The issue of international assignees was, for a long time, limited to a small number of companies – meaning only those that operated on an international scale. But in recent years, global expansion has shifted into focus for the larger business community. As a result, the challenges and best practices… – Continue reading
In a move tied to budgets, Canada’s Revenue Agency is cutting its top staff focused on international tax evasion. Cuts to experienced personnel who ferret out aggressive tax planning appear to be deepest, despite comments by MP Gerald Keddy that “the CRA is not reducing the number of auditors, nor… – Continue reading
The beautiful part is the administration did it without Congress. Jared Bernstein, a former chief economist to Vice President Biden, is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and author of “Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed?” among other books. Well, would you look at… – Continue reading
After an almost two year investigation into offshore stock entities in Belize, things moved quickly on Sept. 9. The indictment in Brooklyn was unsealed and at 11:45 a.m. Robert Bandfield was arrested in Miami on stock fraud charges. By 1 p.m., FBI agents and Belize police were on the fourth… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Moving against tax avoidance by corporations, the Obama administration took several actions on Monday to curb “inversion” deals that allow companies to escape high U.S. taxes by reincorporating abroad. The Treasury Department announced new rules, effective immediately, that will reduce the tax benefits available to companies that have… – Continue reading
Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D – Illinois) and Sherrod Brown (D – Ohio) have introduced a bill – the Pay What You Owe Before You Go Act of 2014 – into the Senate that would require multinational corporations to settle their United States tax bill before using corporate inversions to… – Continue reading
Plans to curb tax avoidance will hit Ireland. Most countries are set to force multinationals to pay more tax and as the political controversy grows, our own role in these activities will come under ever increasing scrutiny On Tuesday the OECD, the Paris-based club of the world’s richest economies, published… – Continue reading
On 11 September 2014, Business BVI held its Annual Asia conference in Hong Kong — ‘Pivoting to Asia: the pathway to new opportunities’. Paul Christopher, managing partner of Mourant Ozannes’ Hong Kong office, appeared as a panellist in a key panel discussion on the event’s programme, entitled ‘The BVI-HK connection:… – Continue reading
The German-Irish Chamber of Commerce is based in discreet but elegant offices on Fitzwilliam Square in Dublin. It has a much lower profile than the American Irish Chamber of Commerce, but in many ways it is just as important. Ties with the US are hugely important for obvious reasons. There… – Continue reading
As the finance ministers and central bank governors from the world’s 20 largest economies gather in a convention centre in the Australian city of Cairns this weekend, anti-capitalist protesters will likely accuse them of doing the bidding of the globe’s all-powerful multinational corporations. But the Group of 20’s financial chieftains… – Continue reading
Clients of UBS AG (UBSN), Switzerland’s largest bank, have led a five-fold surge in the number of Canadian residents reporting hidden offshore income over the past eight years. Almost 6,000 taxpayers came forward in the past 12 months as part of the Canada Revenue Agency’s voluntary disclosure program to report… – Continue reading
Yesterday saw the release of the first set of deliverables under the OECD’s project on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS). These constitute the “building blocks” for an internationally agreed and co-ordinated response to government and media concerns in recent years about the perceived way in which shortcomings in relevant… – Continue reading
The global arms race has been replaced by a corporate tax race. Countries call for disarmament while building up their armouries. Britain is the worst offender. It led the calls for a level international playing field on corporation tax to stop multinationals from choosing where to pay tax. However, the… – Continue reading
The OECD wants to force businesses to declare their turnover and number of employees in each country where they are active. Among the multinationals targeted are digital giants Google, Apple and Amazon. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has announced an international action plan called “Project BEPS”, to target… – Continue reading
Despite their high payouts, international stocks and funds can come with big tax bills, but there are ways to offset those hefty levies. There is no denying the appeal of foreign equities. The dividend yield on the stocks as of mid-September in the MSCI EAFE Index are more than 3%,… – Continue reading
Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., has introduced legislation that would amend the Tax Code to disqualify movie and TV producers from receiving tax credits from the federal government if any of the production is done outside the United States. The bill, known as the Film Incentive Reform Act, would amend Section… – Continue reading
If the all-American fast food chain Burger King, with its thousands of restaurants in the United States, can claim to be a foreign company for tax purposes, our corporate tax system is in real trouble. The crisis of corporate inversions is now apparent even to those who aren’t connected to… – Continue reading
