VATICAN CITY – The Vatican has agreed to share tax information with the United States in its latest move to improve the reputation of its scandal-marred bank and crack down on tax cheats. Vatican and U.S. officials signed an agreement Wednesday in which the Holy See committed to comply with… – Continue reading
Issues of tax domicile have figured in the UK election, with arguments over ‘non dom’ status and the transparency of overseas territories. However, as the dust settles on some of the rhetoric, it is essential that this does not cloud the legitimate benefits that offshore jurisdictions have brought to the… – Continue reading
Multinational firms said to be ‘cheating’ African countries out of billions of dollars that could be used for health care and education. G7 leaders Monday pledged to reform the international tax system by minimizing transfer pricing, according to Public Finance International. Transfer pricing involves internal transactions between a large company’s… – Continue reading
Dirty money resulting from crime, corruption and tax evasion is estimated to cost over one trillion dollars every year. It exacerbates poverty and inequality, and should be regarded as one of the most pressing issues globally. An Oxfam report found that G7-based companies and investors cheat Africa out of tens… – Continue reading
The Barcelona forward is now due to stand trial on accusations he defrauded authorities Lionel Messi’s appeal against allegations of tax evasion has been thrown out by a Barcelona court and the Argentina star will now stand trial. The Blaugrana forward and his father and agent, Jorge Messi, are accused… – Continue reading
Toothless Eurocrats wail and gnash gums over big biz invite snub Amazon, Facebook and Google are among those who have been invited to a pow-wow with MEPs over their tax practices – but not all plan to show up. MEPs said on Tuesday that it’s regrettable that the multinationals “seem… – Continue reading
THE North-East is becoming a “dustbin” for Scottish rubbish because of devolution, one of the region’s MPs has warned. Kevan Jones, the North Durham MP, said a “commendable” Scottish initiative to boost recycling had backfired by sending waste across the border instead, sometimes illegally. And he warned the problem was… – Continue reading
A raft of reforms to EU anti-money laundering rules will come into force later this month after they were finalised and published in the official journal of the EU, reports Out Law. The fourth Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Directive will take effect from the 26 June. EU countries will have two… – Continue reading
The Luxembourg Tax Authorities have confirmed that the deadline for FATCA reporting with respect to financial accounts as of 31 December 2014 has been extended from 30 June 2015 to 31 July 2015. The FATCA Agreement (Model 1) between Luxembourg and the United States was signed on 28 March 2014…. – Continue reading
Sydney, 10 June (Argus) — The Australian government has released legislation to tighten rules governing corporate taxation such as the use of offshore tax havens. The bill is not aimed at any particular sector of the economy, but several resource and commodity companies have come under scrutiny following a Senate… – Continue reading
Minister of Financial Services the Hon. Hope Strachan said international best practices are evolving at a rapid pace, particularly as it relates to automatic tax exchange initiatives, tax transparency, anti-money laundering and financial crime, and e-commerce, reports the Bahamas Weekly. Making her contribution to the 2015 Budget Debate in the… – Continue reading
The Diverted Profits Tax (DPT), known by many as the “Google Tax”, is intended to stop large groups diverting profits from the UK by seeking to avoid creating a UK permanent establishment or using arrangements or entities which lack economic substance to exploit tax mismatches. Tax mismatches occur where intra-group… – Continue reading
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has updated its guidance on the Employment Allowance in light of media reports of an attempted avoidance scheme designed to exploit the allowance. Under the Employment Allowance, employers can reduce the amount of National Insurance contributions (NICs) they pay for their employees by up to… – Continue reading
Maryland residents who pay income tax to other states may be entitled to a refund of local income taxes paid in prior tax years. The U.S. Supreme Court in Comptroller of the Treasury of Maryland v. Wynne et ux. recently affirmed a Maryland Court of Appeals ruling that the state’s… – Continue reading
Heads of state meeting at the G7 Summit in Bavaria, Germany committed to promoting automatic exchange of tax information and tax rulings to discourage multinational companies from shifting profits from country to country to avoid taxes, reports Accounting Today. In a joint declaration, the G7 leaders reaffirmed their commitment to… – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD: A district and sessions court on Monday handed over 17 Axact employees here on physical remand over their alleged involvement in fraudulent practices, issuing fake degrees, money laundering and deceiving the public by acting as student counsellors. Civil judge Islamabad Rasool Bakhsh sent the suspects on physical remand for… – Continue reading
Swiss banks that aren’t dependent on the country’s crumbling financial secrecy laws may find international expansion easier than those that sold hidden accounts in the past, according to Switzerland’s financial supervisor. “The shift away from businesses which rely on some elements of banking secrecy is changing the perception” of Swiss… – Continue reading
