Wal-Mart Stores Inc. owns more than $76 billion of assets through a web of units in offshore tax havens around the world, though you wouldn’t know it from reading the giant retailer’s annual report. A new study has found Wal-Mart has at least 78 offshore subsidiaries and branches, more than… – Continue reading
HSBC Holdings Plc and JPMorgan Chase & Co are in talks to relocate parts of their businesses to Luxembourg from the UK as they weigh the possibility of a British exit from the European Union, the Times reported. JPMorgan is close to setting up a bank based in Luxembourg to… – Continue reading
France is trying to squeeze more out of web businesses like EBay Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Airbnb Inc. Soaring online sales and the use of the Internet giants by smaller businessses as a marketplace for goods and services is prompting the French Senate to look for ways to collect more… – Continue reading
As the financial world continues its march towards a more transparent and open environment, regulations governing private wealth are under scrutiny. The traditional is changing for good while new players emerge. Once was a time, not too long ago, the words “Swiss bank” conjured up evocative imagery: secret deals; bank… – Continue reading
Before the 2008 financial crisis, Mexican banks had a big problem: too many dollars. Tourism and businesses in the northern border areas near the US, as well as remittances, brought greenbacks flowing into Mexico. This left Mexico awash with dollars — a massive US$14bn in surplus US bank¬notes — which… – Continue reading
The amount of money paid to informants by HMRC in its attempts to crack down on tax evasion has leapt by more than 50% in a year to a record high of £605,000. The tax authorities are increasingly rewarding tip-offs in an attempt to recoup the tens of billions lost… – Continue reading
The last time the US tried repatriation – in 2004 – companies took the tax breaks and fired American workers. Better to close loopholes and invest in infrastructure If you had a spoiled 10-year-old at home who you found rifling through your wallet, what would you do? Would you spank… – Continue reading
HARTFORD — “GE! Pay your taxes!” The chants of about 45 union and political activists echoed inside the Connecticut Business and Industry Association lobby Thursday. The group, organized by the Working Families Party and major unions in the state, was delivering a letter to CBIA, the largest business lobby in… – Continue reading
EU regulators’ investigations into the low tax arrangements of Apple (AAPL.O), Starbucks (SBUX.O) and Amazon (AMZN.O) in some member states are at an advanced stage and decisions could be announced in the coming months, a senior European Commission official said on Thursday. The investigations centre on Luxembourg’s tax rulings for… – Continue reading
SINGAPORE, June 11 (IFR) – By selling what market sources say is the first offshore bond from a Chinese trust company, Zhongrong International Trust has opened a new funding route for the country’s shadow banks as they look to expand overseas. Zhongrong, China’s second largest trust company in asset terms,… – Continue reading
Toothless Eurocrats wail and gnash gums over big biz invite snub Amazon, Facebook and Google are among those who have been invited to a pow-wow with MEPs over their tax practices – but not all plan to show up. MEPs said on Tuesday that it’s regrettable that the multinationals “seem… – Continue reading
The UK tax body, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), has completed a successful trial of Google Apps and will be rolling out the service to more of its staff throughout the year, reports The Register. HMRC has 70,000 staff, and as such will be Whitehall’s first mass deployment of… – 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
LONDON — Like other global institutions, HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, has been under severe pressure since the 2008 financial crisis to cut costs, meet stringent new regulatory demands and satisfy restless shareholders. To that end, the British bank said on Tuesday that it would shed as many as 50,000 of… – Continue reading
In November 2014 the WikiLeaks scandal known as “LuxLeaks”, the large scale exposure of over 340 companies (such as IKEA, Coca-Cola and Disney) who paid a rate of one per cent or less tax on profits moved to Luxembourg by advance pricing arrangements has affected all nationalities and brought the… – Continue reading
“The same methodology [in the HSBC case] appeared in the JP Morgan investigation, the most important given that there is a witness who has implicated himself, the corporation’s Latin American chief. Due to a conflict with his employer, he has made a complaint in Argentina naming himself as the organizer… – Continue reading
BRUSSELS–The European Union said it was seeking fresh information from 15 EU countries on tax deals granted to individual companies, and ordered two governments to comply with its requests, deepening a high-profile tax investigation that has so far embroiled four multinationals including Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. The twin moves… – Continue reading
MUNICH — Leaders of the Group of Seven nations are set to agree on the creation of a system to counter tax evasion and tax avoidance by multinational enterprises, during the G-7 summit meeting to be held in Germany on Sunday and Monday, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. G-7 leaders… – Continue reading