Remember the study last year that ranked our tax code right below Zimbabwe? Now, a new study by the Tax Foundation still ranks us near last. Zimbabwe wasn’t a part of this contest, since the new study looked only at the 34 countries making up the OECD. Still, we have… – Continue reading
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3fbed922-3d51-11e4-871d-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz3Eo63WbfR The British Virgin Islands has long attracted Chinese companies looking to… – Continue reading
Dale Holmes started working as a furniture upholsterer straight out of high school 40 years ago; when he took his first job, work at furniture manufacturing plants in the High Point area was commonplace. Mammoth factories for major home furnishings companies dominated the economic landscape. The industry followed the cycles… – Continue reading
Banks in the British Virgin Islands are making it more difficulty for new accounts to be opened after a rise in reports of suspicious transactions relating to the Caribbean tax haven. Difficulties in opening bank accounts are seen to have helped business, including an increase in new incorporations, in the… – Continue reading
While Senate Democrats continue to examine specific legislative proposals to deter US multinationals from using corporate inversions to move their tax residence abroad, Republicans remain insistent that any specific anti-inversion legislation should be explicitly linked to comprehensive tax reform. A new bill has been put forward by Charles Schumer (D… – Continue reading
TWO Bahamian men were arrested on Friday at an airport in Belize three days after they were indicted by US federal prosecutors over an alleged $500 million securities fraud and money laundering scheme, according to a Belize news report. #The US is seeking to extradite the men over the allegations…. – Continue reading
Over the past six years, the United States has become increasingly concerned that Americans are stashing money offshore, essentially evading U.S. tax. The IRS has increased filing requirements around foreign assets through the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which requires financial institutions around the world to report activities of… – Continue reading
With an eye to next year’s federal election, the Harper government has begun to sprinkle tax-relief treats across the country. Small businesses got theirs last week with a break on employment insurance premiums. Sometimes, however, what governments don’t do can be as telling as their actions. The Finance Department has… – Continue reading
Company after company are fleeing tax oppression in the United States by seeking mergers and acquisitions in lower corporate-tax rate nations. Ireland with a tax rate of 12.5 percent and the United Kingdom with 20 percent, in particular, are attractive alternatives to the United States with a world-leading corporate-tax rate… – Continue reading
American taxpayers are being robbed by yet another giant corporation that is deserting the USA after using the country’s advantages to build untold wealth. Burger King’s recent decision to pursue a corporate inversion to Canada is the culmination of years of maneuvering to dodge paying its fair share in corporate… – Continue reading
Indictment demonstrates the strength of US law enforcement efforts to combat offshore fraud and is the first to charge a FATCA violation. On September 9, 2014, in US v. Robert Bandfield, et al., federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York announced the indictment of a US citizen and… – Continue reading
A friend of a friend just cited (in an email) the U2 rock band for having “social consciousness.” As noted in this February 2007 posting, referencing a New York Times article on the subject, the U2 folks had never paid any income tax and decided to invert themselves into an… – Continue reading
As a small island nation, with a vibrant insurance sector and relatively low tax rates, Bermuda can be a target for political leaders and pundits in the United States. But history shows that our nations are natural friends, allies and economic partners. Seventy years ago, fighting against Imperial Japan and… – Continue reading
Using foreign stocks to diversify your portfolio can be a good move for investors looking to collect dividends and protect capital. But owners of dividend paying foreign stocks can find themselves being hit by another type of tax: foreign dividend withholding tax. Keeping as much of your dividends as possible… – Continue reading
On Monday the 11th of August, an appeal was filed with the Federal Court of Canada in Vancouver seeking a declaration that the enforcement by the Canadian Government of the United States’ Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”) on Canadian soil is unconstitutional. Under FATCA financial institutions enter into an… – Continue reading
Factors to consider in deciding which type of incorporation is best for you AS TAX LAWS continue to evolve, so do choices of entity. Being mindful of the alternatives is critical to achieving tax benefits. Both S corporations and Limited Liability Companies (LLC’s) are flow-throughs, which have long been a… – Continue reading