Hong Kong, as a world financial centre, will undertake legislative changes to implement automatic exchange of information of account holders Exchange of information is a recognised tool to enhance tax transparency and combat cross-border tax evasion. As a major financial centre, Hong Kong is committed to following global standards. While… – Continue reading
The Argentine Supreme Court ruling on Toepfer International, a commodity exporting firm, has finally been published, tw o months after the decision, providing lessons for BEPS action 10 (cross border commodity transactions). This case, AFIP v Alfred C Toepfer Internacional, belongs to the first group of three controversies, related to… – Continue reading
Individuals who renew their US passport need to take into consideration that their Social Security Number (SSN) and country of residency will be forwarded to the IRS. Since July 2014, the passport renewal instructions forms have dedicated a specific paragraph detailing this new procedure: “Section 6039E of the Internal Revenue… – Continue reading
An archaic rule in the UK tax system means non-domiciled individuals ( “non-doms”) can be born and raised in the UK and pay less tax than their UK citizen counterparts. A person inherits their domicile at birth. Non-dom status will be triggered where a person’s father or grandfather was born… – Continue reading
Most people do not believe big companies pay their fair share of tax, according research from energy giant SSE and ICAS, the Scottish accountancy institute. The YouGov study of 2000 adults found only a third of people think most big businesses in the UK pay their fair share of tax,… – Continue reading
LONDON — Like other global institutions, HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, has been under severe pressure since the 2008 financial crisis to cut costs, meet stringent new regulatory demands and satisfy restless shareholders. To that end, the British bank said on Tuesday that it would shed as many as 50,000 of… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI — India’s goal of a friendlier tax regime for global companies to help power China-beating economic growth is hitting a manpower hurdle. Fewer than 20 officials face the complex task of working with hundreds of multinationals on pacts to avert tax rows, people familiar with the matter said,… – Continue reading
A special scheme is provided for foreign-securities holding companies or ETVEs (Entidades de Tenencia de Valores Extranjeros) in the Corporate Income Tax (“CIT”) Act 27/2014. ETVEs are regular limited liability companies (S.L., S.A. or other company forms), subject to the normal CIT on its income, but exempt from taxation on… – Continue reading
FOCUS: Now that the first devolved Scottish taxes have come into force, the rest of the UK will be watching with interest to see how new tax authority Revenue Scotland manages and deals with avoidance risks. Much of this interest will be on how the new Scottish General Anti-Avoidance Rule… – Continue reading
A new report from the Internal Revenue Service indicated that the upper-echelon of wealth is hoarding more money than we initially thought, reported The Washington Post. We all know how much money the one-percent hoards, but what about the top one-thousandth percent? To be apart of that group, one must… – Continue reading
ABU DHABI // The UAE aims to increase the presence of diplomatic missions in Africa, said Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Foreign Minister, at the first meeting of UAE ambassadors and heads of representative missions on Tuesday. Sheikh Abdullah said the meeting, in the Ugandan capital of Kampala, enriched diplomatic work… – Continue reading
Prime minister says he has proof he is innocent of charges of money laundering and tax evasion while president calls for his resignation Victor Ponta, Romania’s prime minister, said on Tuesday that he was prepared to go to court to answer charges of money-laundering, forgery and tax evasion as the… – Continue reading
In November 2014 the WikiLeaks scandal known as “LuxLeaks”, the large scale exposure of over 340 companies (such as IKEA, Coca-Cola and Disney) who paid a rate of one per cent or less tax on profits moved to Luxembourg by advance pricing arrangements has affected all nationalities and brought the… – Continue reading
FORMER Tinian Sen. David M. Cing, one of the proponents of the Tinian casino initiative, said the troubles facing Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino did not occur overnight and are now “killing us here.” Recently, a $75 million in civil fine was imposed by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial… – Continue reading
Switzerland’s government wants banks to toughen up checks to avoid accepting untaxed assets, possibly including a refusal to do business with a client who can’t show the money has been regularized, reports Bloomberg. For clients from countries that aren’t covered by automatic exchange of information agreements, banks will need to… – Continue reading
Demands for greater transparency from business about their tax affairs have prompted more than half of all FTSE 100 companies to disclose information about their approach to taxation, compared with less than a third two years ago, reports the Financial Times. The rise in disclosures is a sign of the… – Continue reading
“The same methodology [in the HSBC case] appeared in the JP Morgan investigation, the most important given that there is a witness who has implicated himself, the corporation’s Latin American chief. Due to a conflict with his employer, he has made a complaint in Argentina naming himself as the organizer… – Continue reading
