The Government introduced legislation on ‘disguised remuneration’ in the Finance Bill last week to target the practice of using third party vehicles such as offshore trusts to allow employees to avoid or defer the payment of income tax or national insurance contributions. However, it has emerged that MPs will not… – Continue reading
FOCUS: New UK government plans to penalise those who help others evade tax could punish those who unknowingly enable evasion and could create conflicts of interest and the danger of double jeopardy. The government will introduce a new civil penalty for those who deliberately “enable” offshore tax evasion. It also… – Continue reading
For the Socialist Senator Roberto Zanetti, the reform is an open-heart surgery, which must be done with great accuracy. Under pressure from the EU, G20 and the OECD, also Switzerland is obliged to give up his special tax regimes for holding companies and management companies. After years of negotiations with… – Continue reading
Why would anyone object to Uber, the user-friendly online drive-share service? Uber’s many riders obviously love it, but it seems civic officials are having conniptions. Their main complaint is that Uber drivers are unlicensed to carry passengers and might not have adequate insurance. In addition, officials are genuinely concerned that… – Continue reading
There are a number of ways to structure your offshore fund and the best option for you will depend largely on the location of the manager, your investor base and the type of investments that the fund will make. I have set out a summary of the three most common… – Continue reading
Broader terms for the presentation of the report and the documentation related to the demands of voluntary disclosure. According to its statement in ItaliaOggi, assessments are under way between the tax authorities and the Ministry of Economy to allow more time for the completion of the procedures of the instances… – Continue reading
A Porirua accountant convicted for providing false tax returns will be banned from being a company liquidator for up to five years if Inland Revenue has its way. Imran Mohammed Kamal pleaded guilty to charges for knowingly providing false tax returns and was sentenced to three months home detention in… – Continue reading
Dividend income from foreign companies is not treated the same as dividend from domestic companies, for tax purposes The two key advantages of investing in equities are the possibility of higher returns and tax efficiency. In the long term, equity has outperformed other asset classes. And, according to Income tax… – Continue reading
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has released a Taxpayer alert on arrangements involving the use of offshore entities which source goods (procurement hub) on behalf of Australian resident multi-national enterprises (MNEs) (TA 2015/5). In the alert the ATO announces that it is currently reviewing arrangements involving the use of offshore… – Continue reading
The BVI Business Companies Act 2004 (“BCA“) is shortly due to be amended by the BVI Business Companies (Amendment) Act 2015 (the “Amendment Act”). As well as keeping the British Virgin Islands (“BVI“) corporate regime at the forefront of compliance with international standards, the Amendment Act is intended to provide… – Continue reading
(CN) – A Russian nuclear energy official living in Maryland has been sentenced to four years in federal prison on money laundering charges, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. Vadim Mikerin, 56, of Chevy Chase. Md. was also ordered to forfeit more than $2.1 million, after he pleaded guilty to charges… – Continue reading
The UK Government has confirmed that it will legislate for a new criminal offense for corporations that fail to take adequate steps to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion. Tax authority HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has published responses to four consultations on anti-evasion measures announced at the March 2015… – Continue reading
FATCA (the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) came into force in July 2014. It is far-reaching and may impose a compliance burden on the trustees of New Zealand family trusts, even if no US persons are involved. IRD has recently issued further draft guidance on the application of FATCA to… – Continue reading
Three Swiss banks, including a unit of France’s Crédit Agricole SA, will pay a total of more than $130 million to the U.S. Justice Department to avoid possible prosecution for helping Americans evade taxes, the department said on Tuesday. The Zurich-based unit of Crédit Agricole will pay $99.2 million, the… – Continue reading
Lately, the IRS is warning offshore account holders to disclose before it’s too late. Under FATCA, banks everywhere want to know if you are compliant with the IRS. And the cost of compliance for many people is growing. The IRS updated its list of foreign banks where accounts trigger a… – Continue reading
[BEIJING] China’s central bank is on guard against a sudden attack on the yuan in offshore markets, and is ready to intervene if the gap between offshore and onshore exchange rates becomes destabilising, sources involved in policy discussions say. Though the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) wants to avoid a… – Continue reading
The opera singer, who sang the famous duet Barcelona with Freddy Mercury, has also been fined a quarter of a million euros. Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé, 82, has been sentenced to six months in prison for tax evasion after taking a deal in which she plead guilty to the charges…. – Continue reading
