Four days out from Christmas, Blind Citizens Australia (BCA), Deaf Australia, Homelessness Australia and Down Syndrome Australia learned they were to be subject to federal government funding cuts. New Social Services Minister Scott Morrison assured concerned parties that frontline services to the disabled would not be cut, just grants to… – Continue reading
MUNICH (AP) – Former Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness has been granted day parole seven months after going to prison for tax evasion. Bavaria’s state justice ministry says Hoeness is allowed to leave prison during the day to work as of Friday, though he’ll have to return in the evening… – Continue reading
The new deoffshorisation legislation that passed with lightning speed through Russia’s Parliament and then hastingly signed by President Putin in the time span of a week and a half, comes into force on January 1, 2015. The new deoffshorisation legislation that passed with lightning speed through Russia’s Parliament and then… – Continue reading
The new year could bring important changes to the tax landscape. Here are several issues that will affect how much taxpayers owe for 2015 and beyond: Federal tax policy There is serious talk of overhauling the federal tax code. “There appears to be a consensus” on making changes, says Stephen… – Continue reading
New Zealand’s tax authorities have been given more power to pursue tax evaders who go offshore under changes which come into effect this year. Inland Revenue will have more power to go after tax evaders who leave New Zealand under changes that come into effect this year. The Convention on… – Continue reading
Summary New FATCA requirements that apply to U.S. and non-U.S. insurance brokers and insurance companies will take effect on January 1, 2015. Those requirements impose new information gathering and reporting rules when U.S. insurance and reinsurance premiums are sent outside the U.S. Background The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)1… – Continue reading
Swiss banks are training their crosshairs on Israeli customers. Legal sources said that in the past two weeks, the large banks in Switzerland have begun sending many queries to their Israeli customers demanding confirmation either that the assets deposited with the banks were reported to the Israeli tax authorities, or… – Continue reading
[HONG KONG] Asia could set another record for international bond issues in 2015 if Chinese companies continue to borrow offshore at the same voracious pace they did this year, while bankers expect a heavy redemption schedule and larger pipelines from India and Indonesia to lift activity. Barclays is forecasting volumes… – Continue reading
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has confirmed it has extended the lifetime of the Contractor Loan Settlement Opportunity (CLSO), a chance for contractors to own up to using an offshore tax avoidance scheme, until 30th June 2015. The settlement opportunity was originally meant to be open until January 2015. HMRC… – Continue reading
The Vatican Bank is the latest to join the ranks of a hundred other countries worldwide that have agreed to the terms of the FATCA. Since its enactment in 2010, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act or FATCA, has seen American Tax Law extend its reach further than ever before…. – Continue reading
Forbes is reporting on the Vatican Bank’s decision under pressure to comply with the FATCA requirements for reporting on American citizen accounts. In his annual Christmas messages to more than one billion Catholics, the Pope may have left out something: offshore account compliance. Maybe, but the U.S. Treasury is more… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: While India is yet to sign a final pact with the US for the Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), close to 1,000 Indian financial institutions and their overseas units are believed to have already registered with the US tax authorities under this new regime. The tricky situation… – Continue reading
Currently, there is a tendency among those who take an interest in international tax developments to look to the future and try to guess how the international tax landscape will look in, say, three of four years, once countries begin to implement the OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS)… – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD: The government has prepared draft bills to introduce amendments to four relevant laws to declare tax evasion as an offence related to money laundering, aimed at curbing misuse of foreign investment and remittance schemes. The step is being taken to meet a condition of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that… – Continue reading
The courtroom victory of the only Swiss banker to beat the U.S. in a trial over offshore tax evasion may embolden other indicted financial workers to leave a legal limbo some have endured more than five years. Twenty-five offshore bankers, lawyers and advisers have yet to answer U.S. Justice Department… – Continue reading
A mixed success record has been notched up by the US Justice Department when it comes to prosecuting offshore bankers, advisers and lawyers accused of assisting American taxpayers cheat their taxes. The United States Government, from 2008, has charged 38 individuals, including Swiss bankers like the top three managers of… – Continue reading
For centuries the inner workings of the Vatican Bank have been cloaked in secrecy. That was before Pope Francis, who has pledged to restore public confidence in the administration of the Roman Catholic Church. This week we learned the United States and the Holy See have brokered a FATCA agreement… – Continue reading
