Geneva: A huge global pressure to break secrecy veils of Swiss banks notwithstanding, Switzerland remains the world’s largest offshore financial centre with client assets totalling over USD two trillion, a new study said. Besides the country is expected to remain “the biggest offshore centre for private banking in 2018,” with… – Continue reading
Financial institutions including fund managers will need to up the ante on client due diligence and bolster investor reporting following the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) agreement on the automatic exchange of information. The OECD’s Common Reporting Standard (CRS) will force national authorities in the 51 signatory states… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Indian entities having businesses in the US risk higher penal taxes in the US on any fund transfer to the country if New Delhi fails to endorse a pact for information exchange by December 31 on grounds of confidentiality. New Delhi will find it difficult to sign the… – Continue reading
Offshore Incorporations Limited (OIL), a division of OV Group, a company formation and corporate service specialist focused on serving the financial and professional intermediary sectors, has released its fifth annual market research report “Offshore 2020”. This year, over 300 global senior industry stakeholders were surveyed, highlighting major trends and providing… – Continue reading
The US policy is different. Moving away from the homeland doesn’t mean you are free from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). You are required to file your US tax returns every year, report your worldwide income to the IRS and pay any tax imposed by the US tax laws. Since… – Continue reading
MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Convey Compliance Systems recently expanded its Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) Management Services to include Global Intermediary Identification Number (GIIN) verification. This update allows users to manage client GIINs by comparing them against the most recent IRS published list. The new GIIN Verification capabilities are… – Continue reading
October 29: The IRS today issued transmittal message as a reminder that new versions of the following information returns (in the Form 1099 series) and instructions have been finalized for 2015. The IRS specially noted that each of these information returns has been updated for purposes of FATCA reporting. Form… – Continue reading
Montana has the sixth-best business tax climate in the U.S., according to a report from the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit think tank. The Tax Foundation’s 2015 State Business Tax Climate Index takes into account over 100 variables, including corporate taxes, individual income taxes, sales taxes, unemployment insurance taxes… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Even as the present debate over black money is focused mostly around the names of 628 Indians with account in HSBC, Geneva, the authorities have a list of another 612 Indians with accounts in tax havens around the world. The names of these 612 Indians emerged in 2013… – Continue reading
New U.S. tax rules applicable to Covidien acquisition make deal less attractive, Moody’s said. Two Wall Street rating firms expect to downgrade Medtronic Inc.’s debt because the company will have to borrow $13.5 billion more than it expected to buy health care supplier Covidien and move the combined company to… – Continue reading
Bruton says US multinationals will advise Government on ‘knowledge box’ tax scheme Germany has warned that corporate tax subsidy arrangements known as “patent boxes” are acceptable in the European Union only as a reward for research and investment by companies in member states, not as a new tax-avoidance tool. It… – Continue reading
(BERLIN) – The finance ministers of around 50 countries meet in Berlin on Wednesday to sign a deal they hope will put an end to banking secrecy and aid the worldwide fight against tax fraud and evasion. “Banking secrecy, in its old form, is obsolete,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble… – Continue reading
Here’s a quick update on the legal challenges to Canada’s agreement with the U.S. regarding the controversial FATCA law. The group behind the suit, the Alliance for the Defence of Canadian Sovereignty, says it has retained U.S. legal counsel to challenge in Washington whether so-called “Accidental Americans” resident in Canada… – Continue reading
* Leumi says working with NY State regulators on settlement * Says too soon to estimate final amount of deal * Bank rejects $300 mln settlement offer from NY State * Leumi has provisioned 950 mln shekels for final settlement * Share price falls 1.9 pct in Tel Aviv trading… – Continue reading
UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, has had to set aside Sfr1.84bn (or £1.2 billon / $1.9 billion) in legal provisions to pay for possible fines and to settle regulatory investigations. It has also warned shareholders that these costs are likely to be “at elevated levels” for the “forseeable future”. The Swiss… – Continue reading
Bellary: While Union finance minister, Arun Jaitley has warned the Congress it could be embarrassed once the names of people holding illegal foreign accounts are made public, local mining industry sources say the BJP too could be in for some embarassment as its once powerful leader and jailed mining czar,… – Continue reading
