RIGA – The Saeima national economic, rural, environment and regional policy committee today supported amendments to Public Procurement Law, deleting the ban for the companies registered in low-tax or tax-free countries, or the so-called offshore countries, from taking part in public tenders in Latvia. As reported, the Latvian parliament on… – Continue reading
A Paris court fined a Latvian bank Thursday for laundering hundreds of millions of euros through a vast scheme allowing French taxpayers to avoid paying their dues. The court fined Rietumu Banka 80 million euros ($91 million) for facilitating a scam to “democratize” tax evasion among ordinary taxpayers and small… – Continue reading
On June 28, 2017, the Swiss Federal Council adopted the dispatch on a revised double taxation agreement with Latvia and submitted it to Parliament for approval. A protocol to revise the agreement was signed by the two countries in November 2016. The revised agreement contains an anti-abuse clause in line… – Continue reading
RIGA – Latvian Finance Minister Dana Reizniece-Ozola (Greens/Farmers) and Motome Takisawa, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, today signed a convention for the elimination of double taxation with respect to taxes on income and the prevention of tax evasion and avoidance, BNS was told at the Finance Ministry. The… – Continue reading
Azerbaijan’s Taxes Minister Fazil Mammadov announced that operations with offshore companies are planned to be a subject of taxation in the country. Mammadov spoke about the changes to the Tax Code in a meeting of Azerbaijan’s parliamentary committee on economic affairs, industry and entrepreneurship. In tote, some 201 amendments and… – Continue reading
Wednesday, 2 November, Finance Minister Dana Reizniece-oak and Swiss Ambassador Latvian Marcus Niklauss Paul Dutli ( Markus Niklaus Paul Dutly ) signed the Latvian Republic and the Government of the Swiss Federal Council Protocol amending the two parties on 31 January 2002 concluded the Convention for the Avoidance double taxation… – Continue reading
New Chief Minister Howard Quayle MHK has restated the island’s commitment to tax transparency at an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development event in Paris. Mr Quayle was in Paris for the Manx government’s signing of a new OECD agreement on automatic exchange of country by country reporting by large… – Continue reading
Cyprus and the Government of the Republic of Latvia signed in Brussels on Wednesday the Treaty for the Avoidance of Double Taxation on Income. The Treaty was signed by the Minister of Finance, Harris Georgiades, on behalf of the Republic of Cyprus, and the Minister of Economics, Dana Reizniece-Ozola, on… – Continue reading
Cyprus and the Government of the Republic of Latvia signed in Brussels on Wednesday the Treaty for the Avoidance of Double Taxation on Income. The Treaty was signed by the Minister of Finance, Harris Georgiades, on behalf of the Republic of Cyprus, and the Minister of Economics, Dana Reizniece-Ozola, on… – Continue reading
As world leaders consider what to do about the revelations emerging from the Panama Papers, Liberia’s government will be worrying about the fall-out that may cross the Atlantic Ocean from the affair. The European Union has announced it will be creating a new “tax haven blacklist”, to be released by… – Continue reading
On April 13 in Riga, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury K C Chan signed a comprehensive double taxation agreement between Hong Kong and Latvia. “This is the 35th CDTA that Hong Kong has signed with its trading partners and it signifies the Government’s ongoing efforts to… – Continue reading
Bulgaria has definitively removed Gibraltar from its ‘tax haven’ list following intensive lobbying by Albert Isola, Minister for Financial Services, and the Gibraltar Finance Bulgaria team. This change has been reflected in the updated lists published on the European Commission website under ‘Tax good governance in the world as seen… – Continue reading
BRATISLAVA, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) — Preventing VAT evasions should be one of the priorities of the Slovak EU Presidency starting this July, confirmed Andrej Kralik, head of the European Commission’s Representation in Slovakia. Europe is annually losing as much as 168 billion euros (189.5 billion U.S. dollars) on tax evasions… – Continue reading
SCOTLAND is being advertised as a tax haven across Eastern Europe. The country’s allegedly lax company formation laws are being promoted by firms in Latvia, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus as authorities black list more traditional “fiscal paradises”. A new round of publicity for Scotland as an “offshore zone” began this… – Continue reading
RIGA – The Latvian Financial and Capital Markets Commission (FCMC) on Dec. 11 imposed a record 2-million-euro fine on Ukrainian-owned A/S Privatbank and ordered the dismissal of its CEO and managing board for violations of money laundering and other banking regulatory laws in connection with the alleged plundering and collapse… – Continue reading
Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis on December 15th accepted the credentials of the Japanese Ambassador to Latvia, Mariko Fujii, and noted an increase in Latvia-Japan trade recently but said there was still room for growth in economic cooperation, the Latvian president’s press service reported LETA. He said that a treaty for… – Continue reading
