The Luxembourg Parliament unanimously passed legislation that would transpose into domestic law an EU directive concerning the automatic exchange of information in the field of taxation (a directive known as “DAC 2”). The DAC 2 provides that EU Member States are to require financial institutions to implement reporting and due… – Continue reading
On 10 December 2015, the Belgian Parliament voted – in plenary session – the bill “on the communication of information relating to financial accounts, by Belgian financial institutions and the Federal Public Authority of Finance, within the framework of an automatic exchange of information at international level for tax purposes”…. – 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
The Belgian Minister of Finance has just shared new insights on how Belgium will be addressing the outcome of the OECD/G20 project in relation to Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (“BEPS”). He opted to do so via the “Plan to combat tax fraud”. The title of his policy note is… – Continue reading
On December 15, 2015 the OECD issued a press release announcing that on that same date Monaco signed the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA), bringing the total number of signatories to 76. According to the overview of Signatories of the MCAA and the intended first information exchange date, Monaco intends… – Continue reading
On December 15, 2015 the European Commission issued a media release announcing that on that same date it adopted new rules to make it easier for EU Member States’ tax authorities to exchange financial information so that they can ensure full tax transparency and cooperation. According to the media release… – 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
The US has refused to join the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) which binds banks to share information about assets with tax services of other countries. Switzerland has accused the US of double standards and abuse of confidence. On May 6, 2014, 47 countries agreed on a common reporting standard, an… – Continue reading
European evaluators urged Vatican prosecutors on Tuesday to move ahead and bring charges in some of the 25 money-laundering investigations they have opened over the past few years as part of beefed-up measures to prevent illicit activity at the Vatican’s scandal-marred bank. The Council of Europe’s Moneyval committee issued the… – Continue reading
Many jurisdictions have agreed to implement the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s multilateral system of automatic exchange of information called the “Common Reporting Standard” (CRS). In furtherance of its objectives, the CRS imposes a variety of diligence and reporting requirements on “financial institutions,” which includes many master funds, offshore… – 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
The Senate concurred, after hearing, the ratification of tax treaties between the Philippines and the governments of Italy, Germany and Turkey that will prevent double taxation. Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara said the approval on third and final reading of Senate resolutions 1540, 1541, 1542 on the double taxation avoidance… – 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
A “final” disclosure facility which will give UK taxpayers a means of correcting any irregularities involving offshore income and gains will run until September 2018, one year longer than originally anticipated, the government has announced. No details of the planned disclosure facility have been published, but it is expected to… – Continue reading
We have on several occasions fingered Panama as a particularly recalcitrant secrecy jurisdiction: our recent Panama Narrative Report spills a fair number of beans in that respect. Its recalcitrance is perhaps hardly surprising, given the quantity of Colombian and Mexican drugs money believed to be sheltered there – to name… – Continue reading
The Association of Retail Trade (ACDET), which is part of Walmart, defended the decision to the chain filed a lawsuit against the government and the law 72. Considers that the law is unconstitutional and arbitrarily penalize one company. “Since April we warn the people that the measures were being discussed… – Continue reading
As the EU prepares for country-by-country tax reporting requirements, businesses would do well to understand the minutiae of the upcoming regulations October 2015 was a busy month for announcements regarding base erosion profit shifting (BEPS) and country-by-country reporting. The OECD issued the last of the guidelines on BEPS, the various… – Continue reading
On 1 December 2015, the Income Tax (Approved International Agreements) (Implementation) (Common Reporting Standard) Regulations 2015 came into operation. The regulations implement the Council of Europe–OECD Mutual Assistance Treaty (1988) (as amended through 2010), under which, in order to improve international tax compliance, information will be automatically exchanged in accordance… – Continue reading
Thirteen jurisdictions signed the OECD Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) at a meeting on October 29-30, 2015, in Barbados. In joining the MCAA, the territories commit to automatically exchange tax information with other nations’ tax authorities under the OECD’s new tax information exchange standard, the Common Reporting Standard. A total… – Continue reading
In 2013, the 39th G8 summit in Lough Erne committed to reform the international tax system. The G8 Lough Erne Declaration stated that such reforms would benefit developing countries. The G20 declaration in St Petersburg 2013 also stated specifically that “Developing countries should be able to reap the benefits of… – 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
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
WASHINGTON: India ranks fourth in black money outflows with a whopping USD 51 billion siphoned out of the country per annum between 2004-2013, a US-based think-tank’s report said today. Notably India’s defence budget is less than USD 50 billion. China tops the list with USD 139 billion average outflow of… – Continue reading
Banking secrecy no longer protects foreign clients: Council of States approved the transition to the automatic exchange of information. At the same time, he rejected the idea of a tax amnesty. Rejection of the tax amnesty was the main surprise of the discussion of the Government’s project to move to… – Continue reading
In Paris on the occasion of the COP21, the Honourable Billy Graham Talagi, Minister for Ministry of Natural Resources of Niue signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters in the presence of Deputy Secretary General Rintaro Tamaki. Previously, Israel signed the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative… – Continue reading
On 8 December 2015, the Council adopted a directive aimed at improving transparency on tax rulings given by member states to companies in specific cases about how taxation will be dealt with. The directive is one of a number of initiatives aimed at preventing corporate tax avoidance. It will require… – Continue reading
The EU Council has adopted a new transparency directive aimed at preventing corporate tax avoidance The directive, which was proposed by the European Commission (EC), is aimed at improving transparency on tax rulings given by member states to companies about how their taxes are calculated. Under the new directive, member… – Continue reading
