Tocqueville Asset Management founder Francois Sicart warns that hiding from the taxman is futile, but postponing taxes is profitable You can’t escape taxes, but you can gain an advantage by legally delaying their payment. That is a model that legendary investor Warren Buffet exemplifies, and it is one of several… – Continue reading
LONDON, GENEVA — The Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) is narrowing the field of bidders for its Coutts International private-banking arm to focus on Switzerland’s Union Bancaire Privée (UBP), people with knowledge of the matter said. UBP is the preferred bidder and an agreement might be reached as early… – Continue reading
Multinational tech giants Google and Facebook could soon be charged goods and services tax on advertising booked by Australian companies if a proposal flagged by federal Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull is adopted. While multinational corporations continue to come under fire for minimising their tax bills in Australia, Turnbull has floated… – Continue reading
The Finance Ministry on Monday notified the Advance Pricing Agreement (APA) rules governing rollback provisions in transfer pricing cases. Though the provisions were announced in Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s maiden Budget in July 2014, they could not be activated because the rules were not codified. Consultants said the move could… – Continue reading
Lawyers are urging investors who have been advised to invest in disputed tax avoidance schemes to take their financial advisers to court for compensation. A number of legal experts called on investors to pool together and launch US-style class action law suits against their advisers, who they said, had failed… – Continue reading
PwC expects that UK Chancellor George Osborne’s 2015 Budget will seek to strike a balance between ensuring fiscal responsibility and enticing support from prospective voters. On March 18, Osborne will deliver the Coalition Government’s final Budget ahead of the May 7 general election. PwC pointed out that, crucially, the resultant… – Continue reading
Rio Tinto has warned that multinational companies could be discriminated against if moves to combat tax “base erosion and profit shifting” went too far. With Australia and the other 33 member nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ramping up efforts to prevent multinational companies avoiding tax, Rio… – Continue reading
I SUPPORT the tax-dodging bill” badges are handed to the group of 20, gathering at the Eros statue in London’s Piccadilly Circus. This is a walking tour with a twist. The two guides sporting bowler hats will avoid the traditional tourist traps. Instead, we will be touring the banks, shops… – Continue reading
A group of U.S. senators is renewing a push to allow states to collect sales tax from remote retailers that don’t have a physical presence in the state, a move they say would level the playing field between online and traditional retailers. The Marketplace Fairness Act, which passed the Senate… – Continue reading
Tom Gordon Scottish Political Editor DANNY Alexander was last night at the centre of a new donations row after accepting money from a millionaire defender of tax avoidance. The LibDem Chief Secretary to the Treasury, who in 2013 said he was “livid” at companies and individuals “avoiding paying the proper… – Continue reading
The findings revealed that 76 per cent of those surveyed believe people open bank accounts in Switzerland for “underhand reasons”, and just one in 10 consider it is done for “legitimate reasons.” The UK’s The Times newspaper recently asked individuals for their thoughts as to why Britons might hold Swiss… – Continue reading
Subsidiaries of Israel’s Delek Group and the Houston-based Noble Energy are suing the state for some $15 million, claiming the government has collected more royalties than permissible on natural gas sales. Accusing the National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Ministry of calculating royalty revenues based on the higher Tamar reservoir gas… – 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
BRUSSELS, March 10 (Reuters) – The following are mergers under review by the European Commission and a brief guide to the EU merger process: APPROVALS AND WITHDRAWALS — British bank Barclays (LSE: BARC.L – news) to acquire sole control of Spanish insurer CNP Barclays Vida y Pensiones Compania de Seguros,… – Continue reading
There is a double standard when it comes to paying taxes in Canada. And the Canada Revenue Agency makes it worse with each passing year. Take the recent news story about Irwin Rodier, the Montreal doctor with accounts at the Swiss branch of HSBC. Leaked data showed that he had… – Continue reading
[Market Watch] Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (NYSE:RBS)(TREND ANALYSIS) is accelerating its plans to dismantle its investment banking franchise, with expectations that the firm will deliver as many as 14,000 pink slips in the group at the sprawling U.K. financial institution, according to the Financial Times report Tuesday. As… – Continue reading
