Forty-one businesses across the three Crown Dependencies responded to the survey, with 78 per cent of respondents saying they have completed their FATCA classification and only 10 per cent reporting that their internal entities are not yet registered with the IRS. Confidence in FATCA compliance is high within the islands,… – Continue reading
New York • Shifting the address of his Liberty Global Inc. from Colorado to London last year didn’t just put billionaire John C. Malone in a position to reduce his company’s tax bill. He also took precautions to avoid the capital-gains hit that the so-called inversion would trigger for him… – Continue reading
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla./ZURICH — From bundles of cash inside scraps of newspaper to setting up shell companies, the trial in Florida of a former UBS executive is a reminder of the extreme methods some Swiss bankers used to hide clients’ cash. Raoul Weil, 54, is the highest ranking Swiss banker… – Continue reading
Adds details on P&G halting operations in ARGENTINA, details on impact) Nov 3 (Reuters) – Procter & Gamble said on Monday it had temporarily suspended operations in ARGENTINA after the country’s tax authority, which has accused the company of tax fraud, said it started meetings with the world’s No.1 HOUSEHOLD… – Continue reading
Given a choice of priority, should Indian authorities be chasing black money in circulation within the country or the illicit billions held in foreign banks? It is a nobrainer. Money whisked away abroad is tiny compared with the unaccounted money within India. Yet, the political system has long been barking… – Continue reading
A retired senior vice president at Israeli-based Mizrahi Tefahot Bank Ltd. (MZTF) was acquitted in Los Angeles federal court on charges he helped U.S. customers conceal their assets from the Internal Revenue Service. Jurors deliberated four hours yesterday before clearing Shokrollah Baravarian, 82, of conspiring to defraud the U.S. and… – Continue reading
Foreign profits sit on sidelines as companies seek tax reform. WASHINGTON — They are all companies that call Minnesota home: Medtronic, 3M, St. Jude Medical, General Mills and Ecolab. But they also all hold 90 percent or more of their cash outside the United States. Amid a growing national political… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Former minister of state for external affairs in the UPA regime, Preneet Kaur, figures in the list of 627 names of Indians holding accounts in foreign banks, which was submitted by the Centre to the Supreme Court. Kaur, wife of former Punjab CM and Congress’s deputy leader in… – Continue reading
Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission is holding an enquiry into 10 Taiwanese banks with the largest exposure to PRC companies, following a similar Ministry of Finance investigation, according to bankers. As a major shareholder, Taiwan’s MoF asked in early October eight Taiwanese state-owned banks to provide details of outstanding loans to… – Continue reading
With FATCA having been officially implemented for the most part this past July 2014, withholding agents will want to be especially vigilant in their duties and obligations regarding the solicitation and receipt of the appropriate Form W-8 from foreign persons. They will also want to be up on the rules… – Continue reading
Tax havens will no longer exist in five years as a result of sweeping rules to combat tax abuse, a leading global think-tank has said. Grace Perez-Navarro, of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which is leading a crackdown on tax avoidance and evasion, said that banking secrecy… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: The government’s ability to keep a secret could determine whether it will be able to sign a key accord with the US before the year-end deadline. It’s not just private capital flows that face the risk of higher withholding tax there if India is unable to sign the… – Continue reading
Financial institutions based in certain British Overseas Territories (BOTs) and Crown Dependencies (CDs) will be subject to stricter reporting requirements covering accounts held with them by UK resident non-UK domiciled taxpayers from 2016 if specific “carve outs” are not negotiated, an expert has said.31 Oct 2014 Private wealth tax Tax… – Continue reading
Hawala networks are being replaced by sophisticated transfer pricing approaches. The image is easy to envision. Corrupt politicians, crooked corporate honchos and evil criminals stashing away their ill-gotten gains in shady Swiss banks. Thousands of crores of rupees that should be earning India tax revenue wilfully being hidden from authorities… – Continue reading
FORT LAUDERDALE Fla./ZURICH (Reuters) – From bundles of cash inside scraps of newspaper to setting up shell companies, the trial in Florida of a former UBS executive is a reminder of the extreme methods some Swiss bankers used to hide clients’ cash. Raoul Weil, 54, is the highest… – Continue reading
BERLIN — More than 80 countries signed an agreement in Berlin on Wednesday that could end banking secrecy in the global battle against tax evasion and fraud, even though critics say it has shortcomings. Among the signatories were European Union (EU) countries and former staunch proponents of banking secrecy such… – Continue reading
The Supreme Court on Wednesday virtually thwarted fresh attempts by the Modi government to go slow on the black money probe, citing “sovereign powers to sign treaties”. The court sternly asked the Centre to “just go whole hog to unearth the money”, leaving other worries to the Special Investigation Team… – Continue reading
New Delhi: A day after the Centre submitted its list of 627 Indians who have accounts in HSBC bank, Geneva for tax probe for suspected black money to Supreme Court, India has pulled out of multilateral information sharing agreement. The Mutilateral Competent Authority Agreement was signed by 51 countries in… – Continue reading
New Delhi,Oct 30 (TruthDive): Black money stashed abroad could have been easily got back if India had been a signatory to a UN convention of double taxation treaty agreements (DTAA). By signing to this convention, India can renegotiate DTTA and bring it in line with the country’s taxation law and… – Continue reading
