The Cyprus Tax Department announced that Financial Institutions which report information to the Cyprus tax authorities under the Cyprus – United States Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) Agreement will not be required to file nil returns. The FATCA Agreement between Cyprus and the United States was signed on 2… – Continue reading
These proposals can be implemented individually or as part of other reforms that may be in the pipeline PKF wishes to contribute its part towards the next budget implementation and for this purpose it has researched new areas which in its opinion warrant attention by the government during the public… – Continue reading
Introduction The regulatory framework in Cyprus is all-encompassing but still attractive to investment funds for varied investor requirements. An investment fund may be set up in Cyprus either as an Alternative Investment Fund (“AIF”), or as an Undertaking for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (“UCITS”). Cyprus administers all internationally recognized… – Continue reading
A number of jurisdictions (including the US, the UK and Italy) have launched voluntary disclosure (‘VD’) programmes. A substantial number of cases involve private foundations, typically legacy structures based in Liechtenstein and Panama. As the concept of foundations is alien to common law, their tax treatment raises delicate issues in… – Continue reading
In May 2012, Cyprus introduced a package of incentives and tax exemptions relating to investment in intellectual property rights, commonly known as an “IP box.” Intellectual property projects are particularly susceptible to cross-border planning by reason of the mobility of intellectual property rights, which do not consist of physical assets… – Continue reading
Ukraine and Cyprus have agreed to review bilateral agreements on taxation to prevent the withdrawal of capital to offshore zones, Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko wrote on Facebook. “After very lengthy negotiations, we’ve finally taken an important step in the fight against capital withdrawal to offshore zones: we have with the… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: Mauritius, which serves as the gateway to Dalal Street for most foreigners, will be back in news soon. India and the tax haven are believed to be close to finalising a revised tax treaty that would lower tax on interest income of overseas investors betting on Indian debt papers…. – Continue reading
Taxes covered The agreement applies to taxes on income imposed by either country. In Bahrain these are currently the income tax payable under Legislative Decree No. 22/1979 (“the Oil Tax”); in Cyprus they are income tax, corporate income tax, Special Contribution for Defence (known as SDC tax) and capital gains… – Continue reading
Calcutta, July 5: Singapore and Hong Kong, with their low corporate tax rates, have started to hove into view on the radars of multinational companies that are looking to lower their tax burdens through profit shifting. Profit shifting is a perfectly legal way of moving the earnings of an MNC… – Continue reading
The Cyprus government has introduced radical tax reforms that aim to attract foreign direct investments and non-domiciled individuals, simplify levies for properties, return tax-collection to local municipalities and encourage tax-breaks for direct injections where local companies are strained for cash-flow, reports the Financial Mirror. Finance Minister Haris Georghiades said that… – Continue reading
Athens: Greece’s shipping community should calm its fears that the Greek government has bowed to Eurogroup pressure to phase-out offshore tax status for Greek shipping and marine service companies. “According to our official information the rumours … that the Greek government has accepted the Law 89 phase-out is absolutely incorrect,”… – Continue reading
On June 8th 2015, the OECD released a new package of measures for the implementation of a new Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting plan developed under the OECD/G20 Action Plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project, aimed at improving transparency in international tax matters. The CbC reporting plan was founded… – Continue reading
On 1 July 2015, the President of Cyprus announced a number of tax reforms. The tax reforms will aim in modernising the taxation framework of Cyprus and making it more fair and more competitive, while limiting the taxation burden and offering incentives for growth. The announcement was made while Addressing… – Continue reading
The Cyprus Tax Authorities have announced that the FATCA reporting deadline has been extended to 31 July 2015 (from 30 June 2015). The FATCA Agreement between Cyprus and the United States was signed on 2 December 2014. FATCA seeks to obtain information on accounts held by U.S. taxpayers in other… – Continue reading
FATCA – Which Countries Are In And Out The controversial US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) law is set to start from July 1, 2014, so with less than 21 days to go, here’s a look at which countries are in and who is outside of the tax network…. – Continue reading
With less than seven weeks between signature on 13 November 2014 and entry into force on 22 December, the new DTA between Cyprus and Iceland set a new standard for timeliness. Like most of Cyprus’s recent double taxation agreements, the DTA closely follows the form of the 2010 OECD Model… – Continue reading