While the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) has focused worldwide attention on U.S. efforts to create a mandatory cross-border exchange of tax information, the enactment of FATCA was not an isolated occurrence. For more than a decade, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has been trying to… – Continue reading
Bank Leumi Le-Israel Ltd. (LUMI) agreed to pay $400 million and admit it helped American clients evade taxes for a decade, in a case showing that U.S. prosecutors and New York regulators are extending their probes of offshore tax evasion beyond Switzerland. The Justice Department filed a conspiracy charge today… – Continue reading
Jakarta. A leading business lobby with strong ties to the administration of President Joko Widodo has called for a tax amnesty, in which the authorities will waive off past taxes and penalties to conglomerates and individuals parking billions of dollars worth of funds overseas, in a bid to reinvest that… – Continue reading
Swiss private bank Lombard Odier will seek to tap into the growing number of high-net-worth-individuals (HNWIs) in Southeast Asia via an agreement with Thailand’s Kasikornbank. A recent report by RBC Wealth Management and Capgemini showed that Asia is leading the way in terms of the regional rise in number of… – Continue reading
Bradley Birkenfeld, the former UBS AG banker who won a $104 million whistle-blower award after serving time in U.S. prison for tax conspiracy, now wants to move back to Europe before his term of probation is set to end. Birkenfeld asked a judge to end his probation with less than… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: The finance ministry is planning to rush through a Cabinet note seeking permission to sign an accord with the US on exchanging investment information before a December 31 deadline, ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit to Delhi at the end of January. The government has got the goahead… – Continue reading
More countries are requiring an exchange of client information In 2014, we saw a marked increase in transparency regarding foreign assets. The United States took the lead, and other countries followed suit. It looks like we’ve reached the tipping point, that is, “the magic moment when an idea, trend, or… – Continue reading
Dec 21 (Reuters) – Authorities in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia have bought a CD containing data about several thousand German clients of a Swiss bank, German newspaper Bild am Sonntag said on Sunday without citing its sources. The clients each have accounts containing up to 5 million euros… – Continue reading
A father and son who ran a tax-preparation business were convicted in Los Angeles of conspiring to help clients cheat the Internal Revenue Service by setting up undeclared offshore bank accounts. David Kalai, the founder and former chief executive officer of United Revenue Service, and his son Nadav, who was… – Continue reading
UBS Fund Services has had one of its strongest years in terms of winning new clients according to Monette Windsor (pictured), who heads up the Cayman Islands business. “We’ve invested heavily in our business development team this year and we’ve had to beef up our client onboarding team. We have 165… – Continue reading
Transferring money abroad can be an expensive business if you choose the wrong company. Hidden fees, excessive charges and poor exchange rates can take a sizeable chunk out of your transfer, but there are campaigns on the go that aim to stop this practice. The problem Research from World Bank… – Continue reading
The UK Treasury has recovered a further £1.36bn from Iceland after its Landsbanki bank collapsed at the height of the financial crisis, forcing a taxpayer bailout for 230,000 savers in the UK. The British government through the Financial Services Compensation Scheme paid out £4.5bn after the collapse in October 2008… – Continue reading
Regional Adoption on Pace with Europe as Singapore Signs Agreement Experts at Wolters Kluwer Financial Services today issued guidance on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act in an effort to help support banks’ regulatory compliance efforts within the region. The commentary comes in reaction to the news last week that… – Continue reading
DBS Bank is scheduled to launch a U.S. dollar fixed deposit program for Taiwanese investors intrigued by the recent drop in the United States’ financial deficits, said Seraph Sun (孫可基), head of Consumer Banking at DBS Bank (Taiwan). According to Sun, DBS Bank deems 2015 a hopeful year for the… – Continue reading
The Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory in the western Caribbean Sea and a major world offshore financial center, are betting on new financial technologies based on the Bitcoin blockchain, Cayman Compass reports. A new company, Latitude, which provides seed capital and mentorship programs to tech ventures could potentially bring… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: Indian corporate bonds are finding a ready market overseas with demand fuelled by expectations that the Narendra Modi government has a strong enough mandate to push ahead with economic reforms that will lead to a revival in growth. Companies had to sweeten offerings with high interest rates to woo… – Continue reading
While the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) has focused worldwide attention on U.S. efforts to create a mandatory cross-border exchange of tax information, the enactment of FATCA was not an isolated occurrence. For more than a decade, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has been trying to… – Continue reading
