Pat Rabbitte, Ireland’s energy minister, has introduced a proposal to increase Irish offshore tax rates. The proposed rules will provide a higher tax take for the state, ensuring earlier revenue from developed fields, Rabbitte said at a Dublin conference. The proposed rules would charge taxes on a field by field… – Continue reading
In an era when many companies seek international solutions that in simpler times might have been openly labeled “tax evasion,” governments around the world are seeking to ensure they are not cheated of legally due taxes by what is now euphemistically called “profit shifting.” Apple Inc. (AAPL) has been keeping… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – The European Commission has told Ireland it may investigate more companies as part of a probe into the country’s tax practices, after announcing a formal probe into Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) Irish subsidiaries, a person familiar with the matter said on Friday. The EU is investigating whether Ireland, Luxembourg… – Continue reading
Not only do Indians manage global investors’ money that is invested in India, Indian nationals often hold positions of responsibility in funds that have nothing to do with India. Now, given the rapid advances that have been made in technology, why aren’t these Indian nationals residing in India? Clearly, some… – Continue reading
As property values around the country continue to recover, many families now list their primary residence and vacation homes among their most valuable assets. As such, these homes may be excellent candidates for beneficial estate planning techniques. One of the more straightforward of these techniques is the use of a… – Continue reading
The Dutch public prosecution department is investigating hundreds of transactions in which residents of other EU countries have used the Netherlands to avoid paying tax, the Financieele Dagblad says on Tuesday. The Financieele Dagblad bases its claims on confidential legal documents and an interview with a main suspect – a Dutch… – Continue reading
The Russian authorities are ready to provide the U.S. internal revenue service with information on American depositors, but have drafted a bill for similar measures in the United States. All foreign banks that work with Russian clients will be obligated to disclose information about such clients to Moscow. Primarily, the… – Continue reading
For more than a century, Geneva has provided wealthy French families a convenient and safe place to stash their money. Switzerland’s political neutrality, stability, and tradition of bank secrecy have kept their fortunes beyond the reach of warring powers and the most determined tax collectors, even though Geneva is less… – Continue reading
The European Union is closing a loophole that allows companies to shift some of their profits between different country divisions to avoid taxation. European Union finance ministers in Luxembourg on Friday agreed on the reform after months of squabbling because some countries feared losing business from multinational firms. The ministers… – Continue reading
The issue has dominated debate among world leaders and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in recent months. In fact, it’s the OECD that’s been driving an effort to coordinate information exchange between jurisdictions under a single global standard in an effort to develop tax transparency. Moving on… – Continue reading
NEW YORK • What’s greasing the wheels for the rise in mergers by U.S. companies? The tax man. Two tax-code quirks — one that charges U.S. companies when they repatriate overseas earnings, the other that allows them to claim a foriegn domicile without moving their senior leadership abroad — are… – Continue reading
US multinationals incorporated in Ireland should have their entire global operations taxed here, a leading academic has claimed. Addressing the Oireachtas sub-committee on global taxation yesterday, Jim Stewart, associate professor in finance at Trinity College Dublin, said that existing tax residency rules, for multinational firms, are “extremely ambiguous” and suggested… – Continue reading
Bermuda has again been singled out and labelled “a tax haven” by US legislators as they last week attached an amendment to US federal funding measures, seeking to block federal contracts to former American companies involved in corporate inversions. A leading publisher of financial information, Bankrate Inc, reported at Bankrate.com:… – Continue reading
It’s a very small world when it comes to money and banking, as we all learned in 2007. Now the Internal Revenue Service is extending its reach to financial activities of U.S. citizens who have money in foreign financial institutions. On July 1, 2014 FATCA — the Foreign Account Tax… – Continue reading
Going offshore means registering any intellectual property (IP) in an offshore company and delegating R&D and marketing to onshore companies. Money doesn’t grow on trees, and taking your business international is no picnic. On June 12, the International Business Structuring Association (IBSA) held a seminar to discuss ways of growing… – Continue reading
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is going to introduce transfer pricing regulations from July 1, 2014 in a bid to check tax avoidance by multinational companies. The Transfer Pricing Law, approved through the Finance Bill-2012, remained in process of preparing ground work for its successful implementation. It will help… – Continue reading