Australia should consider adopting tax structures like those used in Ireland and Luxembourg in order to attract greater foreign investment, the government’s tax advisory body has recommended. On Thursday night, Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg released several reports by the Board of Tax, which advises the government on how to reform… – Continue reading
Google’s European chief has admitted that the company screwed up in Europe. The search giant has a strained relationship on the continent, facing a litany of complaints and accusations on issues ranging from alleged tax avoidance to anti-trust allegations. In response, the Californian company shook up its operational structure in… – Continue reading
Companies take a second look at domestic outsourcing options as Syracuse, Jacksonville, Tampa and Lansing top the list of American hot spots for IT and business process services. A number of midsize American cities now make attractive alternatives to offshore locations in India and elsehwere for IT and business process… – Continue reading
Tax doesn’t have to be taxing for US firm with inside track Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is the first major department to move to Google Apps, part of an apparent loosening of Microsoft’s stranglehold on the government’s software services. The department will join the Cabinet Office and Department… – Continue reading
A European probe into the Irish taxes paid by technology giant Apple, as well as multi-nationals in Luxembourg and the Netherlands, is close to finishing. The news came as Taoiseach Enda Kenny issues a robust defence of Ireland’s corporate tax regime, which has been under international pressure in recent years… – Continue reading
NEW YORK (TheStreet) — General Electric (GE – Get Report) CEO Jeffrey Immelt, discontented with Connecticut’s plans to raise taxes by what he says will be $1.9 billion statewide, informed workers today that he will consider moving its headquarters out of state. The announcement may be a bargaining chip to… – Continue reading
Chief prosecutor for canton’s decision to investigate despite inaction by other Swiss regulators shows power struggle within establishment The £28m HSBC will pay in “compensation” to the Swiss authorities following a money laundering investigation may be no more than a drop in the lake for Europe’s biggest bank, but it… – Continue reading
(Bloomberg) — HSBC Holdings Plc will learn the results of a Geneva probe into allegations of money laundering at its Swiss private banking unit when prosecutors hold a press conference. Representatives for prosecutors and HSBC declined to immediately comment on what will be disclosed at the press conference, which will… – Continue reading
International Christian groups are hailing a report demanding fresh solutions to tax dodging by multinational companies. The World Council of Churches and the UK’s Christian Aid cite researchers from the International Monetary Fund who say tax rules could be costing developing countries $212 billion a year. The report, from the… – Continue reading
There’s been a preliminary investigation into the amount of money that secret bank accounts Belgians have in Switzerland can yield for the Belgian treasury. It turns out the answer is EUR 540 million. Finance Minister Johan Van Overtveldt (Flemish Nationalists) revealed the figures to financial newspaper De Tijd. “However, the… – Continue reading
The special committee leading the European Parliament’s inquiry into tax rulings has upped the pressure on businesses and European governments. The inquiry will be extended until October. EurActiv France reports. Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Luxembourg and Switzerland have one thing in common. These five countries have all received an investigative… – Continue reading
THE South African Revenue Service (SARS ) is to significantly beef up its capacity to deal with base erosion and profit shifting, which has received intense focus by MPs over the last few months. SARS commissioner Tom Moyane said on Wednesday 24 more tax specialists would be employed in the… – Continue reading
Belgium is seeking to retrieve about €540m (£390, $600m) in unpaid tax after its probe into 829 accounts in HSBC Private Suisse Bank in Geneva. Belgian finance minister Johan Van Overtveldt earlier made the estimate, which has been confirmed by various media outlets. The people, who were found to be… – Continue reading
On Thursday, May 28, 2015, the Department of Justice announced that pursuant to its August 29, 2013 Swiss Bank Program, it had reached settlement with four additional Swiss banks. The newest banks to settle, Société Générale Private Banking (Lugano-Svizzera), MediBank AG, LBBW (Schweiz) AG, and Scobag Privatbank AG, will pay… – Continue reading
It’s time for a complete overhaul of the global tax system to ensure each company pays their fair share, says Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz. A group of leading economists — led by Stiglitz — issued a call Tuesday for countries to overhaul the system to prevent multinationals such as Apple… – Continue reading