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has launched a new web site for financial institutions required to make reports about US taxpayer clients under the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) laws. The online portal offers advice and access to a reporting hub for financial managers sending information about their… – Continue reading
US banana producer and distributor Chiquita has decided to terminate its proposed inversion with its rival Fyffes, in a deal which would have involved moving its tax residence to Ireland, and will instead be acquired. Chiquita’s decision comes after the announcement of non-legislative measures by the US Treasury Department on… – Continue reading
New CIBC report offers tax tips for U.S. vacation properties TORONTO, Oct. 28, 2014 /CNW/ – CIBC (TSX: CM) (NYSE: CM) – As Canadians look to take advantage of low U.S. house prices to buy vacation homes and escape the chill of winter, a new report by Jamie Golombek, CIBC’s… – Continue reading
New York’s banking regulator will ask for more than $300 million to settle an investigation into whether Bank Leumi Le-Israel (LUMI) BM helped Americans evade taxes, a person familiar with the matter said. Benjamin Lawsky, head of the state’s Department of Financial Services, is seeking more than what the bank… – Continue reading
Canada’s Competition Bureau says that Burger King’s plan to buy Tim Hortons does not pose a competitive threat to the fast food industry. The antitrust watchdog issued a No Action Letter (NAL) Tuesday, confirming that it reviewed the proposed transaction and concluded that it will not, at this time, “challenge… – Continue reading
Did you hear the one about the billionaire mogul who thought the way to fix inequality was to cut corporate taxation? But wait, here’s the kicker – he’s one of the world’s biggest tax dodgers, but he wants a crackdown on the tax dodging of his competitors. The more we… – Continue reading
Wright Medical Group Inc. (WMGI), a U.S. maker of bone implants, will merge with Tornier NV, creating a new company valued at $3.3 billion in the latest proposed tax inversion since tighter rules were announced last month. The legal address for the new company, to be called Wright Medical Group… – Continue reading
(Bloomberg) — The U.S. attempt to stop companies from leaving the country for tax reasons won’t stop Pfizer Inc., which is still considering a deal to move America’s biggest drugmaker abroad, said Chief Executive Officer Ian Read. “I see no reason why we wouldn’t be able to do an inversion,”… – Continue reading
The secret binder lay wedged in a hidden drawer inside a filing cabinet in his office on the Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich, the heart of the world of Swiss private banking. Martin Liechti, a former top private banker at Swiss bank giant UBS, privately called the binder his “CYA file,” a… – Continue reading
The International Monetary Fund is encouraging Caribbean governments to reform their tax policies to encourage greater private sector investment in an effort to boost economic growth. The proposal comes after a two-day high-level forum, Unlocking economic growth, in Montego Bay, Jamaica to discuss possible improvements in energy provision, tax regimes… – Continue reading
Here in America, tax collectors know when you earn interest on your bank deposits. That’s because U.S. banks are obliged to collect such information and report it to the IRS. This makes it impractical for would-be tax evaders to purposefully underreport their interest income for tax purposes. They’d be easily… – Continue reading
At the Justice Department, senior officials like to congratulate themselves on the headline-making, big bucks settlements they have imposed upon banks and lenders for their part in causing the 2008 mortgage meltdown that sparked the biggest American financial crisis since the Great Depression. But wait a moment. Those settlement figures… – Continue reading
Colombia’s minister of finance stated this weekend that Colombians are hiding $50 billion abroad in an attempt to avoid paying taxes over their assets. Finance Minister Mauricio Cardenas told Spanish news agency EFE that no penalties for Colombia tax evaders had been finalized, but that they were on the agenda…. – Continue reading
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Tax inversion deals have effectively been repriced by the US Treasury signaling an end to “hop-scotch” loans and other tax structuring opportunities, according to Fitch Ratings. AbbVie’s purchase of Shire and the planned merger of Salix Pharmaceuticals and Cosmo Technologies, both pulled since the Treasury announcement, were scuttled… – Continue reading
Finance ministers from at least 37 countries will take the biggest step yet in fighting tax evasion at a conference this week hosted by Germany’s Wolfgang Schaeuble, German officials said. Fifty states and jurisdictions are sending representatives to Berlin to sign an agreement on Oct. 29 on the automatic exchange… – Continue reading
There is nothing illegal about tax planning. Yet some things are legal while others are not, and the lines can sometimes get fuzzy. Add to that the fact that some people go to extraordinary lengths to avoid paying taxes, and it can be a recipe for disaster. Increasingly, if you… – Continue reading
An informed, mature and realistic debate on black money is too much to ask for in a country where the issue attracts intense, almost emotional public reaction. It does not help when political games and systemic problems in the economy that aid tax evasion and stashing of illicit money in… – Continue reading