Here in Ireland we can puff up our breasts and deny that there is anything tax haven-like about this country but the rest of the world believes otherwise. Poor Enda Kenny, who is chief theologian on the not-a-tax-haven side needs the Medtronic announcement like a hole in the head. There… – Continue reading
Just as water flows downhill, so do the profits of multinational corporations travel toward the countries with the lowest tax rates. That’s a fact of life in an era of global markets and businesses; there will always be countries that set unusually low corporate tax rates in the hope of… – Continue reading
The European Commission has opened an investigation to examine whether the taxes paid by Starbucks in the Netherlands comply with the EU rules on state aid. The investigation is one of three, with Apple being investigated in Ireland and Fiat in Luxembourg. This comes after revelations that the Netherlands is… – Continue reading
(CS) The Luxembourg Finance Ministry on Thursday published a statement defending its tax regime, following the launch of an EU probe into deals with multinationals in several members states. The investigation aims to determine whether special tax deals could amount to illegal state aid. Affected companies include Apple, Starbucks, Google,… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Wealthy Asians are increasingly wary of letting banks look after their money and would rather use smaller asset managers instead, according to one of the region’s leading lawyers to the ultra rich. David Chong, chairman of Asia’s largest independent trust company, Portcullis TrustNet, said huge fines imposed on… – Continue reading
A Piketty Protégé’s Theory on Tax Havens GABRIEL ZUCMAN is a 27-year-old French economist who decided to solve a puzzle: Why do international balance sheets each year show more liabilities than assets, as if the world is in debt to itself? Over the last couple of decades, the few international… – Continue reading
Medtronic Inc. (MDT), the globe-spanning medical device maker founded in a Minneapolis garage in 1949, is poised to become the biggest company yet to escape the U.S. tax system by shifting its incorporation abroad. Medtronic said yesterday it plans to take a legal address in tax-friendly Ireland as part of… – Continue reading
The European Commission has opened an investigation to examine whether the taxes paid by Starbucks in the Netherlands comply with the EU rules on state aid. The investigation is one of three, with Apple being investigated in Ireland and Fiat in Luxembourg. This comes after revelations that the Netherlands is… – Continue reading
While the UK government continues its battle against tax evasion and tax avoidance, the authorities have received welcome support from the High Court with a ruling backing last year’s bid to stop investors avoiding stamp duty. In simple terms, savvy investors were transferring ownership of property to an offshore company… – Continue reading
AS NAMIBIAN political activists, we are writing to you because we are greatly concerned about your transfer-pricing methods. We know that transfer-pricing occurs when two companies from the same multinational corporation trade with each other. This is probably the most important issue as far as international taxation is concerned, since… – Continue reading
NIA CHARLESTOWN Nevis (June 13, 2014) — The Nevis International Banking Ordinance 2014,received safe passage in the Nevis Island Assembly on June 12, 2014, at a sitting which commenced just after 10 a.m. and concluded at 7:15 p.m. The Ordinance replaces the Nevis Offshore Banking Ordinance Cap. 7.05., a key… – Continue reading
Competition takes many forms in capitalism. Financial engineering by corporations to avoid paying taxes is one aspect of this competition — under the rigors of market competition, evading responsibility is an innovation to be emulated. The magnitude of tax evasion on the part of multi-national corporations through one channel —… – Continue reading
The fight against aggressive tax planning by multinationals will be one of the “key issues” for the European Parliament over the next five years, EU economics and monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn has said. Speaking at an event hosted by European Movement Ireland and BDO in Brussels yesterday, Mr Rehn,… – Continue reading
The Financial Times says today that 14 US tech & pharma groups, including Microsoft, Google and Johnson & Johnson, have cut their average tax rate by a quarter over the past eight years as they parked more cash offshore than all other US companies combined. Almost a half trillion dollars… – Continue reading
The European Commission raised pressure on Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg over their corporate tax practices, saying it was investigating deals the countries have cut with Apple, Starbucks and Fiat. The Commission, the executive body of the European Union, is looking at whether the countries’ tax treatment of multinationals that… – Continue reading
Like a bad penny, this tax repatriation idea just keeps coming back. You know, the one where you offer a bribe to multinational corporations in the form of a big tax cut to “repatriate” their foreign earnings. In this case, members on both sides of the aisle are conspiring to… – Continue reading
A fool will receive praise and a rich man will receive blame,” is an old Manx saying. Fitting perhaps for the Isle of Man, a state regarded as a tax haven where much-criticised wealthy companies and individuals shelter their money while the rest of us self-congratulatory fools hand over chunks… – Continue reading
Last week, the TexPIRG Education Fund and the watchdog group Citizens for Tax Justice released a new report examining in detail how Fortune 500 companies in the United States are using offshore havens to avoid paying the taxes they owe the federal government. According to the report, an astounding 72% of American Fortune… – Continue reading
