Russia’s upper house of parliament has approved an “anti-offshore” law requiring individual and corporate taxpayers to report foreign profits. The Russian government aims to prevent capital outflow via “offshores,” estimated at $200 billion in 2014. The law requires Russian tax authorities to be notified of all foreign dealings. The government… – Continue reading
The Tax Office denied Macquarie Group a controversial tax deduction related to offshore subsidiaries that resulted in a long-running and costly court battle, while at the same time allowing other taxpayers to claim the deductions, a report finds. A report from inspector-general of taxation Ali Noroozi, released by the government… – Continue reading
Belgian authorities have charged a Swiss subsidiary of HSBC with serious and organised fiscal fraud, money laundering, criminal organisation and illegal financial intermediary. Belgian prosecutors say HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) cheated the state by wooing very wealthy clients particularly in diamond businesses in Antwerp. The bank is said to have… – Continue reading
MPs have attacked the taxman for being too slow to crack down on controversial avoidance schemes used by celebrities and other high earners, resulting in millions of pounds being lost to the public purse. As much as £10 million may never be recoverable because of delays by Her Majesty’s Revenue… – Continue reading
Westpac will shut down the accounts of money transfer operators on November 24, due to growing fears about breaching strict terrorism financing and anti-money laundering laws, leaving hundreds of legitimate remitters to developing countries in the lurch. Westpac is the last of the four major banks to withdraw from servicing… – Continue reading
Nov 18 (Reuters) – BMO Capital Markets, the investment and corporate banking arm of Bank of Montreal Financial Group, said on Tuesday that it would add trade finance booking capabilities in Hong Kong as it moves to facilitate more business in Asia. The move comes just days after the central… – Continue reading
Russia’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday took aim at the offshore holdings that have become ubiquitous in Russian business, passing in its final reading a bill that will make Russian taxpayers declare and pay taxes on their assets abroad. But once signed into law, this product of President Vladimir… – Continue reading
Narendra Modi talked of black money, which is an issue at home, and linked it to terror finance — something that worries Western governments The G20, world-weary political and economic observers would say, has outlived its use and that it has become a talking shop like the G8 and then… – Continue reading
Taipei, Nov. 18 (CNA) Chinese yuan-dominated remittances through the local banking system in Taiwan in October hit a new high since the local central bank lifted a ban to allow local banks to conduct yuan transactions in February 2013. Statistics compiled by the central bank showed that yuan remittances through… – Continue reading
The United States has treaty language that allows us to work with the taxing authorities in other countries to collect U.S. taxes owed from U.S. Citizens or their property located in those countries and to allow those countries to have IRS collect from their citizens or property located in the… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – A Swiss banker charged in the United States last year with helping wealthy Americans avoid taxes said in a court filing on Tuesday that he wanted to fight the charges and asked a federal judge to consider his application for bail before he travelled to the United States…. – Continue reading
SHANGHAI: China’s central bank has approved a pilot programme allowing some domestic institutional investors to buy offshore yuan products, the official Shanghai Securities News said, as Beijing pushes ahead in internationalizing its currency. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has recently approved the so-called Renminbi Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (RQDII)… – Continue reading
The New York Times’ report on prominent American think tanks receiving some $92 million from a minimum of 63 governments since 2011, prompted Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) to ask Attorney General Eric Holder, a long overdue question: “Should think tanks be allowed to take undisclosed donations from foreign governments?” According… – Continue reading
Switzerland’s ambassador to Germany said his country is working to improve its image after years of revelations that Germans used Swiss banks to avoid taxes. Ambassador Tim Guldimann pointed to Switzerland’s support of an international agreement on automatic tax-data sharing in Berlin in October as a sign of his country’s… – Continue reading
Beirut, November 17, 2014: All-inclusive offshore solutions provider ‘Lebanon Offshore’ and auditing and consulting firm ‘Majzoub & Partners CPAs-Nexia International’ organized a conference titled “Why is it so difficult for Lebanese offshore companies to open a bank account in Lebanon?” on November 14, 2014 in Badaro, Beirut. Attended by a… – Continue reading
THE GOVERNMENT of Barbados is committed to the implementation of global standards for the supervision and regulation of the international business and financial services sector. This affirmation came today from Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development, Donville Inniss, prior to signing a Foreign Account Tax Compliance… – Continue reading
BRUSSELS—A Belgian judge on Monday formally accused a Swiss unit of banking giant HSBC Holdings PLC with helping wealthy Belgians evade taxes on billions of dollars of offshore holdings, the latest of numerous tax-fraud investigations to hit the Swiss banking industry.
