The amount of money paid to informants by HMRC in its attempts to crack down on tax evasion has leapt by more than 50% in a year to a record high of £605,000. The tax authorities are increasingly rewarding tip-offs in an attempt to recoup the tens of billions lost… – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD: Several amendments have been proposed to the tax laws in the Finance Bill 2015-16 to empower the federal government to enter into agreements for exchange of tax-related information with provinces and other countries. The new sections proposed to be inserted in the Finance Bill will empower Islamabad to enter… – Continue reading
The last time the US tried repatriation – in 2004 – companies took the tax breaks and fired American workers. Better to close loopholes and invest in infrastructure If you had a spoiled 10-year-old at home who you found rifling through your wallet, what would you do? Would you spank… – Continue reading
The Maltese Commissioner for Revenue has announced a further extension in relation to the deadline on reporting for FATCA purposes from 15 June 2015 to 3 July 2015. The FATCA reporting deadline in Malta is normally 30 April. The Commissioner has confirmed that this exception will apply for reporting in… – Continue reading
Cite ambiguity over assessing officers’ power to withdraw tax demand and pending appeals Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have decided to not file an application seeking exemption from the Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) by citing DTAAs (Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements). FPIs decided to not apply for an exemption because of the… – Continue reading
The Bank of Israel audit finds failures and negligence in oversight at Bank Leumi. Failures, mistakes, negligence in oversight: these are only some of the terms used by Supervisor of Banks David Zaken to describe the findings of an audit conducted in recent months on the conduct of Bank Leumi… – Continue reading
Financial institutions around the world must ‘get their act together’ for the introduction of the OECD’s Common Reporting Standard (CRS) in seven months, Linedata has warned. Justin Hayes, product manager at the international software provider, dubbed the automatic exchange agreement between an initial 58 countries “FATCA on steroids’ and an… – Continue reading
Property and casualty insurance companies in Canada are pushing more of their risks to reinsurers that aren’t federally regulated and are often located offshore, and Canada’s most powerful financial services regulator has become concerned enough to conduct a probe of the scope of this business. The Office of the Superintendent… – Continue reading
He has distorted the facts about the nation’s current tax system. Chris Christie repeatedly has said that U.S. corporations are taxed twice on income earned abroad, claiming in one speech that IRS officials “don’t recognize the tax you paid to a foreign country.” That’s false. It’s true that the U.S…. – Continue reading
On May 24, Premier Li Keqiang and a delegation of Chinese senior officials arrived in Chile. During the visit, China and Chile signed a double taxation avoidance agreement (DTA), updated their Free Trade Agreement and agreed on setting up an RMB clearing center in Chile, reports China Briefing. China and… – Continue reading
Governments around the world could find themselves under-resourced when the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act deadline for collecting information on US clients arrives in September, one expert has said. Ellen Zimiles, managing director, head of global investigations at US firm Navigant, said governments will be handed an “unprecedented” amount of… – Continue reading
The Internal Revenue Service Wednesday reminded taxpayers with offshore accounts of two important June deadlines related to Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts filings and the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. All taxpayers with a FBAR filing requirement must report their foreign assets by June 30, with those taxpayers living abroad… – Continue reading
The number of voluntary disclosures of offshore income and assets to Canada’s tax authority nearly doubled in the year ended March 31 from the previous 12 months, the first time such figures have been gathered since the Canada Revenue Agency put in a whistleblower reward system to root out tax… – Continue reading
Dubai: The word offshore banking often evokes quite a number of unsavoury connotations. It’s associated with tax evasion, money laundering and high-level of secrecy, but the truth is that anyone can open an offshore bank account and it’s completely legal. Most expatriates set up a bank account offshore to protect… – Continue reading
Speaking at the Insurance Day 2015 Summit on 10 June 2015, Minister of Finance Bob Richards told attendees that “the more we drive home that the insurance sector in Bermuda is not a stereotypical tax haven gimmick to key onshore decision makers the less the threat from IRS and other… – Continue reading
Part I of this series of articles reviewed some of the basic tax requirements for using trusts to split income, Part II discussed a number of tax planning opportunities that can be accessible through the use of trusts, and Part III reviewed traditional testamentary trust income splitting planning and the… – Continue reading