(CN) – A Russian nuclear energy official living in Maryland has been sentenced to four years in federal prison on money laundering charges, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. Vadim Mikerin, 56, of Chevy Chase. Md. was also ordered to forfeit more than $2.1 million, after he pleaded guilty to charges… – Continue reading
More good news for Hong Kong before the end of 2015: Italy decided to remove Hong Kong from its national blacklist on November 30, 2015. Italy ratified a comprehensive agreement for the avoidance of double taxation (CDTA) signed with Hong Kong on June 18, 2015. Facilitating an early removal of… – Continue reading
Dear clients and cooperation partners, This newsflash will tell you about findings reflected in court judgements with regard to application of resale price method, and in particular – contradictions in calculation of arm’s length profit level. Recent transfer pricing judgements in Latvia lead to increased controversy in application of resale… – Continue reading
An influential UK newspaper has called for Britain to force its Overseas Territories to create a public register of owners of companies. Chris Blackhurst, the group content director of a four-newspaper stable, writing in the London Evening Standard, said: “Only then, once we have put our own house in order,… – Continue reading
The introduction of the so-called “offshore tax” in Latvia may have adverse effects on Latvia’s accession to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), reports LETA. The OECD has informed Latvia about this, urging the country to consider the potential effects of the “offshore tax” on its progress towards… – Continue reading
French publication Challenges on Friday published details of a massive tax evasion scam by the company France Offshore that promised to reduce tax bills for French nationals using a network of offshore companies and Latvia’s Rietumu Bank. According to Challenges, the massive fraud was masterminded by France Offshore’s Nadav Bensoussan… – Continue reading
The blacklisting of Hong Kong by the European Union is over for the moment with Spain explaining to the EU it didn’t have HK on its list. In the course of investigation, Harbour Times receives a quick response from the Latvian embassy in Beijing to clarify their stance on Hong… – Continue reading
Sixteen peer review reports were released at the recent plenary meeting of the OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes on October 29-30, 2015. The release of the reports follows reviews of those territories’ legislation for the exchange of tax information and their frameworks for… – Continue reading
Treasury says making available documents detailing tax policies tailored for multinational firms would jeopardise ‘open and frank discussions’ The UK has joined Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium in blocking attempts by a committee of MEPs to gain access to secret European archives that detail some of most controversial tax policies… – Continue reading
Major implementation milestones are being met by members of the world’s leading forum on tax transparency as the international community continues to move ahead towards greater tax transparency. The imminent shift to the automatic exchange of information will send a strong warning to tax evaders. Significant strides towards a major… – Continue reading
LOS ANGELES—The Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region (ANCA-WR) is expressing its appreciation to Congressman Ted Lieu for authoring a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew in support of a U.S.-Armenia Double Tax Treaty. The accord, if concluded, would, by limiting the prospect of double taxation, remove… – Continue reading
On October 2, 2015, the Internal Revenue Service announced that it had achieved a key milestone in implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), a critical anti-tax evasion law passed by Congress in 2010 but not fully implemented until July 2014. The milestone announced by the IRS was… – Continue reading
The IRS has announced that as of September 30, 2015 it will implement the automatic exchange of tax information as set forth in the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, (FATCA). The IRS Commissioner in announcing the implementation of the automatic exchange of information stated: “This information exchange is part of… – Continue reading
The Embassy of the Republic of Latvia has begun operations in Seoul, the capital of the Republic of Korea. The Embassy will be promoting political and economic dialogue between Latvia and Korea especially in support of Latvian businesses and cooperation with potential Korean investors, thereby facilitating access to third country… – Continue reading
The Government should reduce the rate of capital gains tax (CGT) and expand corporation tax relief for start-up companies in next month’s budget to boost growth in the financial technology sector, Financial Services Ireland (FSI), a unit within employers’ group Ibec, has urged, reports the Irish Times. In a 10-page… – Continue reading
Kenneth Leung (PC,F-Accountancy) explains what he – and the government – are doing to get Hong Kong off the EU’s undeserved blacklisting as a “non-cooperative tax jurisdiction”. Why has Hong Kong been placed on this list? There are ten European countries that have named Hong Kong as a tax haven…. – Continue reading
Tax Commissioner Pierre Moscovici has urged European Union (EU) member states to “take the steps needed to fight tax evasion and tax fraud,” after new figures showed that the value-added tax (VAT) gap did not narrow in 2013. According to a new Commission report, the total amount of VAT lost… – Continue reading
