Britain’s banks have in recent years paid a third of the corporation tax they were paying less than a decade ago despite a rebound in profits, a study showed yesterday, reports the Times of Malta. The study comes as HSBC and Standard Chartered assess whether to move their headquarters to… – Continue reading
Research shows corporation tax receipts from banks are lower than before crisis despite global tax payments staying constant Britain’s banks are paying far less in corporation tax to the Exchequer than before the crisis, despite their profits improving and global tax payments staying constant. Research from Cambridge Judge Business School… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: On a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out, albeit indirectly, at the Congress for looting the country for 60 years, Swiss authorities named five Indians among several foreign nationals with Swiss bank accounts. Their names have been made public by Switzerland in its federal gazette. The… – Continue reading
A state-run United Arab Emirates (UAE) company and its Dutch subsidiary filed a request for arbitration Thursday, seeking compensation from the Korean government over taxation worth US$170 million five years ago, a civic group said Friday, reports the Korea Times. The Lawyers for a Democratic Society said the Abu Dhabi-based… – Continue reading
The company decided to declare its revenues since European regulators started to investigate its accounting practices. Internet retailer Amazon paid about US$16 million to Germany in 2014, while the giant multinational recorded a total earning of US$16 billion in that country, according to the country’s regulators. In the past, the… – 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
Switzerland has begun online publication of names of foreigners and foreign firms wanted in tax probes by their countries of origin, including Germany. American citizens are identified only by their initials. The Swiss Sunday newspaper “Sonntagszeitung” said the alpine nation was flooded with formal tracing requests from foreign tax authorities…. – Continue reading
New Delhi: Government on Monday asked income tax department to take steps to unearth domestic black money while keeping a close watch on ponzi schemes, bogus IPOs and other such illegal means of raising money. The government is determined to fight menace of black money both abroad and inside the… – Continue reading
Switzerland has begun revealing alleged foreign tax dodgers that are wanted by tax authorities in their native countries, Swiss newspaper Sonntagszeitung reported. MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Names, birth dates and nationalities of people suspected by their countries of origin to have stashed money in the alpine tax haven are being published… – Continue reading
Argentine political analysis is increasingly introspective but sometimes it is worth looking at developments in the wider world in order to place things in perspective. The substantial rise in the tax burden over the past decade has led to plenty of local moaning and groaning at both national and provincial… – Continue reading
America the not so brave CRACKING down on tax evasion “has been a core piece of President Obama’s agenda” since before he took office, according to a spokesman. His administration’s campaign to that end has been a “groundbreaking” success, according to the Department of Justice, the agency that has led… – Continue reading
It has become a $2 trillion question. Why don’t companies have to make clear exactly how much of their profits are generated offshore each year and not taxed in this country? Why must investors engage in jujitsu to estimate these figures and the risks associated with them? Companies, like individuals,… – Continue reading
The full-throated confidence that HP CEO Meg Whitman voiced last quarter about the company’s Enterprise Services business was replaced by some stark realism on Thursday. Enterprise Services is HP’s consulting and IT offshoring business — it helps HP customers use technology more efficiently, and handles their IT needs. In the… – Continue reading
A US criminal investigation into how Swiss banks such as Julius Baer allegedly helped wealthy Americans to hide their money is likely to stretch into next year, the US ambassador to Switzerland signalled in a newspaper interview, reports Reuters. The criminal probe into a handful of banks has paved the… – Continue reading
DOUBTS have been raised about whether planned new laws will be powerful enough to rake in billions of offshore tax dollars from multi-national companies. TREASURER Joe Hockey has promised to stop companies using complex schemes to escape paying tax, but University of Sydney academic Anthony Ting says a close look… – Continue reading
Actor John Malkovich has sued the French daily paper Le Monde over false reports saying he had a secret Swiss account. The defamation suit is the latest proof that having an undisclosed account in Switzerland—or perhaps anywhere—is an embarrassment for anyone. Whether politician, public figure, or anyone else, no one… – Continue reading
* Assets under management down 1 pct to 289 bln Sfr at end-April * Net new money growth at the low end of target range * Shares up 9.2 pct year to date (Adds detail, shares) ZURICH, May 19 (Reuters) – Swiss private bank Julius Baer said its assets under… – Continue reading