VATICAN CITY – The Vatican has agreed to share tax information with the United States in its latest move to improve the reputation of its scandal-marred bank and crack down on tax cheats. Vatican and U.S. officials signed an agreement Wednesday in which the Holy See committed to comply with… – Continue reading
The Cayman Islands saw a 17 percent increase in new company registrations in 2014 over the previous year, according to a report released today by offshore law and fiduciary firm Appleby. In 2014, 11,010 new companies registered in Cayman, noted the firm’s latest ‘On the Register’ report, which provides insight… – Continue reading
The Luxembourg Tax Authorities have confirmed that the deadline for FATCA reporting with respect to financial accounts as of 31 December 2014 has been extended from 30 June 2015 to 31 July 2015. The FATCA Agreement (Model 1) between Luxembourg and the United States was signed on 28 March 2014…. – Continue reading
Minister of Financial Services the Hon. Hope Strachan said international best practices are evolving at a rapid pace, particularly as it relates to automatic tax exchange initiatives, tax transparency, anti-money laundering and financial crime, and e-commerce, reports the Bahamas Weekly. Making her contribution to the 2015 Budget Debate in the… – Continue reading
Maryland residents who pay income tax to other states may be entitled to a refund of local income taxes paid in prior tax years. The U.S. Supreme Court in Comptroller of the Treasury of Maryland v. Wynne et ux. recently affirmed a Maryland Court of Appeals ruling that the state’s… – Continue reading
Individuals who renew their US passport need to take into consideration that their Social Security Number (SSN) and country of residency will be forwarded to the IRS. Since July 2014, the passport renewal instructions forms have dedicated a specific paragraph detailing this new procedure: “Section 6039E of the Internal Revenue… – Continue reading
A new report from the Internal Revenue Service indicated that the upper-echelon of wealth is hoarding more money than we initially thought, reported The Washington Post. We all know how much money the one-percent hoards, but what about the top one-thousandth percent? To be apart of that group, one must… – Continue reading
In a year when technology deals are set to break records, U.K. targets are proving popular. About $20 billion of deals were struck for British technology companies in the last 12 months, almost double the amount spent a year earlier. U.S. buyers accounted for about half the acquisitions. They included… – Continue reading
Shire is considering a move to acquire Swiss biopharma company Actelion in a move that would boost its rare disease portfolio. According to a report in the Sunday Times, Shire made an informal approach to Actelion about a possible £12.4bn takeover several weeks ago, but the opening bid was turned… – Continue reading
Switzerland’s government wants banks to toughen up checks to avoid accepting untaxed assets, possibly including a refusal to do business with a client who can’t show the money has been regularized, reports Bloomberg. For clients from countries that aren’t covered by automatic exchange of information agreements, banks will need to… – 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
An organisation that represents American expats has called on the United States Treasury to amend tax regulations to exempt those living abroad from the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). FACTA was introduced in 2010 to tackle what was seen as a growing number of wealthy US citizens living abroad… – Continue reading
Top congressional lawmakers have ramped up discussions over international tax reform as the outlook for business and comprehensive reform has dimmed. The president has flatly rejected individual rate cuts, and efforts toward business-only reform have flagged as the pass-through community has rejected most proposals that would leave it out of… – Continue reading
U.S. agricultural and crop chemicals giant Monsanto (MON) could shift its headquarters to Europe in a tax-savings strategy if the company succeeds in its $45 billion unsolicited bid to merge with rival Swiss rival Syngenta. Details of the tentative plan came Monday as Syngenta reiterated its opposition to the transaction,… – Continue reading
Where a foreign company renders professional services to a South African company, it is important that the foreign entity considers whether, as a result of rendering such services, the foreign company will create a permanent establishment in South Africa. The reason why this becomes important is that where a foreign… – Continue reading
MUNICH — Leaders of the Group of Seven nations are set to agree on the creation of a system to counter tax evasion and tax avoidance by multinational enterprises, during the G-7 summit meeting to be held in Germany on Sunday and Monday, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. G-7 leaders… – Continue reading
MiFID II – FCA Issues Discussion Paper on MiFID II Implementation Measures The FCA issued a discussion paper (DP15/3) on 26 March 2015, asking firms for their views on a range of MiFID II implementation measures, including on: The revised inducements standards. Receipt of commissions and other benefits by discretionary… – Continue reading
“In Liberia for example, illicit financial outflows reached 61.6 percent of gross domestic product on average between 2008 and 2012, and 80.6 percent of total trade volume. The money lost could have funded its health budget four and half times over, in a country where 63.8 percent of the population… – Continue reading
