A bitcoin scam in Spain has managed to convince 22,000 investors to fork over a total of 50 million EUR to the unete, a digital currency that can allow people to buy or sell things online. This bitcoin scam was started by José Manuel Ramírez Marco in 2013 and, just… – Continue reading
The Justice Department announced Thursday that its Swiss Bank Program snared another three financial institutions in its battle against offshore tax evasion. Mercantil Bank will pay a $1.2 million fine, Banque Cantonale Neuchâteloise (BCN) will pay $1.1 million and Nidwaldner Kantonalbank will fork over $856,000 the federal government. By joining… – Continue reading
At a global summit that addressed how illicit financial flows interfere with reducing poverty, wealthy nations rejected a plan to expand the UN’s power to fight global tax evasion. The plan, promoted by developing economies and transparency groups, was the subject of the meeting between delegations of UN members from… – Continue reading
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) had every right to be outraged – as was expressed by its leaders at their recent summit in Barbados – over the decision by the European Union (EU) to name and shame eight of its members for supposedly failing to cooperate against the use of their… – Continue reading
SOUTHFIELD, Mich., July 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Most people think offshore accounts are only for the wealthy but the 1-800-LAW-FIRM Federal Tax Defense Team believes people should think again. Thousands of people in the United States have foreign bank accounts and believe that just because they are not millionaires, they… – Continue reading
July 15 — The IRS national taxpayer advocate told lawmakers she will keep up the pressure to lighten the compliance and implementation burdens of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. In part of a mid-year report to Congress on the office’s 2016 objectives, Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson said July… – Continue reading
Hollywood-resident James Robert Shipman Jr. is one of three men arrested in a $2.6 million money laundering sting, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced last week. Shipman and one of his co-conspirators, Kenneth Ardell Landgaard, were arrested after flying to an airport in New… – Continue reading
Washington, DC – An indictment was unsealed today charging nine defendants with offenses based on their roles in complex, international stock manipulation and money laundering schemes generating approximately $6.5 million in illicit proceeds. Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Dana J. Boente… – Continue reading
The U.S., Japan and Europe are being accused of blocking developing countries from participating in efforts to combat international tax evasion. Policymakers have been gathered this week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the 3rd Financing for Development Conference, where discussions have been underway about ways to combat corporate tax evasion…. – Continue reading
Treasurer Joe Hockey has taken aim at the United States for dragging its feet on taxing multinationals such as Google, and says the Obama administration now wants to come after Australia’s tax base. Australia has been working with the United Kingdom on a local version of Britain’s ‘Google tax’ to… – Continue reading
Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul sued the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service over rules on how Americans abroad are taxed and what foreign banks must disclose about U.S. customers. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act is supposed to make it harder to hide assets overseas, yet its regulations are… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON • The CEO of Monsanto met Tuesday with one of the chief critics of the company’s potential merger with Syngenta, and Sen. Dick Durbin says he told Monsanto’s Hugh Grant that he would do all he could to change federal law to make it more difficult for companies to… – Continue reading
FATCA Agreement Signed On 10 July 2015, Georgia and the United States signed a Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) Agreement. FATCA seeks to obtain information on accounts held by U.S. taxpayers in other countries. It requires U.S. financial institutions to withhold a portion of certain payments made to Foreign… – Continue reading
The Ministry of Finance of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced that the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) reporting deadline is set on 30 July 2015. In addition, on 6 July 2015, the Ministry of Finance issued the first set of guidance notes for implementing the FATCA Agreement. The… – Continue reading
The world can end the AIDS epidemic by 2030, the United Nations said on Tuesday, highlighting global success in rolling out life-saving drugs over the last 15 years. The UN Millennium Development Goal to halt and reverse the spread of the disease has been achieved, said UNAIDS, the global body’s… – Continue reading
New Zealand China Council chairman Sir Don McKinnon says we need to have a national debate on housing that avoids sending mixed messages to valued overseas partners. New Zealand is far from alone in having a red hot property market. Headlines in Australia, Britain and Canada paint a strikingly similar… – Continue reading
Banque Syz SA of Geneva is buying Royal Bank of Canada’s Swiss private bank as foreign financial firms retreat from Switzerland amid higher regulatory costs. The business, based in Geneva, had 10 billion Swiss francs ($10.5 billion) of client assets under management at the end of October, Royal Bank said… – Continue reading