There are two things that offshore fund managers and their advisors should remember about income that is effectively connected with a United States trade or business (ECI): It is easy to have ECI; and, It is bad to have ECI. By way of background – U.S. non-residents that are not… – Continue reading
On Sept. 3, 2015, a bill to amend the Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI)1, the main privacy law in Japan, was passed by the National Diet. This is the first major amendment to the APPI since the original version of the APPI took effect in 2005. The… – Continue reading
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has a strong opinion on almost every subject, especially politics. He’s also quite happy to share that opinion with anyone who will listen to or read what he has to say. Icahn’s comments this week on how to stop future tax-motivated corporate inversions such as the… – Continue reading
It’s been proved that the Argentina international did not receive money for the matches A Barcelona judge has archived the case against Lionel Messi regarding a claim he committed tax fraud in relation to six charity matches he participated in in 2012 and 2013, concluding that the Argentine international did… – Continue reading
(CNS): The UK is expected to send law enforcement officials to Cayman in the New Year to enhance the current cooperation regime between this jurisdiction and the authorities in Britain regarding financial crime and money laundering. Financial Services Minister Wayne Panton said that experts are coming at Cayman’s invitation to… – Continue reading
Hundreds more people who fiddled their tax have been prosecuted in the past year, it was revealed today. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has said its assault on tax evasion has produced a 58 per cent rise in convictions with criminals getting a total of 400 years in jail. HMRC… – Continue reading
Over recent years, Kingdom of Morocco has created a legal and regulatory framework very attractive for foreign investors. In addition to its political stable environment, a recent series of tax treaties with numerous countries and reforms in almost all of its sectors of activities, in conjunction with its creation of… – Continue reading
Come 2017, tax information on all foreign nationals holding bank accounts or other financial holdings in Cayman will be automatically shared with tax authorities in their home countries when the Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters convention kicks in. Maples, in a Cayman Islands Automatic Exchange of Information update statement… – Continue reading
British police and German investigators searched Brookfield Aviation International headquarters The Times of London reports this morning that a company that supplies Ryanair with pilots is at the centre of an international investigation for tax evasion. It is understood both British police and German investigators have searched the headquarters of… – Continue reading
Swiss Banks Sending Letters to Canadian Account Holders For resident Canadian taxpayers that hold Swiss bank accounts which have not been reported to the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”), the window to come clean with Revenue Canada by filing a Voluntary Disclosure, and thereby avoid financial penalties and the possibility of… – Continue reading
Each year the elected leaders of Britain’s overseas territories (OTs) gather from around the world to meet with British Ministers in London. Their objective is to discuss the continuing partnership with the UK, to establish priorities and to try to resolve differences. For the most part the issues covered at… – Continue reading
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has recently entered into eleven (11) more Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs) with Indian subsidiaries for foreign companies. In a major push towards providing certainty to foreign investors in the arena of transfer pricing, the CBDT signed these APAs operating in various segments of… – Continue reading
The asset servicing industry is likely to see a growth spurt driven by globalisation and regulatory change, according to an Ernst & Young (EY) report, reports the Asset Servicing Times. The report outlined six key drivers of growth: asset growth and breadth; globalisation; regulation; new products; platform extension and consolidation;… – Continue reading
Jersey bank account holders have been invited by the UK tax authority to declare any undisclosed tax liabilities by the new year, or risk being investigated under suspicion of tax evasion, reports the Financial Times. Customers of HSBC Jersey received a letter from HM Revenue & Customs this week asking… – Continue reading
As an NRI returning to India, you can retain all your overseas assets including properties, market investments, stocks etc, provided you acquired them when you were residing outside India With India becoming a hotbed of financial activity and economic growth, many non-resident Indians (NRI) are now migrating back to India…. – Continue reading
Data from the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) confirms that voluntary disclosures (“VDs”) of offshore assets, gains and income hit record levels in 2015. This proliferation of VDs is attributable to various factors, including increased public awareness of: international tax compliance issues through media reports; the CRA’s Offshore Tax Informant Program;… – Continue reading
