USA Today published a story last week entitled “20 big profitable companies paid no taxes.” Using data provided by S&P Capital IQ, the newspaper identified 20 firms that paid no federal taxes in the second quarter of this year despite reporting $4.4 billion in second quarter profits. Collectively, these 20… – Continue reading
With new laws in place, recovery from Swiss banks can be little easier provided the government shows sincerity in taking action against tax dodgers Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar in recent days has expressed the government’s firm conviction to bring back untaxed money of “US$ 200 billion” stashed in… – Continue reading
The sharemarket has settled into a consolidation phase at between 5400 and 5600 index points, mirroring changes in overseas markets. While analysts are confident the current reporting period will not produce unexpected changes to their forecasts, international political instability makes further upward movement in prices unlikely. Compared with overseas markets… – Continue reading
The Canada Revenue Agency is speeding up the frequency of reassessments of Cameco’s tax returns in what may be an attempt to pressure Cameco to settle out of court. Cameco’s cash is being tied up as they are required to remit 50% of each disputed bill. Cameco could ultimately be… – Continue reading
Urges Illinois-Based Hospira Not To Turn Its Back On America To Dodge Taxes Senator warns of another potential corporate inversion at U.S. taxpayer expense [CHICAGO, IL] – In a letter to the CEO of Lake Forest, Illinois-based Hospira, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) urged the company not to turn its… – Continue reading
Barack Obama, presiding over an unusually dismal post-recession economy, might make matters worse with a distracting crusade against the minor and sensible business practice called “inversion.” Obama gave a 2013 speech regretting that Maytag workers in Illinois lost their jobs when the plant moved to Mexico but rejoicing that more… – Continue reading
Letter-writer Hank Brennan correctly states that tax inversion is a tax avoidance, rather than evasion (“Inversion not a crime,” Reader Forum, Aug. 11). However, like boards of directors off-shoring American corporations as they earlier off-shored American jobs, he is looking at only one stakeholder: stockholders. There are three other stakeholders… – Continue reading
Nobody likes paying taxes, but just how far would you go to avoid them? For some companies who market themselves as homegrown American brands, it’s better to move cash overseas than to pay federal taxes on billions of dollars of earnings. According to the New York Times, U.S. law states… – Continue reading
While the IRS is trying to find Lois Lerner’s emails and revising its rules governing inversions — the practice of multinational corporations (MNCs) moving their headquarters to avoid paying taxes — it has also endorsed a maneuver that will cut taxes for major telecom companies by billions of dollars. In… – Continue reading
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Walgreen’s drew protests this summer as the nation’s largest drug store chain mulled whether to move its headquarters overseas to avoid paying billions in corporate taxes. The practice is known as inversion and has been drawing more attention as companies consider reorganizing across the Atlantic to shield… – Continue reading
The banana giant rejected a $625 million buyout bid by Brazilian orange behemoth Cutrale Group and conglomerate Safra Group on Thursday and said it means to go ahead with a planned merger with Irish rival Fyffes. The combined company is then expected to register in low-tax Ireland in what is… – Continue reading
August 5 — Honduras signed an agreement with Ecuador on mutual administrative assistance and cooperation and the exchange of tax information, the Honduran Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation announced on July 31. The agreement was signed in the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa by Miriam Estela Guzman, the head of the… – Continue reading
Two registries of significant interest to shipowners are the registries of the Republics of the Marshall Islands and Liberia. Significantly, insofar as it does not conflict with the statutory laws, each country has adopted the non-statutory general maritime laws of the United States. This gives added certainty to shipowners, particularly… – Continue reading
A former manager of a credit union was sentenced on Tuesday for bank fraud and tax evasion, announced U.S. Attorney Danny C. Williams, Sr. for the Northern District of Oklahoma and R. Damon Rowe, IRS-Criminal Investigation, Special Agent in Charge, Dallas Field Office. Eva Barroso, 54, Broken Arrow, was sentenced… – Continue reading
Tax competition isn’t just an international issue. While recent headlines have focused on how the high U.S. corporate rate is causing multinationals to relocate to jurisdictions that have cut their taxes or restructured their tax regimes to be more favorable to business (like Ireland and the United Kingdom), the effects… – Continue reading
An international bank executive formerly of Naperville has pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion charges and faces up to three years in prison at sentencing later this year. Aamir H. Khan, 43, was the managing director of a Middle Eastern bank based in Bahrain when he filed false income tax… – Continue reading
Two women in Ontario are suing the federal government for complying with a new U.S. law that forces banks to turn over financial information of Canadian citizens to the IRS upon request. The women are American-born dual citizens of Canada and the U.S who left the states in childhood and have… – Continue reading