The US voluntary disclosure landscape has changed dramatically over the last 12 months. As a result, the options to voluntarily disclose previously unreported offshore accounts and assets have evolved to allow unprecedented relief for a broader group of US taxpayers. This is particularly true for those whose mistakes were inadvertent,… – Continue reading
US authorities are investigating German banking giant Deutsche Bank over alleged money laundering in Russia, people familiar with the matter said Monday. The investigation centers on billions of dollars’ worth of transactions carried out by Deutsche Bank in Russia that New York state regulators believe may have been used to… – Continue reading
A draft amendment to the Income Tax Ordinance and the Prohibition on Money Laundering Law regarding Israel joining international tax information-sharing agreements. The Israel Tax Authority (ITA) has just circulated a draft amendment to the Income Tax Ordinance and the Prohibition on Money Laundering Law regarding Israel joining international tax… – Continue reading
It’s well-documented that profitable Fortune 500 companies are stashing profits offshore to the tune of at least $2.1 trillion and avoiding as much as $550 billion in U.S. taxes. But instead of taking steps to halt this brazen tax dodging, lawmakers have floated various misguided “reform” proposals that would actually… – Continue reading
Hopes for a broad overhaul of the corporate tax system are fading as the 2016 elections draw closer, but momentum is building for one key change — the U.S. tax that companies would pay on overseas profits. A bipartisan proposal, to be introduced soon in Congress, would tax the estimated… – Continue reading
On 07th July 2015, the United States and Vietnam signed an income tax treaty with Vietnam, the first ever between the two countries. The Double Taxation Agreement applies to personal income tax and enterprise income tax in the case of Vietnam. What is a permanent establishment? Under the Double Taxation… – Continue reading
On Friday, the Seventh Circuit upheld what it determined to be a substantively reasonable sentence for billionaire Ty Warner, the creator of Beanie Babies. We previously blogged about Warner’s district court sentencing, during which Judge Kocoras found that Warner’s “very unique” circumstances warranted a non-incarceration sentence – well below the… – Continue reading
The benefits of switching to Bangkok Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes (QROPS) are often overlooked by expats who believe the low cost of living in Thailand is already making their money stretch further. Bangkok offers a great life for expats with even modest financial resources with a tropical climate and… – Continue reading
The short answer to the question of the connection between Canada’s new anti-terrorism laws and taxes is that recent amendments to the Income Tax and Excise Tax Acts which arise through the Anti-Terrorism Act permit more extensive disclosure and sharing of private and confidential taxpayer information. The longer answer is… – Continue reading
KUWAIT, July 13 (KUNA) ¬¬ The cabinet, under the chairmanship of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al¬Mubarak Al¬Hamad Al¬Sabah, approved Monday a number of agreements to boost cooperation with several friendly countries. The endorsed agreements included a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in social insurance with Bahraini government,… – Continue reading
According to a local newspaper report, the Cayman Islands, the Caribbean territory often called an offshore financial haven, could be the site of a future diamond bourse. The proposed exchange is the brainchild of local jeweler Dennis Smith, who sees it as a way for overseas companies to service the… – Continue reading
In the midst of turmoil in the Chinese stock markets, one serious problem that may appear is increased currency outflows created by current and potential investors who would rather move their assets to foreign countries viewed as safer havens. Money laundering should be under close surveillance. Chinese involvement in money… – Continue reading
Normative Ruling RFB No. 1,571/2015, which institutes the Electronic Financial Return, the so-called “e-Financeira”, was published on July 3rd, 2015. The e-Financeira is a statement, transmitted electronically to the Public Digital Bookkeeping System (“SPED”), compulsory for insurance companies and legal entities with activities relating to (i) structuring and selling private… – Continue reading
Over the past few months, several foreign portfolio investors registered in India have received notices from the Indian tax authorities demanding payment of Minimum Alternate Tax in respect of transactions which took place over the course of prior assessment years. The Indian Government has indicated that it could raise several… – Continue reading
OTTAWA – The federal revenue agency has written off at least $4 billion in debts in the last two years — including accounts worth more than $10 million, newly released records show. Debts were declared uncollectible because those owing had died, gone bankrupt, could not be located or lived outside… – Continue reading
The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has announced a further extension to the deadline for Maltese financial institutions (FIs) to comply with the reporting requirements under the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The deadline for FIs to submit FATCA data to the IRD has been moved forward to July… – Continue reading