INTRODUCTION The Taxation Laws Amendment Act, 2015 and the Tax Administration Laws Amendment Act, 2015 have now both been passed by Parliament, but await signature by the President. Once again, and for the second year running, the number and scope of the changes to the various fiscal Acts (mainly the… – Continue reading
There are a variety of benefits to moving offshore, yet few would argue the assertion that tax neutrality is paramount among them. As anyone familiar with the phrase “tax haven” would surely recognize, many countries offer strongly favorable tax terms as an incentive to draw new business. Written by CT… – Continue reading
Advisers – including tax agents – who facilitate offshore tax evasion are in the sights of the ATO, which in the past week has visited several wealth management firms linked to offshore arrangements. The tax evasion crackdown comes with the ATO having obtained more than 5,000 client names from wealth… – Continue reading
Global Financial IntegrityGlobal Financial Integrity (GFI) on 8 December 2015 released the Global Illicit Financial Flows Report 2015 entitled Illicit Financial Flows from the Developing Countries: 2004-2013. This study is GFI’s 2015 annual global update on illicit financial flows from developing economies. It is the sixth annual update of GFI’s… – Continue reading
A global law firm has today criticised HM Revenue & Customs’s (HMRC) recently announced plans for cracking down on tax avoidance by businesses, saying that parts of the proposals would make HMRC the “judge, jury and executioner.” Further details on legislation that would allow the UK tax authority to place… – Continue reading
When you think of a tax haven, you probably imagine the far off tropical islands of Bermuda or Grand Cayman, but the reality is that there is a major tax haven even closer to home in the state of Delaware. A new report from Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy… – Continue reading
Hong Kong’s Financial Services Development Council (FSDC) has released a number of research reports, including one that addresses tax issues relating to open-ended fund companies (OFCs) and private equity (PE) investments, reports Tax News. One report entitled “A Paper on the Tax Issues on OFCs and Profits Tax Exemption for… – Continue reading
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments – Press Release/Statement: Headline: News story: Finance Bill 2016 paves way for even simpler tax system and tough offshore evasion regime The government has today (Wednesday 9 Wednesday) published draft tax legislation to implement policies published at Summer Budget 2015 and Autumn… – Continue reading
Barclays has launched its new offshore banking proposition at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority. Commenting on the launch, Andrew Mortimer, managing director and UAE Country Manager, said: “We have further developed Barclays’ International Banking proposition to provide our clients with a… – Continue reading
Settlement with German prosecutors, which involves immunity for any current for former staff, is latest embarrassment for bailed-out bank Royal Bank of Scotland is paying €23.8m (£17.3m) to German prosecutors to settle an investigation into tax evasion by part of Coutts, best known for being banker to the Queen. The… – Continue reading
ROME—The Italian government will pocket over €4 billion ($4.4 billion) in proceeds from a tax amnesty it launched as part of a broad crack down on Italian money stashed abroad. The additional money will be a boon for the government, as it seeks to meet its budget targets amid a… – Continue reading
Canada and Switzerland have entered into an agreement which will commence in 2018 for the automatic exchange of information. Swiss banks are already requiring Canadian clients to provide evidence that their Swiss offshore bank accounts have been reported in Canada on form T1135 and offshore income reported on a T1… – Continue reading
The present French Tax Update contains (i) an overview of the main provisions proposed by the draft amending finance bill for 2015 (loi de finances rectificative pour 2015, 2015 Draft Amending Finance Bill), (ii) an update of the parliamentary amendments adopted in respect of the draft finance bill for 2016… – Continue reading
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) today published the results of its consultation, alongside draft legislation, for a proposed criminal offence for companies which fail to prevent the facilitation of tax evasion. The draft legislation lays down provisions for a criminal offence where somebody who is performing services on behalf of… – Continue reading
Trigger for prosecution will be loss to HMRC of £25,000 a year, up from £5,000 – but experts say legislation is ‘step too far’ Government plans to make offshore tax evasion a criminal offence even when there is no proof of intention to break the law have been softened under… – Continue reading
The Cabinet has submitted a bill to the Parliament Speaker’s Office for presentation and approval by the legislature of an agreement with the US that concerns the sharing of information between the countries to prevent tax fraud. A letter accompanying the legislation sent to the speaker’s office on Nov. 19… – Continue reading
Many US citizens resident in Jamaica are unaware of the tax compliance requirements of FATCA. Notwithstanding, this article is not about providing full information or professional advice about FATCA. That information can be obtained in a variety of ways. This article is about informing those who do not yet know… – Continue reading