The Lower House and Senate Committee investigating the existence of secret HSBC bank accounts in Switzerland met today with the presence of the bank’s internal auditor Diego Esquenazi, and external auditor Mabel Casillas. During his presentation, Esquenazi asserted that “As chief of the bank’s internal auditing, I deny all the… – Continue reading
As part of a push to control money laundering in the global banking system, the HKMA has called on lenders to peek into customers’ filings, reports the South China Morning Post. Banks in Hong Kong are calculating just how much tax expertise they will need to add over the coming… – Continue reading
THE BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government, which had made a lot of noise about black money and the illegal stashing of funds abroad in the run-up to general elections last year, finally got down to some serious work to tax ill-gotten wealth and curb its growth. Last week, the government… – Continue reading
KUALA LUMPUR: MIDF Equities Research says the Malaysian stock market is in need of a spark after its rather indifferent response to the strengthening of the ringgit and the oil price. The research house said the Bursa Malaysia’s indices have traded in a narrow range in the last three weeks…. – Continue reading
The I-T dept has received over 500 applications from MNCs for signing APAs. Income-tax department has set a target of 50 advance pricing agreements (APAs) to be sealed with multinational companies in the current fiscal that will exempt cross-border transactions by these firms from rigorous auditing to check income suppression…. – Continue reading
Luxembourg has been a prime destination for Canadians looking for a tax haven. Secretive. Discreet. Accommodating. These features were so attractive that Canadian companies, including a federal pension fund, sent $36 billion there in 2013. But new Statistics Canada data shows that more than $5 billion got pulled out of… – Continue reading
“We will have a black money discussion (with finance minister Arun Jaitley) to solve and clarify (the issue),” said Swiss economic affairs minister. Amid India enacting a law to deal with the menace of black money stashed abroad, Switzerland on Friday said that it is considering amendments in its domestic… – Continue reading
The minimum alternate tax row has damaged the credibility of government promises to enforce an investor-friendly tax regime and made the Indian stock market Asia’s worst performer this year New Delhi/Mumbai: Castleton Investment Ltd, a unit of GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK), in 2012 asked an arm of the Indian finance ministry… – Continue reading
Last night, the Federal Treasurer, Joe Hockey MP, released the 2015-16 Federal Budget. After public self-evaluation of its last budget as over-reaching, the Government has gone back to basics whilst still focussing on repairing the budget deficit in the medium to long term. The budget deficit is projected to be… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON, May 15 (Reuters) – Finter Bank Zurich AG has agreed to pay $5.4 million in a deal with the Justice Department to resolve tax-related offenses, becoming the third Swiss private bank this year to reach a settlement to avoid U.S. prosecution over helping Americans evade taxes. Finter, a small… – Continue reading
JOHANNESBURG – There is considerable scope to collect more revenue by addressing tax leakage due to transfer pricing. Speaking at a forum event hosted by the Gordon Institute of Business Science (Gibs), Judge Dennis Davis, chair of the Tax Committee that was tasked with a comprehensive review of South Africa’s… – Continue reading
Head of forum’s tax policy will push for reform to cut down on avoidance. The OECD has attacked the “extremely aggressive” tax planning of companies such as Google, Amazon and Apple as it pushes for reform of global tax rules to cut down on avoidance. Pascal Saint-Amans, who heads up… – Continue reading
The Swiss cabinet plans on addressing the issue of stolen data with regard to banking information requests from other countries. This comes as Switzerland is under close scrutiny for compliance with international standards. In its meeting on Wednesday, the cabinet discussed the thorny issue of stolen data. Switzerland currently does… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: The Special Investigation Team on black money informed the Supreme Court on Tuesday that 339 accounts in HSBC bank held by Indians had a net amount of Rs 6,400 crore on which the income tax department has raised a demand of Rs 4,520 crore. “Amount of Rs 237… – Continue reading
HSBC Holdings’s Geneva private bank is no longer a place where wealthy people go to hide untaxed assets, according to Franco Morra, chief executive officer for HSBC in Switzerland. “Today, a new client in the first meeting will tell you he is tax compliant and even bring the files with… – Continue reading
Glencore is under audit by the Australian Taxation Office for the low level of taxes it pays, claiming billions in “losses” overseas and resorting to low-tax or no-tax nations such as Bermuda, Singapore and the Cayman Islands. The Swiss-based mining giant revealed it was being investigated by the ATO in… – Continue reading
Switzerland’s banks will benefit from the global crackdown on tax avoidance, the president of the country’s association of foreign banks and head of HSBC’s (HSBA.L) Swiss private banking arm said on Tuesday, reports Reuters. The Alpine nation famed for its banking secrecy is bowing to international pressure by committing to… – Continue reading