The Abbott government has been accused of trying to water down language on tax evasion in a crucial document ahead of the UN’s Finance for Development meeting in Ethiopia next week. The Third International Conference on Financing for Development will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from Monday next week…. – Continue reading
Two more Swiss banks have agreed deals with the US Justice Department over tax evasion by Americans, reports BBC News. Banque Pasche will pay US$7.22m (£4.7m) and Arvest Privatbank US$1.04m in penalties under a deal that means they will not face criminal charges. Fifteen Swiss banks have already cut deals… – Continue reading
As many of our readers know, the Canadian Income Tax Act (the “Act”) provides for an unlimited exemption from the imposition of Canadian income tax on the gains resulting from a disposition of a “principal residence”. Access to the principal residence exemption can be valuable, especially in cities (e.g. Vancouver,… – Continue reading
Prices for smartphone applications sold in South Korea through Google and Apple platforms rose 10 percent starting this month, industry sources said Friday, as the government started imposing taxes on overseas-based open markets. According to the sources, U.S. tech giants Google Inc. and Apple Inc. rolled out new price policies… – Continue reading
Poor countries need to get better at raising tax, and multinational firms need to get better at paying it SOMALIA is not only one of the world’s poorest and least developed countries, it is also one of the most dangerous for tax collectors. By one reckoning a fifth of tax… – Continue reading
The Indo-US deal on the Act will help both fight coountries tax evasion. Here’s a primer on how you could be affected The United States and India struck a bilateral deal on Thursday that would enable them to track the assets of nationals from both countries. As per the terms… – Continue reading
Banks and other financial institutions in the Federation are bracing for the imminent implementation of the US’ FATCA regulations. With the US Inland Revenue Service (IRS) Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act will come a drastic change to how local banks do business with US citizens and companies. Under FATCA, financial… – Continue reading
CHICAGO (AP) — A U.S. appeals court on Friday agreed with a sentence of probation for the billionaire creator of Beanie Babies stuffed toys, rejecting arguments by federal prosecutors that he deserved prison time for hiding millions of dollars in a Swiss bank account. H. Ty Warner was accused of… – Continue reading
NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Negotiators locked horns until 2 a.m. some nights in New York this past month, trying to agree on a way to finance the United Nation’s bold new global development agenda — without success. The disputed 31-page document is headed to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa,… – Continue reading
U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors are investigating former Deutsche Bank AG traders in connection with their participation in the interest rate-rigging scandal and could bring charges this year, Bloomberg reported, citing two people with knowledge of the situation. At least five former traders are under investigation for their role in… – Continue reading
On July 8, 2015, the International Tax Reform Working Group, which is co-chaired by Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY), released its long-awaited report that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has said is the precursor to comprehensive tax reform in the United States. What does the… – Continue reading
Washington, DC—(ENEWSPF)—July 9, 2015. The Department of Justice announced today that two banks, Banque Pasche SA and ARVEST Privatbank AG, have reached resolutions under the department’s Swiss Bank Program. “Banque Pasche and ARVEST have provided detailed information regarding the ways in which Swiss banks helped U.S. taxpayers conceal foreign accounts… – Continue reading
Georgia and the United States (US) are deepening their bilateral relationship to improve international tax compliance and ensure all citizens pay their appropriate taxes when living abroad. Today Georgia signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) with the US on tax compliance and mutual understanding, which encompasses implementation of the Foreign Account… – 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
Kenneth Landgaard had what he thought was a foolproof plan for moving illicit cash out of the U.S. to safe havens in Belize and Panama, prosecutors said: pack it in Louis Vuitton duffel bags. The idea was meant to reassure the crew that the deal wasn’t a set-up, according to… – Continue reading
Swiss Poised To Support Greek Tax Amnesty by Matthew Allen, swissinfo.ch Struggling to pay off more than €300 billion (CHF313 billion) in debts, Greece is banking on Switzerland to help it recover a treasure trove of undeclared assets that tax cheats have stashed in alpine vaults. But anti-tax haven campaigners… – Continue reading
The International Tax Authority (ITA) of the British Virgin Islands has released templates for Individual and Entity Self-Certification Forms under US and UK FATCA. Copies can be found on the BVI Government’s website. The templates have been issued to assist BVI Reporting Financial Institutions (FFIs) – they can be used… – Continue reading