It’s a surprise to many people that MLPs generate taxable income in retirement plans requiring a tax filing and payment of taxes. Traders and investors are interested in using their IRA and other retirement plan accounts (collectively referred to as “retirement plans”) for making “alternative investments” in publicly traded master… – Continue reading
Fifty-one countries signed the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement in Berlin on Oct. 29 to fight offshore tax fraud and evasion. The agreement aims to put an end to banking secrecy by sharing tax-related information with member states. Missing from the signatory list are the United States and China. China’s absence… – Continue reading
New Delhi: Telecom operator Reliance Jio Infocomm has arranged credit facilities worth $1.5 billion with lenders, including Bank of America and Barclays, to refinance existing loans. Mukesh Ambani-led RJio would utilise the latest credit arrangements to re-finance debt tied up by it in 2010. The new loan facilities are guaranteed… – Continue reading
A high-profile businesswoman accused of using Cayman Islands bank accounts to dodge more than $7 million in taxes is seeking to challenge the use of information obtained by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service through a tax information exchange request. Cheryl Womack, a Kansas City businesswoman who has a home and… – Continue reading
The chairman of the Dail’s spending watchdog, John McGuinness, is to defy his own committee’s legal advice and will seek to investigate the controversial Ansbacher dossier on tax evasion. Should he get his way, the door would be opened to allow the identities of several former Fianna Fail TDs and… – Continue reading
The establishment of a clearing bank will support Canada’s ambitions in the offshore renminbi financial markets, says British Columbia Finance Minster Michael de Jong. Canada stole the spotlight in the offshore renminbi market last week, as it became the first North American country to win an offshore renminbi clearing licence…. – Continue reading
The growing crackdown on tax avoidance risks ushering in a broader suppression of international tax competition, harming the interests of all taxpayers. An inevitable consequence of economic globalisation is that supply chains and financial linkages have become dispersed across geographic space, and producers now strive to provide customers with quality… – Continue reading
Expats have a range of choices – so how do they find a safe home for their assets? The traditional use of offshore centres as a way of enabling better tax planning – and even tax evasion – has all but fallen away. An increasing desire for countries to share… – Continue reading
TAIPEI, Taiwan — The Financial Supervisory Commission’s (FSC, 金管會) chairman Tseng Ming-chung (曾銘宗) met with the U.S. treasury from Nov. 2 till Nov. 5 and signed an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) that will see Taiwanese financial institutions directly providing 4,273 Taiwanese green-card holders… – Continue reading
This offshore illegal scam showed that, in Ireland as elsewhere, taxes really were for the “little people”. The facts emerged as a by-product of the tribunal directed by Mr Justice Brian McCracken in 1997. It was set up to trace payments by supermarket magnate Ben Dunne to Fianna Fail’s Charlie… – Continue reading
A WHISTLEBLOWER claimed former Tanaiste Mary Harney “shut down” his investigation into allegations of offshore tax evasion after he uncovered the names of senior politicians in the Progressive Democrats, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, the Dail has heard. It is the first time Ms Harney’s party, the now defunct PDs,… – Continue reading
The Cayman Islands is touted as one of the world’s top 10 finance hubs. The chief reason that the Caribbean hotspot holds such cachet is an epic perk it provides – freedom from income tax. twitter To get more Money more often, why not follow us on Twitter? We’re @FairfaxMoney… – Continue reading
Committee cannot examine civil servant’s claims about offshore accounts The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been told there is no legal basis for it to examine the tax evasion claims made by a civil servant in the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. The committee has also been given legal… – Continue reading
To help in its efforts to crack down on suspected black money stashed abroad, India has entered into an information exchange pact with Saint Kitts and Nevis, a two-island Carribean country, perceived as a safe haven for offshore funds. The agreement was signed by India’s Permanent Representative to the UN… – Continue reading
The ability of multinational companies to shift profits into low-tax jurisdictions is undermining governments’ ability to raise revenue. But the cross-border policy solutions are complex. Curbing international tax avoidance has become a focus of G20 discussion this week, after last week’s revelation that major companies including Ikea, AMP and Pepsi… – Continue reading
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has nominated global tax avoidance as one of the key issues on the agenda for this weekend’s G20 summit in Brisbane. Major companies including Google and Apple have faced strong criticism over their efforts to lower their tax bills by shifting profits to jurisdictions with low… – Continue reading