In a further move to make tax systems fairer, more efficient, growth-friendly and transparent, the Commission presented an Action Plan to fundamentally reform corporate taxation in the EU and published a “Top 30” list of tax havens across the world. The Action Plan sets out a series of initiatives to… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: India, which blacklisted Cyprus in 2013 for not sharing tax information under the treaty, is in dialogue with the island nation to resolve the issue, a top finance ministry official said today. “It’s not only exchange of information but it is also the quality of exchange of information… – Continue reading
Following the implementation of the EU Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) Directive (2011/61/EC) and associated legislation, Cyprus now lays claim to being a growth jurisdiction within the European Union for the establishment and servicing of boutique and low cost alternative investment funds based locally or offshore. The choice of fund… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Several countries, including tax havens like British Virgin Islands, Cyprus and Jersey, have begun sharing information with Indian authorities, in a development that is expected to boost the government’s efforts in tracking black money stashed abroad. Sources said some of the information had already been verified, adding that… – Continue reading
Proposed Amendments To Cyprus’s Assessment And Collection Of Taxes Law The Cyprus Government has published a draft law amending the Assessment and Collection of Taxes Law (Law 4 of 1978) in order to facilitate implementation of agreements for automatic exchange of information with other countries. When it is enacted, the… – Continue reading
A South Florida man who ran a $15 million pill mill operation that sold hundreds of thousands of addictive painkillers to drug dealers and addicts was sentenced Thursday to 14 years in federal prison. Joel Shumrak, 67, of Boca Raton, has been locked up since June when federal agents raided… – Continue reading
The Bank of Russia has just published a draft normative act that details the requirements for foreign Forex companies willing to set up representative offices and market their services in Russia. Several months have passed since Russia’s president Vladimir Putin signed the Forex law – since then the work on… – Continue reading
A Protocol amending the Agreement for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to Taxes on Income and on Capital between South Africa and Cyprus was signed on the 1st of April 2015. According to the Protocol, Article 10 (“Dividends”) of the Double Tax Treaty… – Continue reading
FATCA made it extremely difficult for US citizens to open offshore bank accounts and this is applied to all, who hold a US passport (even if they lived abroad) are liable for tax in the US as well as US non-citizen who are tax residents in the US. The banks… – Continue reading
Georgia is stepping up cooperation in taxation, customs affairs and a number of other avenues with Cyprus, Liechtenstein and Iceland. Finance Ministers of Cyprus, Liechtenstein and Iceland signed a cooperation agreement with Georgia on avoidance of double taxation, prevention of evasion of income and capital taxes in Tbilisi today. Georgia’s… – Continue reading
Choosing the right location for the centralization and management of your IP is a very important strategic business decision. The ideal location to establish an IP structure is one that can serve the organization’s business strategies/model, safeguard and protect its IP and more important to contribute to its tax optimization…. – Continue reading
Jason Porter explores the tax regimes in Portugal, France, Malta and Cyprus – four of the most advantageous territories for UK ex-pat retirees People aged 55 and over are now entitled to their pension in the form of a lump sum, to be taxed at marginal rates applying in the… – Continue reading
The Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency (CIPA) is urging parliament to expedite a batch of bills aimed at facilitating much-needed foreign investment in Cyprus. Chief among the proposals are the establishment of foreign leasing companies and cell companies, opening up the professional provident fund business to foreign concerns, and updating company… – Continue reading
On 17 March 2015 Cyprus and Bahrain signed a new double taxation agreement. Like all of Cyprus’s recent DTAs it closely follows the 2010 OECD Model Tax Convention. Its main provisions are summarised below. Taxes covered The agreement applies to taxes on income imposed by either country. In Bahrain these… – Continue reading
THE NUMBER of Slovak companies residing in tax havens dropped in the first three months of this year to 4,248, which is by 114 less than in the end of last year. Most companies left Monaco and Jersey. The trend is the opposite rose by 23 to 13,270, the TASR… – Continue reading
It has become increasingly fashionable to compare the results of Greece and the Baltic States’ response to the financial crisis of 2008, most recently last month with the Financial Times’ column with John Dizard. This, however, is a classic textbook case of comparing apples to oranges. Greece’s crisis was chiefly… – Continue reading
The Ukrainian government will review the system of taxation of gas production companies irrespective of their form of ownership. This is stipulated in the draft guidelines of Ukraine’s budget policy, or the budget resolution, for 2016, which was tabled by the Cabinet of Ministers in parliament. Among the other priorities… – Continue reading
