Summary:Apple has reported that it paid AU$80.3 million in income tax during 2014, up from the AU$36.4 million that was paid during the 2013 financial year. This is despite the company paying more than double in income tax for the year. During 2013, Apple had only paid AU$36.4 million compared… – Continue reading
A total of 97% of respondents to a Deloitte consultancy survey over the major obstacles to doing business in Portugal identified the “inconsistencies” and changes in the information made available by the taxation authorities as a problem. The Deloitte European Tax Survey also reported that that 97% resulted from what… – Continue reading
Tax avoidance costs developing countries billions every year. So this week 16 domestic and internationally focused organisations have joined forces to launch a campaign for a Tax Dodging Bill. When I mention in the course of a conversation that I work for an international development charity, I often get an… – Continue reading
INTRODUCTION The Hon’ble High Court of Bombay has recently in the case of an Indian unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, categorically held that issuance of shares by an Indian Company to its foreign parent is not exigable to transfer pricing provisions as there is no income arising there from…. – Continue reading
Puerto Rico’s Acts 20 & 22, tax incentive laws aimed at luring wealthy American investors to move there and at reviving the Island’s economy, are celebrating their third anniversary this month. While Puerto Rico’s economic situation remains bleak (it currently has more than $73 billion of “junk” status debt, unemployment… – Continue reading
A few days ago we posted a warning to folks that opened offshore bank accounts through a company called Sovereign Management & Legal, Ltd. Based in Panama, the company offers to help Americans open offshore bank accounts with nominee corporations. Knowing that many people who do take these actions are… – Continue reading
The tech industry is ramping up its lobbying efforts on tax reform, seeking to make sure it doesn’t end up the loser if Washington can finally find a consensus on rewriting U.S. tax laws. The Tax Innovation Equality Coalition, or TIE, a group that counts both technology and pharmaceutical titans… – Continue reading
American internet giant Google shifted nearly €10bn in royalties to the tax haven of Bermuda via the Netherlands in 2013, the Telegraaf says on Saturday. That is almost €1bn up on 2012, the paper says. It bases its claims on an analysis of the annual reports of Dutch-registered Google Netherlands… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Shareholders in Israel’s Bank Leumi are seeking to file a class action lawsuit worth about 475 million shekels ($119 million) against the bank over its handling of a U.S. probe into alleged tax evasion, Bank Leumi said on Sunday. Leumi, Israel’s second largest lender, said the lawsuit argues… – Continue reading
This edition of the Tax-News monthly feature takes in noteworthy events in the international tax arena, including attempts to inject new life into the campaign for comprehensive tax reform in the United States, and developments in the areas of free trade, indirect taxation, BEPS and tax transparency and compliance. US… – Continue reading
When Cecil-based generic drug giant Mylan bought Bioniche is 2010, it didn’t simply hand over a check to the owners of the Irish pharmaceutical firm. Instead, Mylan channeled financing through Luxembourg, a small European country that is a magnet for U.S. companies seeking ways to cut their tax bills. The… – Continue reading
LUXEMBOURG – A second French suspect was charged Friday with theft and money-laundering in ongoing investigations into the leaking of secret tax avoidance deals between Luxembourg and multinational companies, a scandal dubbed “Luxleaks.” The identity of the new suspect was not released, but he is a 38-year-old Frenchman and former… – Continue reading
BENGALURU: US President Barack Obama’s visit to India could help unlock over $10 billion stuck in tax disputes between India and various countries. The move will largely benefit American technology companies as a big chunk of the disputes involve software development and IT-enabled services (ITeS) sectors. India’s competent authority Akhilesh… – Continue reading
The governor of the Bank of England has said powerful technology firms are among those who take advantage of international tax deals. Mark Carney said: “The amount of tax that’s actually paid by technology companies is very small relative to the returns.” He was speaking at a BBC-hosted debate at… – Continue reading
Over the past few years, the European Union has targeted multinational corporations using tax planning strategies to reduce corporate tax burdens. Recently, the EU has launched an investigation into tax deals between Amazon (AMZN) and the country of Luxembourg. With an array of subsidiaries within European countries, Amazon’s European headquarters… – Continue reading
The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Bombay High Court to decide the appeal of Vodafone India Services’, the Indian arm of Vodafone Group Plc, on merits and without being influenced by its earlier findings in a case related to R8,500-crore transfer-pricing tax dispute. A bench headed by justice AR… – Continue reading
The income tax department has moved the Supreme Court seeking directions to a tax tribunal to consider certain facts relating to the taxable income of Vodafone India Services for the 2007-08 fiscal. This relates to the sale of its calls centre business and an alleged exercise of call options in… – Continue reading
