells Salon One of the more consequential paradoxes of American politics concerns the myth and the reality of bipartisan legislation. The myth is that American voters want it, and they want it bad. In fact,… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Bank of America, Citi Bank and HSBC are interested in setting up their offshore branches in the country’s first international financial services centre (IFC) in Gujarat, said AK Jha, CEO of GIFT City to ET Now. “All Indian banks that have offshore branches are willing to set up… – Continue reading
(Bloomberg) — Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc agreed to sell its Coutts International private banking business to Switzerland’s Union Bancaire Privee, as the bailed-out British lender retreats from the Swiss wealth market. RBS is expected to sell Coutts for 350 million francs ($360 million) to 400 million francs, depending… – Continue reading
ESPN has a great series entitled “30-for-30” where the narrator asks, “What if I told you …?” What if I told you that a state agency, charged with protecting the interests of Hoosiers actually endorsed the bid of an offshore equity fund to buy the Indiana Toll Road lease rights… – Continue reading
Giant financial institutions that benefitted from federal bailouts during the depths of the recession have repaid the American people’s largesse by hiding profits overseas to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. According to a report (pdf) commissioned by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), four big banks—Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Bank of… – Continue reading
Under a plan baked into the White House’s budget for 2016, U.S. corporations would theoretically be forced to pay hundreds of billions in new taxes on money kept abroad. Levying fees on the $2.1 trillion in funds largely held by shell companies through an accounting trick called deferral, the move,… – Continue reading
NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Bank of America (BAC) has just been accused of using U.S. government-insured depositor money to finance trades facilitating “dividend tax arbitrage.” This is the practice of moving stocks around to different jurisdictions so that the ultimate client beneficial owner of the stock minimizes the tax he… – Continue reading
Bank of America and four other banks have been queried by financial regulators about a complex trading maneuver that allows hedge funds to escape certain taxes. Reuters Financial regulators are heightening their focus on banks involved in complex international trades designed to skirt taxes, the Wall Street Journal reports. The… – Continue reading
Bank of America’s projected $16 billion settlement for selling toxic mortgages is expected to be the largest in the history of corporate America, but it’s also likely to include some hidden, and significant, financial benefits for the giant bank. With some $7 billion of the total likely to come in… – Continue reading
Bank of America tops the list of Charlotte-based companies avoiding big tax bills by keeping profits offshore, according to a new report by a nonprofit tax research and advocacy group. Citizens for Tax Justice found that 301 U.S. Fortune 500 companies disclosed holding nearly $2 trillion in profits offshore. By… – Continue reading