73 per cent of Americans who live outside the U.S. are tempted to give up their U.S. passports in response to the introduction of FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act), reveals a new survey by one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organizations. The findings come as Federal Register… – Continue reading
The number of Americans renouncing U.S. citizenship increased 39 percent in the three months through September after rules that make it harder to hide assets from tax authorities came into force. People giving up their nationality at U.S. embassies increased to 776 in the third quarter, from 560 in the… – Continue reading
The Treasury Department has spent millions of dollars on federal contracts for companies that have shifted their legal address abroad, even as the Obama administration pushes to rein in the practice. Just last month, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew moved to limit the appeal of those tax deals, known as inversions,… – Continue reading
Significant numbers of people are continuing to renounce their U.S. citizenship or end their long-term U.S. residency. There are 776 names on the Treasury Department list published Friday for the third quarter of 2014. That’s the third highest quarterly figure ever, according to Andrew Mitchel, an international tax lawyer in… – Continue reading
The sovereignty of individual nations is increasingly under threat from international governance bodies that want to force a range of new regional and international taxes on states. The latest attempt to bypass state sovereignty occurred when the World Health Organization (WHO) met behind closed doors in Moscow last week. In… – Continue reading
Introduction The economy has come to the forefront of the Second U.S. House District race between incumbent Democrat Dave Loebsack and Republican challenger Dr. Mariannette Miller-Meeks. Loebsack’s campaign accuses Miller-Meeks of being in favor of “special tax breaks to outsourcing corporations” and claims she partnered with a company that sent… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Lawyers representing 73 Swiss banks seeking to avoid a tax-evasion probe by U.S. authorities wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice raising questions over a dozen demands, including the banks’ cooperation with other nations. In the letter dated Oct. 21, the lawyers questioned the terms of… – Continue reading
The Swiss Federal Council has launched a consultation on legislation for the unilateral application of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD’s) Standard on the Exchange of Information to all double tax agreements that are not already in line with this model. The legislation would only involve the exchange… – Continue reading
One of the stories that firms deserting our country like to tell is that by moving their corporate domicile (but not their actual headquarters) outside U.S. borders to duck taxes, they will be able to use cash they have parked offshore to expand their operations in the United States. So… – Continue reading
There’s no doubt the arms length principle has holes, and it may be the time to reconsider the way governments approach transfer pricing Amazon, Fiat, Vodafone, Starbucks, Apple… The list of companies facing scrutiny for their failure to properly implement the arms length principle into their transfer pricing policies this… – Continue reading
With the announced end of banking secrecy for non-residents, the time has come to make use of favourable repatriation schemes, such as the voluntary disclosure regime in Italy. Despite increasing pressure for fiscal transparency and exchange of information, beneficial owners still have a choice: move the capital out (of Luxembourg),… – Continue reading
Since all economic theories – even Marxism and socialism – recognize that capital formation is a key to long-run growth, higher wages, and improved living standards, it obviously doesn’t make sense to penalize saving and investment. Yet that’s exactly what happens because of double taxation in the United States, as… – Continue reading
On October 14, 2014, the Irish Minister for Finance released proposals as part of the 2015 Irish Budget that would cause Irish incorporated non-resident (“INR”) companies to be treated as tax resident in Ireland beginning January 1, 2015. The goal is to shut down the use of so-called “Double Irish”… – Continue reading
The Crown has asked that a couple who laundered millions in drug money for a prolific trafficker before he was murdered receive the maximum sentence for their crimes. Prosecutor Marie Michèle Meloche said sentences of between eight and 10 years were justified for Sy Veng Chun, 67, and his wife… – Continue reading
Wednesday, October 22, 2014 – The BVI Advantage was the theme of a feature presentation at the recent China Offshore Summit. The summit was held from October 15-16 in Shanghai, China. Global Head of BVI Practice at Maples and Calder, Mr. Michael Gagie presented on behalf of the BVI International… – Continue reading
“The issue of substance and taxation is, and always will be, a core column of the Irish taxation system,” Michael Noonan, Ireland’s Finance Minister, said at his Department’s Tax Policy Conference on October 21, 2014, underscoring that Ireland’s strategy is to play fair but play to win. Beginning by discussing… – Continue reading
The Colombian Government announced on October 21, 2014, that it will remove Panama from its blacklist of non-cooperative territories after the two countries agreed to sign a tax information exchange agreement (TIEA). The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding, which lays the foundation for a TIEA, the Colombian Government… – Continue reading