The Internal Revenue Service is encouraging taxpayers with previously undeclared foreign bank accounts to enter into its Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program, but there are now choices between a new streamlined version of the OVDP and the regular program that will require careful consideration and advice from practitioners. Since March 26,… – Continue reading
Mumbai, The Timblo family, named by the government in Supreme Court in connection with untaxed or black money in foreign accounts, parked money illegally in two foreign currency accounts in Hong Kong before pumping it back into India, NDTV has learnt. The family, which runs a Goa-based mining firm, had… – Continue reading
European prosecutors and tax authorities are intensifying an investigation into a huge tax avoidance trading scheme costing European countries hundreds of millions of euros. The investigation centres on complex stock trades that major banks allegedly use to earn tax rebates. The practice was revealed by the Bureau three years ago…. – Continue reading
NEW DELHI/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 $ 2 trillion, a new study said today. Besides the country is expected to remain “the biggest offshore centre for private banking in… – Continue reading
Cayman takes another step forward in the fight against global tax evasion. Government has signed a deal that sets the worldwide standard for automatic exchange of information among tax authorities. More than 50 other countries and jurisdictions have also done that. Come 2017, Cayman will swap information on taxpayers’ offshore… – Continue reading
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
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
On Wednesday, when the Supreme Court accepted and handed over the sealed envelope from the government carrying the Swiss bank account details of Indians to the special investigation team, what seems to have won is the concern over the double taxation avoidance treaty (DTAT) and many such agreements that the… – Continue reading
HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times New Delhi, October 29, 2014 First Published: 09:16 IST(29/10/2014) | Last Updated: 10:26 IST(30/10/2014) The government on Wednesday submitted a list of 627 Indians holding accounts in HSBC Bank, Geneva, to the Supreme Court, which directed its special investigating team (SIT) to examine them and take… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court’s directive on sharing the names of overseas account holders has raised worries about India’s commitment to the confidentiality clause in various tax treaties and may impact remittances from the US. Any move to make the names public without prosecution may hamper signing of the Foreign… – Continue reading
Furious at what it sees as the Modi government’s flip-flops on the black money issue and selective revelation of names of Indians holding foreign bank accounts, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered it to disclose by Wednesday the names of around 800 holders of accounts abroad. A bench led by… – 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
MAJOR South African banking group FirstRand is to open a branch in Guernsey, part of a cluster of islands that form the Channel Islands. Though not a member of the EU, Guernsey has a special relationship with it, being treated as part of the European community for the purposes of… – Continue reading
In its first report submitted to the Supreme Court, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money has sought an investigation unit, with the Enforcement Directorate as the nodal co-ordinating agency. The court-appointed SIT, headed by retired Supreme Court judges M B Shah and Arijit Pasayat, has made several recommendations… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI – The Indian government has handed over to the Supreme Court a list of more than 600 Indians with unauthorized foreign bank accounts as it attempts to crack down on rampant tax evasion. Prime Minister Narendra Modi says he wants to prosecute people who park their money abroad… – 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
(CNSBusiness): The Cayman Islands government joined more than 50 countries Wednesday, when it signed the latest agreement to tackle global tax evasion. Wayne Panton, the financial services minister, signed on the dotted line of the OECD’s Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) in Berlin, the latest worldwide standard for automatic exchange… – 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
AFIP bureau will have access to data of companies such as Techint and Globant The AFIP tax bureau yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Luxembourg to share fiscal information between both countries, an arrangement that will begin from 2015. The MOU will give AFIP access to information of… – Continue reading
Nearly 1,500 individuals have disclosed more than AUD180m (USD157.8m) in previously unreported offshore income and over AUD1bn in assets since the Project DO IT amnesty was launched, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has revealed. The scheme began in April and is scheduled to end on December 19, 2014. The foreign… – 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
Noting that tax evasion is not a criminal offence in Switzerland, a senior Swiss official has acknowledged differences with India on what can be made public about Indians having unaccounted money parked in Swiss banks. However, the Swiss Foreign Ministry official hoped that with the advent of the new government… – Continue reading
Bank trying to ease pressures on naira, stem dollar demand * Naira down almost 4 percent this year as oil prices fall * Lenders tap international debt markets to shore up capital By Chijioke Ohuocha LAGOS, Oct 28 (Reuters) – Nigeria’s central bank has cut the limit on banks’ foreign… – Continue reading
The government may have revealed the names of three black money account holders, but will it be able to get the money back or catch big fishes who have stashed the illegal money in tax havens across the globe. As of now it seems impossible. With at least three different… – Continue reading
On Monday when the Centre revealed the names of Indians with bank accounts in Switzerland, a customary call to a chartered accountant made sense. Straight up, the question was how to make sure that a person be financially healthy and disciplined, without having back-of-the-mind worries of the tax man knocking… – 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
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