One in six of the world’s largest companies have a subsidiary based in a tax haven According to research from Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI), 16.3% of the 1,612 companies in its MSCI World index are either domiciled in a tax haven or have at least one majority-owned subsidiary in… – Continue reading
It is rich to see General Electric lead the pack of companies complaining about oppressive taxes. GE notoriously paid no federal income taxes from 2008 to 2013, according to the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. In fact, its corporate tax rate was negative 9 percent; GE got back from taxpayers… – Continue reading
The five biggest suppliers of publicly subsidised medicines in Australia recorded sales of nearly $5 billion last year but paid an average of just $10 million each in company tax. Research by the Parliamentary Library, obtained by Fairfax Media, has disclosed the tax contribution of multinational pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer… – Continue reading
Governing and opposition MPs submitted a bill to the Hungarian Parliament yesterday that would amend legislation on the state-owned Hungarian Development Bank (MFB) to exempt a broader range of its dealings with failed brokerage Quaestor from rules on banking secrecy. The bill was designed to broaden the scope of data… – Continue reading
SAN DIEGO – A former J.P. Morgan Chase banker was ordered today to serve six months in prison for her role in a commercial bribery and tax-evasion scheme. While handing down the sentence to 51-year-old Lynda Sanabria in a San Diego courtroom, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez also ordered her… – Continue reading
HSBC, the giant UK bank, is so slow it’s dangerous. The bank, hammered in 2012 for its lax anti-money-laundering safeguards, is still “under serious money-laundering and sanctions risk” because it hasn’t tightened up parts of its operation, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said Monday. Without top-flight safeguards, HSBC could still be… – Continue reading
State Street Corp. was ordered by regulators to revamp its compliance programs after deficiencies were found related to internal controls, customer due-diligence procedures and transaction monitoring. The Boston-based bank had warned last month that it would likely face a public enforcement action from the Federal Reserve and Massachusetts Division of… – Continue reading
Barclays has launched an internal review into whether its accounts were used for corrupt payments by FIFA officials, a banking source told AFP on Sunday. Standard Chartered has also said it was investigating payments cited in the US indictment. UK-headquartered Barclays, Standard Chartered and HSBC were among more than a… – 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
Even 30 years would not suffice for the existing mechanisms to complete their investigation of all seven lists of suspected tax dodgers and money launderers that financial prosecutors have in their hands, accounting for billions of euros. The sum of the tax ID numbers (AFM) included on the lists –… – Continue reading
The Swiss government and hundreds of Swiss banks have been roiled by the U.S. crackdown on American tax evaders. With six years of almost non-stop hits to the country and its bankers, it may be no surprise that now Switzerland is publishing the names of foreign tax evaders. Some observers… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: A special service provided by HSBC Geneva may help some Swiss bank account holders to escape penalty and prosecution by the Indian tax office. The British bank had advised and helped them to hold unaccounted wealth through complex structures that have no apparent links with resident Indians. Money was… – Continue reading
Sluggish syndicated loan dealflow is proving to be good news for small and mid-cap privately-owned Chinese companies like Golden Eagle Group and Xinyi Solar, which are finding themselves able to enjoy pricing levels usually reserved for better known names. And so great is bank demand for assets that looser structuring… – Continue reading
Bern, Switzerland: As India tries to uncover who has stashed untaxed money abroad, Switzerland is, in an unusual deviation from its super-secretive banking rules, releasing the names of people who are being investigated for alleged tax evasion in their countries of origin. Among the seven Indians named so far by… – Continue reading
An appeals court ruled Wednesday that Lone Star Funds should pay some 64.8 billion won ($58 million) in a corporate tax refund suit filed by the U.S. buyout fund against a regional tax office. The Yeoksam Tax Office levied some 104 billion won in corporate tax on Lone Star over… – Continue reading
Fortescue Metals Group established a company in Singapore that could buy and sell its iron ore more than a year before it started attacking its rivals for doing the same thing. The company, called Fortescue International Marketing, is incorporated and domiciled in Singapore. Still dormant, it is ready to be… – Continue reading
The U.S. is examining banks’ conduct as part of a wide-ranging corruption probe of international soccer that has led to charges against 14 people, including officials with the sport’s organizing body. Money involved in the two-decade-old bribery scheme passed through U.S. banks including Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.,… – Continue reading