Proposed Amendments To Cyprus’s Assessment And Collection Of Taxes Law The Cyprus Government has published a draft law amending the Assessment and Collection of Taxes Law (Law 4 of 1978) in order to facilitate implementation of agreements for automatic exchange of information with other countries. When it is enacted, the… – Continue reading
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has responded to the recent coverage regarding its approach to Reasonable Excuse claims for filing self-assessment tax returns late. The tax authority has reiterated its desire to use an increasing percentage of its resources on investigating major tax avoidance and evasion as opposed to penalising… – Continue reading
An organisation that represents American expats has called on the United States Treasury to amend tax regulations to exempt those living abroad from the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). FACTA was introduced in 2010 to tackle what was seen as a growing number of wealthy US citizens living abroad… – Continue reading
EU regulators today gave Poland and Estonia a month to hand over details of their tax ruling practices. It also ordered 15 other countries to provide data on individual tax bills as part of a region-wide investigation. Pressures on government budgets since the global financial crisis have spurred a crackdown… – Continue reading
New Delhi/Mumbai: India’s goal of a friendlier tax regime for global companies to help power China-beating economic growth is hitting a manpower hurdle. Fewer than 20 officials face the complex task of working with hundreds of multinational companies (MNCs) on pacts to avert tax rows, people familiar with the matter… – Continue reading
Transfer pricing has been raking in significant tax controversies and has also emerged as one of the leading arms of the Indian tax law. Transfer pricing has been raking in significant tax controversies and has also emerged as one of the leading arms of the Indian tax law contributing a… – Continue reading
U.S. agricultural and crop chemicals giant Monsanto (MON) could shift its headquarters to Europe in a tax-savings strategy if the company succeeds in its $45 billion unsolicited bid to merge with rival Swiss rival Syngenta. Details of the tentative plan came Monday as Syngenta reiterated its opposition to the transaction,… – Continue reading
08/06/2015 – Pushing forward efforts to boost transparency in international tax matters, the OECD today released a package of measures for the implementation of a new Country-by-Country Reporting plan developed under the OECD/G20 BEPS Project. The Country-by-Country Reporting Implementation Package will facilitate a consistent and swift implementation of new transfer… – Continue reading
BRUSSELS–The European Union said it was seeking fresh information from 15 EU countries on tax deals granted to individual companies, and ordered two governments to comply with its requests, deepening a high-profile tax investigation that has so far embroiled four multinationals including Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. The twin moves… – Continue reading
OVERSEAS investment by Thai companies has been surging in recent years and this trend is almost certain to continue. One of the questions frequently asked by Thai investors when seeking to acquire foreign operating companies or establish overseas subsidiaries is what type of funding structure would be the most tax… – Continue reading
A lawyer claims there is a way for a ‘beneficial owner’ of a business to head off the “unwanted scrutiny” that the government’s central register of companies might bring them. James Austen of legal advisory Charles Russell Speechlys says “help is at hand” if his clients wish to avoid the… – Continue reading
On 20 May 2015, the European Parliament increased the hunt for tax evaders, money launderers and terror financiers by adopting the fourth instalment of the Anti-Money Laundering Directive (“AMLD”). The main novelty of the new directive is the introduction of a central UBO-register, a public register which identifies the ultimate… – Continue reading
Where a foreign company renders professional services to a South African company, it is important that the foreign entity considers whether, as a result of rendering such services, the foreign company will create a permanent establishment in South Africa. The reason why this becomes important is that where a foreign… – Continue reading
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law allowing Russians to voluntarily declare foreign assets and bank deposits to avoid criminal, administrative and tax liability. Amnesty will be granted if the violation related to the declared property was made before January 1, 2015, according to the law published on the… – Continue reading
OECD propose country-by-country reports on their financial affairs Proposed new obligations on multinationals to produce country-by-country reports on their financial affairs will have a “massive impact” on them, a leading member of the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation has said. Pascal Saint-Amans , director of the Center for Tax… – Continue reading
The Swiss Federal Council has adopted a dispatch on the Corporate Tax Reform Act III (CTR III), a package of reforms it said will strengthen the country as a business location and ensure companies make an appropriate tax contribution. The Council agreed on the parameters of the CTR III on… – Continue reading