A Bill containing various amendments to the Tax Code has been discussed and agreed by the Georgian Economic Council. Among the measures contained in the Bill is a reduction in the rate of tax for individuals letting property, from 20 percent to five percent. There is also a proposed incentive… – Continue reading
An arrest over allegations of price fixing has increased calls for tighter regulation of the booming sector On a late February morning, Yves Bouvier arrived at the Monaco home of one of his best clients. He expected Dmitry Rybolovlev, the Russian billionaire owner of AS Monaco football club, to pay… – Continue reading
New freedoms mean you can move your pension abroad. We show you where you’ll pay the least tax It is the ultimate dream for many people – to work hard, build up a nest egg and retire abroad to a climate with year-round sunshine. Now there is an added financial… – Continue reading
Back in 2013, when one cuts through the rhetoric and posturing, what the Cyprus depositor bail-in and subsequent capital controls were all about, was an attempt to confiscate deposits of ultra-wealthy Russian billionaires held the banks of this beloved by the Russian oligarchy offshore tax haven. At least that was… – Continue reading
Blackstone, the US private equity giant that until recently was locked in a dispute with Cork developer Michael O’Flynn, is willing to lend money to Irish SMEs. The firm hasn’t announced the plan publicly, but we are reliably informed that Blackstone will consider deals if approached by a borrower. The… – Continue reading
A GROUP of Cypriot businesses with strong presence in Greek markets have engaged the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and will meet on Monday in a concerted effort to decide on a response to the Greek government’s decision to impose a 26 per cent punitive tax on imports from… – Continue reading
ATHENS: Greece may face European Economic Affairs Commission on 26% withholding tax plan. Bulgaria complained to the European Commission on 30 March about a new Greece law battling corporate tax avoidance that Sofia warns could undermine trade between the Balkan neighbors. In a letter to European Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre… – Continue reading
The Barbados Government Information Service has announced that negotiations are in progress for a double taxation agreement between Cyprus and Barbados, as well as for co-operation in other areas, such as tourism. At a recent meeting with the Barbadian Prime Minister the Cyprus High Commissioner to Barbados expressed his optimism… – Continue reading
Cross border tax fraud and tax evasion by High Net Wealth Individuals (HNWI) are serious problems for many jurisdictions. For many years exchange of information between countries has been solely upon request. In practise this procedure is not efficiently working as it requires foreseeable relevance, thus ‘fishing’ for information is… – Continue reading
Bulgaria complained Monday to the European Commission about a new Greek law battling corporate tax avoidance that Sofia warns could undermine trade between the two Balkan neighbours. In a letter to European Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici, Bulgarian Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov took exception with Athens’ introduction of a 26… – Continue reading
Canada’s Eldorado Gold Corp., the biggest foreign investor in Greece, is engaged in a tax-avoidance scheme that uses mailbox companies in the Netherlands to lower its tax load, a new report from a Dutch foundation says. The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, known as SOMO, made the claim in… – Continue reading
Opposition firebrand Alexey Navalny called Tuesday for the dismissal of hockey legend Slava Fetisov from Russia’s Federation Council, alleging that the senator owns offshore assets in Cyprus in violation of Russian law. Navalny, the head of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, uploaded to his blog a series of documents allegedly evidencing Fetisov’s… – Continue reading
Ras Al Khaimah, close to Dubai, is one of the fastest growing emirates in the United Arab Emirates. The emirate has also gained a reputation for being a transparent, tax free, corruption free, no red tape and inexpensive to do business jurisdiction. Ras Al Khaimah is the most popular offshore… – Continue reading
Citizenship has been turned into a commodity by countries including Cyprus, Grenada, Antigua, Malta and St. Kitts in the Caribbean, which is now the most popular place in the world to buy a passport – for as little as $250,000. The draw? Little or no tax. New citizens of St…. – Continue reading
Cyprus signed four bilateral agreements with Bahrain on Monday, during President Nicos Anastasiades’ state visit to the kingdom where he was be received by ruler Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, where the two leaders also discussed issues of cooperation in tourism and the economy, as well as concerns about regional… – Continue reading
Barbados and Cyprus have announced that they are to begin negotiating a double taxation agreement (DTA) to strengthen economic relations between the two territories. Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart noted that although diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in 1972, economic opportunities have yet to be fully explored…. – Continue reading
The breathless conundrum for IP companies is four-fold: not only should royalties be taxed at a low rate in order to maximise profits; but also research and development (R&D) or acquisition costs should be considered as allowable expenses to the maximum possible effect, whilst also the jurisdiction where the IP… – Continue reading