For more than a century, the Swiss city of Geneva has provided wealthy French families with a convenient and safe place to stash their money. Switzerland’s political neutrality and stability and its tradition of bank secrecy kept their fortunes beyond the reach of warring powers and the most determined tax… – Continue reading
Google Australia and New Zealand managing director Maile Carnegie has urged governments across the world to address the inconsistencies of the global tax system rather than shaming individual companies for their profit-shifting activities, The Australian Financial Review reports. “I am actually incredibly empathetic to why people want to talk about this. I… – Continue reading
The Cayman Islands needs to be more assertive in addressing its reputation as a so-called tax haven, that according to chairman of the Cayman Islands Stock Exchange Anthony Travers. A recent report by US-based watchdog groups Citizens For Tax Justice and the US PIRG named the Cayman Islands as one… – Continue reading
A temporary tax holiday for US companies to repatriate offshore profits would cost the government $95.8 billion in revenue over a decade, said the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’s nonpartisan scorekeeper. Lawmakers occasionally talk about a repatriation tax break as a way to pay for spending such as replenishing the… – Continue reading
Apple Operations International, the principal Irish holding company for foreign subsidiaries, was not always stateless for tax purposes based on the last filed accounts in Ireland. It stopped paying tax in Ireland from 2006, based on US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations evidence. The most explosive revelation in the May… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Cracking down on corporate tax avoidance sounds like a winner, and officials are working on it, but the practical challenges are formidable and they dominated discussion at an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development conference on Tuesday. The OECD, a Paris-based club of large economies, has an… – Continue reading
Despite international efforts to clamp down on offshore tax havens, small offshore havens for tax dodging and money laundering are becoming even busier. As the international community focuses on well-known havens like Switzerland and the British Virgin Islands, small remote outposts have become more popular, according to the International Consortium of Investigative… – Continue reading
Tax deals involving Apple, Starbucks and are facing an EU probe over allegations they amounted to state aid worth billions of pounds. The development follows a move by the EU’s competition authorities last year to gather information on corporate tax arrangements from several member states. The European Commission said it… – Continue reading
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has given the US notice that he is serious about leading global efforts through the Group of 20 to stop tax evasion through profit shifting by multinationals, which would include some of America’s biggest companies. Mr Abbott said international tax rules should be structured to capture… – Continue reading
With the impending FATCA compliance rollout and the U.S. Justice Department deal for Swiss banks, there are lots of letters and phone calls being made to account holders with American indicia. American citizens, residents—even people with a U.S. address or phone number—should be prepared. Possible American status means proving you’re… – Continue reading
South Korea’s largest business conglomerates have been setting up more paper companies in tax havens around the world, a report by a local corporate research firm showed Monday. With the exception of holding companies for shipping lines, the number of South Korean companies located in the top 10 offshore tax… – Continue reading
The US tax authorities are set to make the amnesty programme aimed at encouraging US citizens to declare any offshore bank accounts less tough. Recently appointed head of the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS), John Koskinen, said at a tax conference in Washington D.C. that re-striking the balance between enforcement… – Continue reading
While Perrigo Co. plc has already cut its tax burden by moving offshore in the $8.6 billion blockbuster deal with Irish pharmaceutical maker Elan Corp. that it says will allow it to expand globally, other U.S. corporations could have a hard time pulling off similar deals. New federal legislation aims to change… – Continue reading
US firms are using the UK as a haven in which they can symbolically shift their companies to benefit from the country’s relatively low corporation tax regime. Several American companies have already sailed parts across the Atlantic and set up in the UK by moving a handful of executives over… – Continue reading
Nothing about the narrow cream-colored lobby at 160 Aldersgate Street in the City of London financial district gives a hint of its role at the center of the offshore oil industry. That’s because the building is occupied by a law firm. Yet, on paper at least, it is also home to… – Continue reading
Malta is the only member state stopping a tax loophole costing billions of euros being closed, after Sweden dropped its opposition to a EU finance ministers’ agreement to stop multinational companies exploiting hybrid loan arrangements to pay little or no tax. The European Commission reassured Swedish diplomats last week that… – Continue reading