Luxembourg’s business-friendly tax laws have saved companies billions. The party’s almost over. On a typical day, thousands of passengers pull into Luxembourg’s central train station and traverse the busy shopping street of Rue de la Gare, where everything from pastries to rain boots is on offer. Few, however, step inside… – Continue reading
The income tax department on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that it intends to move a plea seeking transfer of the two other cases related to transfer of certain passive infrastructure assets of Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular to the apex court. Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular got Gujarat High… – Continue reading
Lobby groups representing Google, Amazon and other powerful US tech multinationals have launched a fierce attack on global plans to stamp out artificial corporate structures used to avoid tax. In responses to the latest stage of a two-year, G20-led programme of international tax reform, lobbyists for the US tech industry… – Continue reading
In the first of this two part article, we outlined what businesses must do to comply with India’s transfer pricing laws, while stressing the key reforms introduced by the new government to bring certainty to the domestic tax system. Here, we discuss if and how India should respond to the… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: UK-based telecom company Vodafone Group will hold its board meeting in Delhi later this month, said two people aware of this. It will be the second such meeting in the country since Vodafone acquired its business in India. The meeting is an “ordinary” board meeting with “routine” agenda items,… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: India and the US have finalised a framework to resolve transfer pricing cases, some of them pending for five years, in what could end tax trauma for more than 50 American MNCs such as Microsoft, IBM and Oracle by the fiscal year-end and send a strong signal to… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: India’s software product startups plan to approach the finance ministry this week to get the ambiguity cleared in this Union Budget on the pending issue of whether software sold in the country should be classified as a product or service. Tax officials have been levying both value-added tax… – Continue reading
Prepared to take tax evaders to court. The Australian Tax Office has investigated 25 international technology companies over the past 18 months for tax avoidance as part of its ongoing crackdown on elaborate cross-border tax structures and profit shifting. The federal government late last year gave the ATO extra resources… – Continue reading
New Zealand First is concerned the Uber ride service and multinational companies like it are using elaborate tax shelters to rip off hard working Kiwi taxpayers. The Party will be closely following the government’s newly announced review of small passenger services. “Why is it when a multinational with a track… – Continue reading
Lobbyists representing firms including Google, Amazon and Apple claim ‘fundamental flaws’ in G20-led reforms The World Economic Forum in Davos, where Google, Microsoft and Facebook executives will discuss the digital economy on Thursday. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images Lobby groups representing Google, Amazon and other powerful US tech multinationals have launched… – Continue reading
President Vladimir Putin is pushing harder on Russia’s richest citizens to repatriate offshore assets amid a slump in the ruble and the imposition of sanctions by the US and the European Union, The Business Times said. Under new tax rules signed into law by a presidential decree in November, Russian… – Continue reading
Democratic lawmakers Tuesday pushed legislation to stop U.S. companies from reincorporating overseas to reduce their tax bills, saying a wave of so-called inversions last year has nearly doubled the revenue the federal government will lose from those moves over the next decade. The bill would make it tougher for U.S…. – Continue reading
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chinese property companies are having to turn to more expensive sources of finance as problems at developer Kaisa Group make it increasingly difficult for them to get credit in the offshore market. Kaisa’s failure this month to make an interest payment on a dollar bond has… – Continue reading
On Dec. 12, 2014, Rep. John Delaney (D-MD) proposed a new version of his “repatriation holiday” tax plan. The latest version would require multinational corporations to pay a token amount of taxes on their accumulated offshore profits and exempt those profits from any further U.S. income tax. Delaney’s new plan… – Continue reading
The Tax Story in 2015: Myths, Misconceptions and Reality Checks by Aswath Damodaran, Musings on Markets Each of us believes that we pay our fair share in taxes and that it is other people that do not, and not surprisingly, we find evidence to back up our priors. I find… – Continue reading
(Bloomberg)– A Swiss banker who faced more than three years in prison for providing WikiLeaks with confidential details of his former employer’s offshore activities walked out of a Zurich courtroom a free man on Monday. Rudolf Elmer, 59, was given a suspended fine of 16,800 Swiss francs ($19,397) for violating Swiss… – Continue reading