A complaint has been lodged with the ASX alleging an announcement about Australia’s biggest coal development contained misleading information about the project’s economic potential. In December last year Downer EDI Limited announced to the ASX its partnership with Adani Mining, to provide services for the controversial Carmichael mine in central… – Continue reading
Introduction The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum) decided in mid-March 2015 that Switzerland should enter Phase 2 of the Peer Review. This decision represents a clear statement by the OECD that Switzerland’s legal and regulatory framework for information exchange complies with internationally… – Continue reading
Australia to fine tech tax-dodgers 100% of their avoided tax, plus profits Australia’s treasurer* Joe Hockey has revealed that he and other money ministers from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have shared plans to have online retailers charging the appropriate consumption tax on intangibles and goods bought… – Continue reading
The Australian government announced a world-leading crackdown on Monday on alleged tax avoidance by 30 multinational companies that will likely force them to restructure their businesses before next year, reports Reuters. “These companies are diverting profits earned in Australia away from Australia to no-tax or low-tax jurisdictions,” Treasurer Joe Hockey… – Continue reading
Corporations that have reclassified themselves as “foreign-owned” received approximately $1 billion in federal contracts over the last five years. These companies profit from American tax dollars despite avoiding U.S. taxes themselves. That could soon change. Two members of Congress have reintroduced legislation that would block these companies from winning lucrative… – Continue reading
HSBC’s pre-tax profits rose 4 per cent to a better-than-expected $7.06bn (£4.66bn) in the three months ending 31 March HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver admitted that the company’s Swiss banking scandal has hit morale across the group even as profits beat City forecasts during the first quarter of the year…. – Continue reading
All the world’s major banks have connections between each other and work together in a secret network to help people evade taxes, whistleblower and former HSBC IT engineer Hervé Falciani said yesterday, warning that illegal offshore transactions can’t be carried out through one single bank but only with the help… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – U.S. bank JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) has been placed under formal investigation in France as part of a probe into alleged tax evasion by senior managers at investment firm Wendel (MWDP.PA), a court official said on Wednesday. A Paris-based spokesman for JPMorgan declined to comment on the move, part… – Continue reading
In retrospect, HSBC’s decision in 1993 to abandon Hong Kong for London’s Canary Wharf was one of modern history’s worst business moves. It seemed perfectly wise at the time, just four years ahead of Hong Kong’s return to China and amid the early stages of Europe’s common currency boom. When… – Continue reading
HSBC says it will make its decision whether to move its headquarters out of the UK within months rather than years. It has been based in the country since 1993, when it moved here in order to take over High Street giant Midland Bank. “It’s going to take us a… – Continue reading
Cracking down on sweetheart tax deals with multinational corporations is proving more difficult than the European Commission had anticipated. Delays, uncooperative member states, and missed deadlines are among the frustrations highlighted Tuesday (5 May) by the EU’s competition chief, Margrethe Vestager. Speaking at a special committee on tax rulings at… – Continue reading
BRUSSELS–The European Union won’t meet a self-imposed June deadline for deciding whether four multinational companies including Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. benefited from illegal tax sweeteners, the bloc’s antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said Tuesday. “We won’t meet the deadline we set ourselves [of] the end of the second quarter,” Ms…. – Continue reading
A federal judge demanded to know more about HSBC Holdings Plc’s compliance with its trade sanctions and anti-money-laundering deal with the U.S. after a monitor said the bank was “too slow” to mend its ways. U.S. District Judge John Gleeson in Brooklyn, New York, ordered the government to file a… – Continue reading
MADRID (Reuters) – Herve Falciani, a former HSBC employee who leaked information on the bank’s clients and tax situation, told Spanish newspaper El Mundo he had knowledge of other cases and could act again, adding his “work was not done”. Falciani previously said that media leaks on HSBC accounts held… – Continue reading
Warren Buffett, the billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said he expects a slump in reinsurance results in the coming decade as investors enter the market. “It’s a business whose prospects have turned for the worse and there’s not much we can do about it,” Buffett said Saturday at his… – Continue reading
Fraud claims against Proskauer Rose stemming from a tax shelter scheme it helped sell to the heirs of the Johnson & Johnson fortune will survive a motion to dismiss, the Appellate Division, First Department, ruled Thursday. A unanimous panel, in an opinion written by Justice Angela Mazzarelli, affirmed a ruling… – Continue reading