The new agreement marks the end of bank secrecy between San Marino and the EU. As of 2017, San Marino and EU Member States will automatically exchange information on the financial accounts of one another’s residents. Pierre Moscovici, Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs, said: “This agreement… – Continue reading
The United States came down hard on Swiss banks after receiving, from various whistleblowers, Swiss bank data evidencing U.S. citizens had hidden fortunes in Swiss accounts. Swiss banks were fined billions for assisting U.S. citizens in evading taxes and now want to avoid repetition of this scenario when the exchange… – Continue reading
As the curtain falls on Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf’s career in government, one of the most abiding legacies she leaves behind is the collapse of Swiss banking secrecy under her watch as Finance Minister. Her predecessor, Hans-Rudolf Merz, told the world in 2008 that it would “break its teeth on Swiss banking… – Continue reading
The Dutch Ministry of Finance published a draft decree for implementing the “common reporting standard” (CRS) and that includes the identification and reporting requirements contained in the CRS for reporting financial institutions. The CRS, developed by the OECD and largely based on FATCA, is a standard that governs the exchange… – Continue reading
Only time will tell whether the benefit of enhanced compliance and effective enforcement will outweigh the costs. The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is a new international system for the automatic exchange of tax information promoted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and modelled on the United States’… – Continue reading
Members of the European Parliament’s (MEPs) economic and monetary affairs committee (EMAC) have asked the European Commission (EC) to table measures that would include corporation tax transparency, reports Economia. Recommendations were voted on by the EMAC on Tuesday and seek to build on work carried out by the European Parliament’s… – Continue reading
On December 3, 2015 the OECD issued a press release in which it announced that on that same day Andorra signed the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA), bringing the total number of signatories to 75. Andorra signed the MCAA during a meeting of experts on automatic exchange of information convened… – Continue reading
(CNS) UPDATED: The Cayman Islands and other overseas territories have agreed to hold beneficial ownership information in their jurisdictions via “central registers or similarly effective systems”, according to the communique released by the FCO following this week’s meeting in London with territory leaders and the UK government. The agreement on… – Continue reading
Indian entities will do a reciprocal information sharing about Americans The Finance Ministry today said it has received information from the US under the financial information exchange pact FATCA in the last two months and it is being analysed. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) came into effect from… – Continue reading
He said steps are being taken to put in place a robust information security mechanism in the Income Tax department Non-disclosure of overseas assets will become a “very risky affair” from 2017 as government will by then start getting information on them from foreign countries, Minister of State for Finance… – Continue reading
Right to levy capital gains tax by India is also part discussions, he said India is engaged in “positive talks” with Mauritius on revision of bilateral tax treaty as some issues still need to be sorted out, an official said today. “Negotiations have been going on. Talks with Mauritius have… – Continue reading
On 23 November 2015 Guernsey issued regulations to implement the Common Reporting Standard (“CRS”) under Guernsey’s domestic law. The regulations follow on from the commitment made on 29 October 2014 by Guernsey, along with the other Crown Dependencies and a number of other jurisdictions, to start exchanging information under the… – Continue reading
Australians hiding funds and investments offshore to avoid paying tax have been put on notice. The federal government on Thursday introduced to parliament legislation to enable the tax office to crack down on taxpayers hiding funds overseas. It implements an OECD scheme allowing the sharing of information between foreign tax… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI, DEC 3: Domestic taxpayers would do well to fully disclose their foreign assets with Indian tax authorities, Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance, has said. Non-disclosure of foreign assets could turn a “risky” proposition for taxpayers, Sinha said in his inaugural address at the 6th meeting of Automatic… – Continue reading
We are all aware of “base erosion and profit shifting” or “BEPS”. On 5 October 2015, the OECD released its final reports in connection with its BEPS Action Plan including its final report on Action 15 dealing with the development of a multilateral instrument to modify bilateral tax treaties (“Final… – Continue reading
Royal Decree 1021/2015, of November 13, establishing the obligation to identify the tax residence of persons who hold or control certain financial accounts and to provide information concerning them in the area of mutual assistance. On November 17 last the above-mentioned Royal Decree was published in the Official State Gazette…. – Continue reading
An EU deal with Liechtenstein, which will make it harder for EU citizens to hide cash from the tax man in bank accounts there, was endorsed by Parliament in a vote on Wednesday. Under the deal, the EU and Liechtenstein will automatically exchange information on the bank accounts of each… – Continue reading
Swiss Senate has sealed the end of banking secrecy for foreign clients, following the House of Representatives in accepting the legal groundwork for the automatic exchange of information. The decision paves the way for a “decorous funeral for tax secrecy,” as senator Roberto Zanetti of the leftwing Social Democrats put… – Continue reading
Inland Revenue is looking at the tax treatment of hybrid debt and equity instruments and the use of related party loans funding local subsidiaries as part of a global clamp-down on tax avoidance. Acting deputy commissioner of policy and strategy David Carrigan told Parliament’s finance and expenditure select committee that… – Continue reading
The Global Forum established an AEOI group in consequence of the G20 Leaders’ Declaration in September, 2013 with a view to establish a mechanism to monitor and review the implementation of the new global standard on automatic exchange of information. As India and other countries enhance their cooperation to crack… – Continue reading
AUTOMATIC EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION IN TAX MATTERS – THE COMMON REPORTING STANDARD Introduction The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is a tool which facilitates the automatic exchange of information at a global level. The fight against tax evasion in cross border transactions has become a priority for Government around the globe…. – Continue reading
The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is the standard for automatic exchange of financial account information produced by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which provides for systematic and periodic automatic exchange of information between signatory jurisdictions. At its heart is a requirement for financial institutions, including British Virgin… – Continue reading