Jan 20 (Agencies): The Modi government has decided not to divulge details of the 627 account holders being probed in the black money case. On Monday, the centre filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court asking it to dismiss senior advocate Ram Jethmalani’s petition that seeks details of the 627… – Continue reading
LuxLeaks revelation shows that the company 3, which has over one million customers in Denmark, hasn’t paid Danish taxes. The company insists it has followed “the ppropriate tax rules” and defends its investments in Denmark. EU commissioner to use Luxleaks docs (21 Nov 14) Danish firms in ‘fairyland’ tax deals… – Continue reading
Congressional Democrats are preparing new efforts to curb the offshore tax deals that drew the ire of President Obama last year. Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.) and Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) will introduce legislation on Tuesday seeking to stop the maneuver… – Continue reading
Competition commissioner urging swift conclusion to open investigations The European Commission has said it will publish the result of its investigation into the Government’s tax arrangements with Apple by the spring. Speaking in Brussels, a commission spokesman said competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager “wants to focus on the four open in-depth… – Continue reading
Observers of offshore financial centres will know that post 2008 they have been weathering a perfect storm. Firstly, reduced transactional flows, simply because there is less money available for structured finance and investment generally. Secondly, a constant barrage of negative publicity, which deliberately seeks to conflate tax evasion and tax… – Continue reading
Introduction Malta is increasingly becoming a financial services centre of repute looked at by a number of financial services operators as the ideal platform to set up their private pension schemes. Malta’s success is attributable to the flexible and prudent manner in which the industry is regulated, providing the desired… – Continue reading
AROUND the world, large, listed companies are troubled by cyber-security risks and company taxes, yet these concerns remain fairly low on the priority list of boards of directors. According to a PwC report on nonexecutive directors’ practices and remuneration trends, 60% of directors said their board had not discussed public… – Continue reading
Jan 19 (Reuters) – Chinese companies that have borrowed heavily in dollars face sharply higher currency hedging costs at a time when the yuan’s rising volatility means they need to hedge more. The yuan unexpectedly weakened 2.4 percent against the dollar in 2014, its first significant loss since the landmark… – Continue reading
Amazon made its bones avoiding taxes, and its tax history could bear on its current EU troubles. Amazon got bigger and more nimble than anyone else by betting on America’s love of tax avoidance.By edging the competition with no sales tax, Amazon grew to become the poster child of sales… – Continue reading
In May of 2014, financial firm Credit Suisse AG pled guilty to serious criminal charges. The giant bank aided and assisted approximately 22,000 wealthy U.S. taxpayers (whose names Credit Suisse AG escaped having to send to the Justice Department for law enforcement) for over a decade in filing false income… – Continue reading
Brian Hayes: Ireland has nothing to apologise for Ireland is not a tax haven and should not allow itself to be “scapegoated” by larger European countries, Fine Gael MEP Brian Hayes has said. Ireland had nothing to apologise for and was critical of the approach taken to a number of member… – Continue reading
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. Luxembourg’s unorthodox tax deal with Amazon was laid bare by European Commission investigators on Friday, who believe it artificially lowered and “capped” the online retailer’s tax bill,… – Continue reading
New Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has dismissed concerns from business and tax experts that changing the international tax rules could result in Australia losing mining tax revenue to nations like China, describing it as a “furphy”. Mr Frydenberg has also raised Australia’s competitiveness internationally as a concern, saying corporate taxes… – Continue reading
The debate of the last couple of years about corporation tax in Europe resembles a popular ‘whodunnit’: point at an obvious suspect before realising that things are not as they seem. The storyline is still being written, but it risks taking a shortcut by identifying some politically convenient suspects, without… – Continue reading
New Assistant Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has dismissed concerns from business and tax experts that changing the international tax rules could result in Australia losing mining tax revenue to nations like China, describing it as a “furphy”. Mr Frydenberg has also raised Australia’s competitiveness internationally as a concern, saying corporate taxes… – Continue reading
BRUSSELS– Amazon.com Inc.’s “cosmetic” tax arrangements in Luxembourg may give the U.S. online retailer an illegal advantage over competitors, European Union regulators said Friday, marking the latest phase of a widening crackdown on alleged sweetheart tax deals for multinationals. Amazon is one of four companies whose tax affairs are being… – Continue reading
North York pharmaceutical company Dalton Pharma Services is expanding its operations with help from Ottawa. The contract manufacturing and drug development research company is receiving more than $2 million from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario). The company itself is putting in an additional $6.3 million… – Continue reading