Future Fund chairman Peter Costello has defended the amount of tax the sovereign wealth fund pays, saying it has ‘sovereign immunity’ when it invests overseas. The government-owned Fund was named along with other Australian companies for using Luxembourg as a base in which to lower global taxes in one of… – Continue reading
New research from international law firm Pinsent Masons has shown that the compliance yield from HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC’s) “Specialist Investigations” team rose by 23 percent last year to hit a record GBP3.65bn (USD5.79bn). 2013-14 was the team’s most successful year to date, according to Pinsent Masons. The GBP3.65bn… – Continue reading
Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Shantelle P. Kitchen, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (“IRS-CI”), announced today the indictment of MARTIN DUNKI, a former client advisor and Senior Vice… – Continue reading
The British Virgin Islands (the “BVI”) has now enacted legislation which allows for the implementation of its commitments under the Model 1B (i.e. non-reciprocal) intergovernmental agreements with the United States, signed on 30 June 2014, (the “US IGA”) and with the United Kingdom, signed on 28 November 2013, (the “UK… – Continue reading
Taipei, Nov. 13 (CNA) Taiwan’s financial authorities have found that there are 4,273 bank accounts in Taiwan whose holders are obligated to report assets to the United States tax authorities, Taiwan’s top financial regulator said Thursday. Tseng Ming-chung, chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission, said most of the account holders… – Continue reading
A court here has granted bail in an alleged tax evasion case to Pradip Burman, one of the promoters of Dabur India whose name has figured in the list given by the Centre to the Supreme Court on the black money issue. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Devender Kumar Sharma Monday… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Regulators fined six major banks a total of $4.3 billion for failing to stop traders from trying to manipulate the foreign exchange market, following a yearlong global investigation. HSBC Holdings Plc, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc, UBS AG and Bank of… – Continue reading
New Delhi: Absence of criminal legal treaties between India and tax haven nations have been cited by probe agencies working in the SIT on black money as one of the major impediments in initiating steps to bring back illegal funds stashed abroad by Indians. These agencies, including the Central Board… – Continue reading
Legal advice to the Public Accounts Committee has highlighted several obstacles to any investigation into the dossier alleging tax evasion by some former politicians. Following a private meeting this evening, PAC Chairman John McGuinness said he must now study the options open to the committee. He said none of them… – Continue reading
In March 2014 the Russian Ministry of Finance published a draft anti-offshore law which is currently submitted for consideration by The State Duma (parliament) with the decision expected to be made by the end of 2014. Russia is aiming to clamp down on the use of foreign offshore tax shelters… – Continue reading
BJP today accused Congress leaders of generating black money in the country while referring to the matter of the alleged tax evasion by its spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi and asked Congress President Sonia Gandhi to clarify on the issue. “The issue of Singhvi is just a sample as it is only… – Continue reading
The US Treasury has opened a new front in its war against offshore tax evasion. But for some it amounts to financial imperialism. Americans with legitimate bank accounts outside the country, and foreigners working in the United States, have begun receiving letters from their banks in Paris, Tokyo, Johannesburg and… – Continue reading
Official ‘offered €20,000’ to wrap up tax evasion probe GARDAI have now received 5,500 pages of files relating to allegations of tax-evasion by holders of Ansbacher accounts. Jobs Minister Richard Bruton forwarded the allegations of a whistleblower in his department to the gardai last night. The documents have been sent… – Continue reading
MOSCOW, November 10. /TASS/. Russia is speeding towards the adoption of anti-offshore legislation. The State Duma (lower house of parliament) on Tuesday will hold the first reading of amendments to the Tax Code obliging both individuals and legal entities to notify the authorities of their foreign properties and profits. This… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: Five years after Germany gave New Delhi a list of Indians with secret bank accounts in the Alpine tax haven Liechtenstein, the first tribunal ruling has gone in favour of the government. The case pertains to three Kolkata-based individuals – Mohan Manoj Dhupelia, Ambrish Manoj Dhupelia and Ms Bhavya… – Continue reading
MINISTERS who were passed documentation by a whistleblower alleging widespread tax evasion by former politicians are expected to be quizzed by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) about their response to the claims. Labour TD Joe Costello last night said he believed that the PAC would seek the attendance of these… – Continue reading
The Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) ensures that we have learnt the lessons from the banking crisis. Unless we accelerate the work on improving the rules so that they are adequate to an environment of globalisation, we will destroy the support for the European integration and that will be the end… – Continue reading