Things just got worse for HSBC. Its private banking arm faces new criminal charges after a French magistrate officially requested that the Swiss bank be brought to trial over a suspected tax-dodging scheme for wealthy customers, the Guardian reports. The request for trial comes after a series of allegations against… – Continue reading
HSBC Holdings plc’s (LON:HSBA) shares were down 0.23 percent to 559.00p as of 13:13 GMT yesterday, after earlier on Friday the French financial prosecutor’s office announced it had formally requested that the lender’s Swiss private banking unit be put on trial for helping French citizens to aggressively avoid taxes. HSBC… – Continue reading
The Price We Pay argues that profit-shifting by corporations is undermining democracies A new Canadian documentary draws attention to the profit-shifting tactics used by multinationals to avoid billions of dollars of taxes. Directed by Montrealer Harold Crooks, the film The Price We Pay opens this Friday in Toronto and Montreal,… – Continue reading
The public accounts chair has been accused of being a bully, but she has rocked the tax world by asking difficult questions about how taxpayers’ money is spent Her verdict on HMRC’s efforts to prosecute tax evaders: pathetic. The gagging of civil service whistleblowers: outrageous. And as for tax-avoiding Google,… – Continue reading
TP Week As a result of Brazil’s unique policy to prevent erosion of the tax base, companies often face double taxation. The pending case before the US Tax Court (Docket 5816-13), 3M Co. et al. v. Commissioner, brings this issue into the spotlight. In this case the US Internal Revenue… – Continue reading
Pharmacy chain Boots Alliance has been under scrutiny from the British public since it first relocated to Switzerland in 2008. The contentious move involved the chain’s headquarters moving to a country that generated little income for the company, but provided low taxes. Yesterday at a retail industry conference, the issue… – Continue reading
Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Tariq Bajwa has said that Pakistan and China are re-negotiating agreement for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income. On the conclusion of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) at the Parliament House here on Thursday,… – 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
The Chancellor will take credit for the improving state of the economy and public finances, but real policy changes will have to wait until after the election. Chris Sanger, Head of Tax Policy at EY, comments: “With this Budget announced in the dying embers of the coalition, next week’s event… – Continue reading
Revenue had initiated 33 investigations on suspicion of tax evasion relating to HSBC, 27 of which were complete, with six ongoing, the Committee of Public Accounts has been told. Some 19 accounts have made settlements so far yielding €4.6 million, with the average tax recovered for each of the 19… – Continue reading
Harold Crooks had an epiphany Tuesday afternoon. Asked where he gets his social consciousness from, the New York-based filmmaker recalled something he had never told anyone, a memory from his childhood growing up in Westmount. “I was probably 11 or 12 years old,” he said. “I lived in the middle… – Continue reading
Tax avoidance schemes are hitting the headlines on a daily basis, particularly in light of the recent allegations that HSBC supposedly assisted clients to “dodge tax” and the reported involvement of thousands of celebrities, sports stars and politicians in film finance schemes. Any such scheme which bears the hallmarks of… – Continue reading
The call for tax transparency is being echoed around the globe, with ‘midshore’ centres like Bahrain and the UAE emerging as reputable, regulated and tax efficient jurisdictions A 2012 book entitled Offshore Apocalypse – The Collapse of the Tax Haven Industry, written by a team of tax-law academics, auditors, compliance… – Continue reading
You may have noted there’s an election in the offing Worstall on Wednesday As the tech news outlet of record has told us, UK chancellor George Osborne is preparing to bring in the “Google Tax”. Properly known as the Diverted Profits Tax, it is supposed to be a way of… – Continue reading
The Australian Taxation Office should be given the power to ignore multinational transactions that fail to pass the “common sense test” and ensure that technology company profits are taxed where they are earned, the Australia Institute submission to the inquiry into corporate tax avoidance says. The submission takes a swipe… – Continue reading
Robert Jenkins says Douglas Flint should resign over Swiss scandal for the good of his own reputation A former member of the Bank of England’s financial policy committee has called on HSBC’s chairman to resign following the scandal at its Swiss operation and other debacles. Robert Jenkins said Douglas Flint,… – Continue reading
Argentina has sent requests for information to tax authorities in the Virgin Islands, Uruguay and Bermuda, according to a Reuters report. This comes as Argentina wants HSBC Holdings Plc to repatriate some $3.5 billion that it says the bank’s Argentine branch moved offshore to help clients evade taxes and move… – Continue reading