A senior Democratic tax writer said Friday that the Obama administration could take unilateral action targeting offshore tax deals before Congress leaves town for the midterm elections. Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.) said that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told a group of House Ways and Means Democrats on Wednesday that the… – Continue reading
The Obama Administration, along with a couple senators, have been leading a campaign of moral indignation against “inversions.” In tax terms, inversions are a U.S. incorporated company changing its residence to a lower tax country to reduce the tax burden on its income. Because U.S. companies are taxed in the… – Continue reading
Criminal fines imposed on corporations should not be tax deductible, but tax rebates could be claimed on illegally gained profits that a court has ordered a company to pay back, the Swiss government advised on Friday. The cabinet was responding to a parliamentary motion to clarify the situation in light of a… – Continue reading
Although the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) went “live” July 1, 2014, guidance continues to fall into place. On July 16, the IRS issued instructions for the requester of various Forms W-8 and continues to update its FAQ website. The Cayman Islands Tax Information Authorityissued regulations effective July 4, 2014 addressing the… – Continue reading
Financial institutions outside Switzerland may be tempted to think that the U.S. Department of Justice’s focus and pressure on Swiss banks in recent years leaves them in the clear. And, indeed, the DOJ has had great success in targeting these institutions far from U.S. shores. It has levied monetary penalties… – Continue reading
Withholding on US source income under FATCA started on 1 July 2014. The withholding will apply to gross “proceeds of sale” of securities bearing US source income (which includes repayment of principal on a loan to a US borrower) and, potentially, to “foreign passthru payments” from January 2017. Now that… – Continue reading
Countries worldwide have cut their corporate tax rates in the past two decades. Germany lowered its top rate to 29.6% from 59.7% in 1993. Canada went from 44.3% to 26%, Ireland from 40% to 12.5%. The average top rate for 34 non-U.S. countries went from 36.9% in 1993 to 25.1%… – Continue reading
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not… – Continue reading
Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., has introduced three pieces of legislation to close tax breaks that enable U.S. multinational corporations to use so-called “inversions” in which they merge with a foreign company and move their tax domicile abroad to a low-tax country to reduce corporate taxes. Corporate inversions are used by… – Continue reading
A contingent of so-called “corrupt clients” from Canada have been caught in the net of a massive fraud investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney, a source close to the investigation told CBC. CBC News reported Wednesday that two Canadians, along with four others, were indicted in the U.S…. – Continue reading
Outsourcing the responsible officer (RO) function under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) offers limited value to Cayman-Islands’ domiciled fund managers.The Model one Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) between the Cayman Islands and the US does not stipulate that a responsible officer is required. The responsible officer title is a feature… – Continue reading
(MCT) — Five senators on Thursday urged Burger King Worldwide Inc. not to move to lower-tax Canada, accusing the company of trying to avoid paying its fair share for roads and other public services it receives in the United States. The letter, organized by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) was intended… – Continue reading
DOWNTOWN — The Roanoke Building at 11 S. LaSalle St. will undergo an $88 million renovation to transform the office building into a Residence Inn by Marriott, thanks to a property tax incentive approved Thursday by the city. Aldermen voted Thursday to grant LaSalle Hotel Partners LLC a Class L Property… – Continue reading
EVEN MORE Philippine companies have complied with a US tax law since a July 1 deadline, after which foreign financial institutions (FFIs) not yet registered with the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) faced penalties. A list published by the IRS earlier this month showed that a total of 197 Philippine-based… – Continue reading
Several residents of American Samoa have argued in federal court that those born in the territory should automatically be granted U.S. citizenship, but the American Samoa government and its congressional delegate disagree. Tradition, land ownership Giving birthright citizenship to American Samoa would jeopardize the traditional way of life in the… – Continue reading
Washington, DC—(ENEWSPF)—September 5, 2014. Joshua Vandyk, an investment advisor, was sentenced today to serve 30 months in prison for conspiring to launder monetary instruments, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced. Vandyk, a U.S. citizen, and Eric St-Cyr and Patrick Poulin, Canadian citizens, were indicted by a grand… – Continue reading
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A 43-year-old Vadnais Heights investment advisor pleaded guilty to accusations that he spent clients’ money on personal items instead of investing their funds, the United States Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday. Joel William Carlson, who was charged on Aug. 4, pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of tax evasion… – Continue reading