Crucial deadlines are approaching for millions of U.S. taxpayers who live abroad or have offshore financial ties. For expatriates, the annual income-tax filing deadline is normally June 15, instead of April 15. In addition, all U.S. taxpayers with offshore accounts totaling more than $10,000 in 2014–regardless of where they live–have… – Continue reading
Companies take a second look at domestic outsourcing options as Syracuse, Jacksonville, Tampa and Lansing top the list of American hot spots for IT and business process services. A number of midsize American cities now make attractive alternatives to offshore locations in India and elsehwere for IT and business process… – Continue reading
According to the Urban Dictionary a “New York minute” is an instant – the time between when the light changes and the car behind you honks its horn. If a New York minute is less than a minute, can a New York day be less than 24 hours? In the… – Continue reading
A businessman caught in a money-laundering sting helped the U.S. prosecute a foreign business — and now he’s seeking $22.2 million from the government as a reward. The U.S. Tax Court ruled Tuesday in favor of the informant, allowing his claim to proceed after the Internal Revenue Service earlier denied… – Continue reading
Afip has blamed Julio Grondona for authorising a $10-million payment that prosecutors have characterised as a bribe to vote for SA for World Cup 2010. Julio Grondona, a former Fifa vice-president and head of finance who ran Argentina’s soccer federation from 1979 until his death last year at 82, will… – Continue reading
Hong Kong is often seen as a favorable business location, due to its low tax rates, easier access to the Asian market, as well as a relatively stress-free establishment procedure. The region’s stable political environment and excellent finance and banking services also provide investors with a better business environment. Moreover,… – Continue reading
Retired Canadian lawyer Ginny Hillis has a message for the U.S. Congress. “They have no rights over me. None.” Hillis detests the “arrogance” of Congress for “imposing their laws on a sovereign nation with the complicity of that sovereign nation’s government.” America’s Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) “should embarrass… – Continue reading
As expatriate taxpayers face increasing difficulties from implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, the Internal Revenue Service is offering YouTube videos and other online resources to assist taxpayers overseas. The IRS noted that the June 15 filing deadline for Americans abroad is approaching soon, so it is launching… – Continue reading
LAS VEGAS, June 4, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Remark Media, Inc. (NASDAQ: MARK) today announced that its Board of Directors has adopted a plan, known as the Tax Benefit Preservation Plan, designed to protect the significant potential long-term tax benefits presented by the company’s net operating losses. Remark intends to seek… – Continue reading
Medtronic is on the lookout for early-stage technologies developed by medical device firms in the United States, as well as larger acquisitions that can help the company implement a three-pronged strategy, in the wake of its $43 billion merger with Covidien. The tax inversion deal allowed Medtronic to relocate to… – Continue reading
In Comptroller of the Treasury of Maryland v. Wynne, Dkt. No. 13-485 (U.S. May 18, 2015), the U.S. Supreme Court found that Maryland’s system of personal income taxation violated the nondiscrimination prong of the dormant Commerce Clause. The Court concluded that the system did not grant a resident credit for… – Continue reading
NEW YORK (TheStreet) — General Electric (GE – Get Report) CEO Jeffrey Immelt, discontented with Connecticut’s plans to raise taxes by what he says will be $1.9 billion statewide, informed workers today that he will consider moving its headquarters out of state. The announcement may be a bargaining chip to… – Continue reading
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has assessed a $75 million fine against the Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino for “willful egregious anti-money laundering violations.” Financial transactions worth $10,000 or more are supposed to be recorded and reported to federal authorities, but weren’t reported at the… – Continue reading
India joined the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information on 3rd June, 2015, in Paris, France, alongwith Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Indonesia and New Zealand. On our behalf, the Declaration to comply with the provisions of the MCAA was signed by H.E. Mr. Mohan Kumar,… – Continue reading
In a five-to-four decision, the United States Supreme Court held that the dormant commerce clause protects in-state residents from the double taxation of their interstate income. This is a complicated decision and the margin favoring the taxpayers was razor-thin, one vote. The decision is complicated because the tax involved was… – Continue reading
Many mid-size U.S. cities and other areas now make attractive alternatives to India and other offshore locations for companies considering consolidating finance, IT, and other business services operations for shared service or global business services centers, according to new research from The Hackett Group, Inc. The diminishing gap in labor… – Continue reading