The Finance Bill 2015 (the Bill) has quietly slipped in an amendment that could engender a fresh set of disputes with foreign companies away from the hitherto transfer pricing hair-splitting. Hitherto, all Indian companies were residents and all foreign companies were non-resident, period. Of course foreign companies would have become… – Continue reading
There is a sense of déjà vu in tax and legal circles. Vodafone bought itself into Hutch’s Indian telecom operations by acquiring controlling interest in a Cayman Island company that called the shots in the Indian company hitherto controlled by Hutchison Hong Kong. The tax authorities slapped a notice on… – Continue reading
HSBC Holdings Plc (LON:HSBA) shares were steady at 560.42p this morning, as the scandal revolving around HSBC’s Swiss unit tax avoidance scheme took a political turn. Tory and Labour have traded accusations, while on the international level Argentina has demanded cash payments from the lender as compensation. Sir Alan Duncan,… – Continue reading
Bank Hapoalim reports it has been ordered to provide the documents by the New York State regulator. The investigation of Bank Hapoalim (TASE: POLI) on its alleged assistance in helping US customers evade taxes is moving forward. Bank Hapoalim revealed in its financial report yesterday that at the start of… – Continue reading
Following on from the Indian budget last month and various significant developments on the disputes scene, TPWeek thinks it is a good time to put together a Special Focus, bringing together its most recent reports. The Indian government is keen to promote a more investor-friendly environment in relation to corporate… – Continue reading
The head of a consortium of businesses that includes multiple profitable companies that consistently pay no or abysmally low federal taxes has been tapped to testify Wednesday at a Senate Budget Committee hearing on the “Benefits of a Balanced Budget.” Former Michigan Gov. John Engler heads the Business Roundtable and… – Continue reading
It is time to look at overseas options if you want stocks with good dividends. If you are particular about investing only in the banking sector, U.S. banks would give you at the most around 3% dividend yield. If this is not good enough for you, you can try investing… – Continue reading
Q4 net profit 478 mln shekels vs 633 mln * Bank provisioned 196 mln shekels in 2014 for U.S. tax evasion * Provisioned 360 mln shekels in Q4 for cost cuts * Shares down 1.3 pct (Adds quotes, details from news conference, analyst’s comments) By Tova Cohen TEL AVIV, March… – Continue reading
Tax avoidance is being documented across the world, with Australia no exception. The government is now looking at how to clamp down on the billions of dollars being lost as top Australian firms are succeeding in dodging taxation. Last year saw the release of multiple reports highlighting the worrying number… – Continue reading
Public accounts committee to ask Stuart Gulliver, Chris Meares and the BBC’s Rona Fairhead key questions on tax arrangements at multinational bank Two senior HSBC executives and the chair of the BBC Trust will be questioned by MPs on Monday about their role at the bank, whose Swiss banking arm… – Continue reading
Public accounts committee to ask Stuart Gulliver, Chris Meares and the BBC’s Rona Fairhead key questions on tax arrangements at multinational bank Two senior HSBC executives and the chair of the BBC Trust will be questioned by MPs on Monday about their role at the bank, whose Swiss banking arm… – Continue reading
The head of Argentina’s tax authority has demanded that HSBC repatriate $3.5bn (£2.3bn) in funds that it says HSBC helped its clients move offshore. Ricardo Echegaray said that HSBC’s actions threatened the stability of the Argentine government. “HSBC built a platform to help clients evade tax,” said Mr Echegary in… – Continue reading
WARRINGTON South’s Trade Union and Socialist Coalition parliamentary candidate is calling on parties to ‘close their links’ with banks. Kevin Bennett, who is also a council representative for Fairfield and Howley, has condemned the actions of banks in the country following the tax avoidance scandal. The former Labour councillor insists… – Continue reading
WARRINGTON South’s Trade Union and Socialist Coalition parliamentary candidate is calling on parties to ‘close their links’ with banks. Kevin Bennett, who is also a council representative for Fairfield and Howley, has condemned the actions of banks in the country following the tax avoidance scandal. The former Labour councillor insists… – Continue reading
Amid mounting pressure last year, the US launched a supposed crackdown on tax inversion. But it might not have been as far-reaching as was made out, and with good reason The recent G20 crackdown on tax avoidance by funnelling profits through tax havens has sparked a variety of reactions –… – Continue reading
Bosses at HSBC were yesterday accused by MPs of turning a blind eye to alleged tax evasion in its Swiss private banking arm. In an ill-tempered hearing with the Public Accounts Committee, members said they did not believe that executives in London were oblivious to what was happening. Chief executive… – 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