FATCA causes foreign banking and financial institutions to place priority on information sharing practices and procedures. Foreign banks, financial institutions, and U.S. taxpayers living abroad are being advised to show a strong “good faith” effort in complying with the Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act. Passed in 2010, the law requires… – Continue reading
Companies will be forced to disclose their ultimate owners on national registers in European Union nations as the bloc seeks to clamp down on tax dodging, money laundering and terrorism financing. European Parliament legislators and representatives of 28 EU national governments struck a deal late yesterday to upgrade the bloc’s… – Continue reading
To check illicit financial flows across borders, the government is renegotiating bilateral treaties with many countries to limit tax benefits to genuine investments and curb the routing of Indian money to safe havens, a senior Finance Ministry official said on Wednesday. While noting that the quantum of domestic black money… – Continue reading
Defending the interests of the Swiss banking industry has not been the easiest challenge in recent years, particularly when it comes to tax. The role has fallen for the last five years to Patrick Odier, chairman of the Swiss Bankers’ Association (SBA), which has 317 institutional members and about 18,500… – Continue reading
Abu Dhabi, 16th December, 2014 (WAM) – The Central Bank of the UAE organized a workshop on the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), to which banks and other financial institutions in the UAE were invited, on Monday, 15 December 2014 at its Head Office in Abu Dhabi. Squire… – Continue reading
Proposals which would introduce automatic criminal penalties for those who fail to declare taxable offshore income may “quietly disappear” following their omission from draft clauses for the 2015 Finance Bill published for consultation, an expert has said.15 Dec 2014 Tax Disputes and Investigations Tax Corporate tax Private wealth tax UK… – Continue reading
(CNS Business): Barclays Bank’s Swiss operations is ending its cooperation with the Internal Revenue Service’s efforts to prevent investors from investing money in foreign countries with more amenable tax structures and policies. During a Zurich speech, Barclays bank executive Francesco Grosoli announced that the firm’s Swiss operations had “recently exited… – Continue reading
If tax crimes remain civil in nature, foreign governments will not cooperate,” M.B. Shah, chairman of the Special Investigation Team on black money, said. Tax evasion needs to be made a serious “criminal offence” to force foreign countries to reveal names and account details of Indians stashing illicit wealth abroad,… – Continue reading
Armenia’s Central Bank (CB) claims thatsome data regarding money flows to and from offshore financial centers is protected from public disclosure under the law. We say ‘some’, because the CB is being selective when it comes to which information can be disclosed and what cannot. When Hetq contacted the CB,… – Continue reading
In prior advisories, we have discussed the new withholding tax law commonly known as “FATCA” (standing for “Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act”). (See “FATCA’s July 1 Effective Date Has Arrived; Last-Minute Guidance Has Been Issued” and “Last Substantial Package of FATCA Regulations Released; Deadlines Approaching”.) To help implement FATCA, the… – Continue reading
Illicit Flows from Developing & Emerging Countries Growing at 9.4% per Year US$6.6 Trillion Stolen from Developing World from 2003-2012; Trade Misinvoicing Responsible for 77.8% of Illicit Outflows China, Russia, Mexico, India, Malaysia—in Declining Order—Are Biggest Exporters of Illicit Capital over Decade; Sub-Saharan Africa Still Suffers Biggest Illicit Outflows as… – Continue reading
A bill filed in the U.S. House of Representatives proposes to reform the tax code and attract new money for transportation and other infrastructure. The bill filed by U.S. Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., would create incentives for U.S. corporations to bring back profits stored in offshore accounts and invest it… – Continue reading
The wise thing is to forget the past, bring reforms to prevent generation of black money Considering other man’s point of view is Decency — George Orwell This quality seems to be in short supply in India although it is the most needed even to understand any black money retrieval…. – Continue reading
A secret deal with the Swiss government negotiated by media group Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd when James Packer was chief executive set a tax rate of less than 2.15 per cent on PBL’s intra-company loans. “We do have good news for you!” Ernst & Young Swiss partner Markus Huber wrote… – Continue reading
SINGAPORE, Dec 15 (IFR) -China Construction Bank Corporation said its board had approved a proposal to sell up to Rmb80bn (US$12.9bn) in preference shares. It will sell up to Rmb60bn onshore and up to Rmb20bn offshore. Chinese banks have been selling preference shares to raise Additional Tier 1 capital, with… – Continue reading
Financial institutions around the world including those in Asia are struggling to stay compliant with local privacy regulations that restrict the sharing of client data, whilst at the same time trying to meet the demands of costly FATCA reporting requirements. FATCA, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which came into… – Continue reading