Swiss Banks Return To The United States by Julie Zaugg in New York, swissinfo.ch A handful of Swiss banking institutes have started to re-engage with the United States off-shore market – entirely within the law. Their assets under management (AUM) are seeing a spectacular increase. At UBS the AUM has risen… – Continue reading
KUALA LUMPUR: All local financial institutions will be required to declare their American customers to the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) under a new agreement to catch its tax evaders who hide their money overseas. Malaysia will be entering into an inter-governmental agreement with the US in line with… – Continue reading
August 8th, 2014 (InsideCostaRica.com) Costa Rica will delay plans to raise taxes until 2017 as the government of President Luis Guillermo Solis focuses on cracking down on tax evaders to narrow the country’s widening fiscal deficit instead. Solis, on the campaign trail prior to his May election, vowed to not… – Continue reading
A lawsuit has been filed by several Canadian citizens against the Canadian Attorney General in Federal Court in Canada. The legal claim challenges the constitutionality of the agreement the Canadian government struck with the United States. The controversial deal between nations was inked under FATCA—the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act…. – Continue reading
The Internal Revenue Service has updated the Withholding Foreign Partnership and Withholding Foreign Trust agreements as part of the process of implementing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA. FATCA, which was included as part of the HIRE Act of 2010, requires foreign financial institutions to report on the… – Continue reading
On July 14 to 18, 2014, two officials of the National Revenue Authority of Panama traveled to Mexico’s Tax Administration Service to learn of the SAT’s experience in enforcing its transfer pricing regime. The main objective of the visit was to learn how SAT monitors transfer pricing compliance, and to… – Continue reading
Is your client a resident of New York State for tax purposes? Under NYS Tax Law Section 605(b), a resident is defined as someone who is domiciled in New York State, or who maintains a “permanent place of abode” (PPA) and spends more than 183 days of the tax year… – Continue reading
NEW YORK – According to industry insiders there is a battle waging over Software-Defined Networking (SDN) that is a way to build corporate networks without the networking gear built by companies such as Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR). The battle pits network equipment manufacturers against a string of companies… – Continue reading
Gibraltar’s financial community must immediately prepare itself for FATCA or it risks getting caught up in the legislation’s strict international net, says an authority from the jurisdiction. Helvetic, a fund adminstrator based in the British overseas territory, says many financial institutions in the area are underestimating the compliance costs of… – Continue reading
As one of the nation’s most competitive governor’s races picks up, voters in Illinois are hearing a whole lot about a British territory thousands of miles away in the Caribbean. Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn hammered his wealthy Republican rival for days after reports that Bruce Rauner put some investments in… – Continue reading
An American attempt to close a loophole could have a major impact on the recovering Irish economy, writes John Walsh in Dublin. “The company concluded it was not in the best long-term interests of our shareholders to attempt to redomicile outside the US.” That single sentence, uttered by Walgreens’ chief… – Continue reading
Robert Redford has sued New York State over a personal tax bill that goes back to 2005. Regarded as Hollywood royalty, the Sundance Film Festival founder, celebrated actor, director, and producer is generally considered the godfather of indie films. He has a Patrician air, a golden touch, and liberal values… – Continue reading
Even if you beat long odds and win the lottery, you’ll have taxes to pay. It can be more challenging than you might think. Time and again, winners have trouble paying their taxes or get confused. The states vary in how they treat lottery winnings. A few states still don’t… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Auto parts supplier Delphi Automotive Plc (DLPH.N) said it would “vigorously contest” pressure by U.S. tax authorities to file taxes in the United States as a domestic company, when its tax base is in the UK. Delphi, which operates out of Detroit, is one among several American companies… – Continue reading
Bank of America’s projected $16 billion settlement for selling toxic mortgages is expected to be the largest in the history of corporate America, but it’s also likely to include some hidden, and significant, financial benefits for the giant bank. With some $7 billion of the total likely to come in… – Continue reading
The Isle of Man, Dubai and Guernsey, all known as captive domiciles, are being joined by a new rival – the US state of Ohio. Legislation has recently been signed meaning that businesses will be able to create captive insurance companies in the state in order to cater for their… – Continue reading
The reputation of many jurisdictions, or so called ‘tax havens’, has been attacked by other nations, most which fail to apply the same policies that they advocate for others. Over the last two decades, International Financial Centers (IFCs) have made vast changes to their laws and their enforcement, aiming to… – Continue reading