A Russian nuclear energy official pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering on Monday in connection with his role in arranging more than 2 million in corrupt payments to influence the awarding of contracts from the Russian-state owned nuclear energy company to businesses in the U.S. Mikerin “admitted that… – Continue reading
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a recently released report that Latvia should review inefficient elements of its tax regime. According to the report, Improving public sector efficiency for more inclusive growth in Latvia, there is scope to improve tax efficiency by lowering taxes on labor income… – Continue reading
FOLLOWING A PROTEST from the Ministry of International Business, Spain has removed Barbados from its tax blacklist. This latest development comes after a recent decision was taken by members of the European Union to blacklist this country for being a non-cooperative tax jurisdiction. International Business Minister, Donville Inniss, praised the… – Continue reading
ABU DHABI: President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan has issued a number of federal decrees with respect to ratifying agreements between the UAE and a number of friendly countries and transferring, appointing and promoting a group of diplomatic corps members. The decrees have been published in the… – Continue reading
In cooperation with their Latvian colleagues, Ukrainian investigators have uncovered and frozen more than USD 80 mln (EUR 73 mln) worth of funds in Latvian bank accounts. The funds were moved there by Serhiy Kurchenko, a well-known associate of ousted president Viktor Yanukovych, the Russian LSM site reported yesterday via… – Continue reading
10/07/2015 – The OECD set out a clear path for Lithuania’s accession to the Organisation, reinforcing the OECD’s commitment to further extend its global membership. On 8 July 2015 the 34 OECD Members adopted the Roadmap for the Accession of Lithuania to the OECD Convention setting out the terms, conditions… – Continue reading
10/07/2015 – The OECD set out a clear path for Lithuania’s accession to the Organisation, reinforcing the OECD’s commitment to further extend its global membership. On 8 July 2015 the 34 OECD Members adopted the Roadmap for the Accession of Lithuania to the OECD Convention setting out the terms, conditions… – Continue reading
The Republic of Latvia has removed Gibraltar from its blacklist of tax havens, the latest EU country to recognise that the Rock complies with international rules on exchange of financial information, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle. The decision by Latvia comes after the EU last month published a list of the… – Continue reading
ARBADOS’ CONTROVERSIAL BLACKLISTING by a group of European Union (EU) countries is “hypocritical” and “grossly discriminatory”, says outgoing Barbados International Business Association (BIBA) president Connie Smith. But Smith also thinks the time is right for “engaging in bilateral discussions which could hopefully conclude in double taxation agreements and bilateral investment… – Continue reading
Latvia has become the second European state to remove Bermuda from its blacklist of uncooperative tax jurisdictions In June, the European Commission (EC) published a list of 30 uncooperative tax jurisdictions, with a so-called master blacklist comprising of countries that were targeted by 10 or more EU member states. Bermuda… – Continue reading
Latvia has become the second European state to remove Bermuda from its blacklist of uncooperative tax jurisdictions In June, the European Commission (EC) published a list of 30 uncooperative tax jurisdictions, with a so-called master blacklist comprising of countries that were targeted by 10 or more EU member states. Bermuda… – Continue reading
“THE decision by a group of European Union (EU) Member States to blacklist Barbados as being non-cooperative and further claim that Barbados and 29 other countries, mostly small islands, do not meet its standards of transparency, exchange of information and fair tax competition, is hypocritical and on the face of… – Continue reading
The Baltic republic of Latvia has pulled Bermuda off its blacklist of uncooperative tax jurisdictions supplied to the European Commission. And the move means the Island has dropped below the ten-nation threshold for inclusion on the EU hitlist — leading Finance Minister Bob Richards to demand Bermuda be taken off… – Continue reading
ST. JOHN’S –– Antigua and Barbuda has written to the European Union’s representative in the Caribbean, strongly objecting to the twin-island nation being named a tax haven and calling on the EU to apologize and withdraw the list. In a strongly worded letter to Head of the Delegation of the… – 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
Critics of an EU tax-haven blacklist say the organisation is playing dice with small states’ reputations, while ignoring European tax avoidance hubs BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, June 19, 2015 (AMG) — Doubts have been cast over the methodology and motives behind the naming of fourteen Caribbean countries among a list of thirty… – Continue reading
Fears are growing that Scotland may be becoming a magnet for money-launderers following allegations linking shell companies there to a $1bn (£634m) fraud in the ex-Soviet republic of Moldova. The swindle allegedly emptied three of Moldova’s leading banks of almost all their funds. Investigators say a key role was played… – Continue reading