One side effect of soaring home prices: Real estate taxes are soaring too. The government provides many incentives to homeownership, including the mortgage-interest deduction and capital gains exclusion. But the interest deduction is generally limited to interest on $1.1 million in mortgage debt. And the capital gains exclusion is limited… – Continue reading
The Securities and Exchange Commission wants to make an example of two Texas brothers found by a jury at a civil trial to have acted fraudulently to evade taxes, but a defense lawyer said Wednesday that the more than $750 million sought by the government is “hotly contested.” A Manhattan… – Continue reading
The number of Americans renouncing U.S. citizenship stayed near an all-time high in the first half of the year before rules that make it harder to hide assets from tax authorities came into force. Some 1,577 people gave up their nationality at U.S. embassies in the six months through June,… – Continue reading
The son of a congressman, who could face time in prison following his federal indictment on theft and tax-fraud charges, was released on bail Tuesday afternoon. Chaka Fattah Jr., 31, is accused of everything from tax fraud to stealing from the Philadelphia School District as part of the wide-ranging indictment… – Continue reading
Germany’s Ministry of Finance announced that a law enabling the implementation of the United States’ Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) has come into force. The ministry said that the FATCA-USA Implementation Regulation, known in German as FATCA-USA-Umsetzungsverordnung or FATCA-USA-UmsV, entered into force on July 23, 2014. Germany signed the… – Continue reading
While Congress has been obsessing about tax inversions, it turns out another—potentially more important–tax avoidance technique is getting increased attention from the business community: Spinning off tangible assets into Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). If these deals become widespread, they’d be another nail in the coffin of the corporate income… – Continue reading
July 31 (Bloomberg) — Swiss banks will on the whole meet the deadline for delivering information on offshore accounts to the U.S., improving their chances of settling the cases this year. Roiled by the demise of the country’s oldest bank, the lenders are helping the Justice Department build cases against… – Continue reading
The Internal Revenue Service is offering tax relief to U.S. citizens and resident aliens living or working in war-torn South Sudan. The IRS issued Announcement 2014-28 last week, which provides guidance to U.S. citizens or resident aliens living and working abroad whose tax home is in a foreign country and… – Continue reading
In March 2014, the British Virgin Islands Government announced that it had concluded negotiations with the US with respect to a Model 1B Intergovernmental Agreement with the United States (the IGA). The IGA (which was eventually signed on 30 June 2014) provides the framework for the implementation of the US Foreign… – Continue reading
DALLAS, TX, Jul 29, 2014 (Marketwired via COMTEX) — This week, the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held a hearing to question leaders of major banks and hedge funds about an alleged tax avoidance strategy. According to the Senate’s report, these entities have used basket options to skirt billions in… – Continue reading
FATCA Background The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”) was enacted in response to concerns that US taxpayers were avoiding US tax by using offshore financial institutions to hide assets and avoid reporting income. Generally, FATCA imposes due diligence, information reporting and withholding obligations on non-US financial institutions (“FFIs”) and… – Continue reading
Property in England and Wales worth £122bn or more is held through companies in offshore tax jurisdictions where ownership is tricky to establish, according to Land Registry data analysed by the Financial Times. The detailed report showed that around two-thirds of the 91,248 foreign-company owned properties were held through the… – Continue reading
A NEW REPORT makes the case that “sweeping legislative measures” are unnecessary when it comes to the regulation of Bitcoin in Canada. Prepared by lawyers Jillian Friedman and Joseph Neudorfer for the Bitcoin Foundation Canada, Bitcoin and the Law says usage of the leading cryptocurrency is already well covered by… – Continue reading
Tax avoidance, the American way. Little Rock, Arkansas-based telco Windstream has caused a stir by announcing a novel scheme to reduce the amount of federal taxes it has to pay. It intends to spin off certain network assets into a publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT). In so doing,… – Continue reading
(CS) The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, more commonly known as FATCA, will be submitted to a vote at the Luxembourg parliament this autumn, before coming into force next year, Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna has revealed. In answer to a parliamentary question by CSV MP Laurent Mosar, Gramegna said that… – Continue reading
Guyana and the United States have concluded “in substance” an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) for implementation of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). FATCA was enacted by the US in March 2010 as a mechanism designed to reduce the level of tax evasion which currently exists. It seeks to… – Continue reading
