An OECD initiative on tax evasion is causing ripples around the world While a host of topics — from the necessity and the proposed scope of corporate tax reform, to corporate rate reduction and corporate inversions — are of major concern to those engaged in international tax, the overriding issue… – Continue reading
The Mauritius Revenue Authority (MRA) has informed Mauritius-based financial institutions (MFIs) that the filing deadline for submitting their US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) data for the 2014 reporting year is July 31, 2015. FATCA requires all FIs outside of the United States to submit regular information on financial… – Continue reading
Yesterday afternoon, the Canadian government tabled the 2015 Canadian Federal Budget. Two measures are particularly relevant to certain employers. Withholding Relief for Non-Resident Employers and Employees To take effect next year (if the measure is enacted), Budget 2015 proposes an exemption from certain withholding requirements on payments from “qualifying non-resident… – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD: Haphazard and impractical comments are the norm when tax authorities release collection figures of major political personalities. Newspaper columnists and television anchors try their level best to humiliate them but the endeavour is too shallow to spark a relevant public debate. There is no doubt politicians pay income tax… – Continue reading
A senior partner in the tax firm of Ikata, Ikata and company, Mr. Iduonku Ikata, has called for an aggressive tax collection system to stem the tide of evasion in the country. Ikata, who stated this while speaking to our correspondent in Port Harcourt recently said this could be achieved… – Continue reading
Mahmud Abu Bekir testifies in the suit brought by his former wife. KUALA LUMPUR: The Sarawak Governor’s son, businessman Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib, today denied a string of accusations by his former wife’s lawyers, including the allegation that there were many women in his life. Testifiying in the Syariah High… – Continue reading
Sofia. At the request of the Commission for Establishing Property Acquired from Criminal Activity Sofia City Court levied distraint on property of former MP Htristo Biserov and his step-son Ivaylo Glavinkov, worth BGN 1,555,883, the press office of the commission announced, as cited by the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR). The… – Continue reading
The tax affairs of individuals with a rapidly rising wealth are to come under more intense scrutiny by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). International law firm, Pinsent Masons, said the UK’s tax office has intensified its clampdown on suspected tax avoidance among newly successful entrepreneurs, professionals and celebrities, monitoring them… – Continue reading
When should the beneficiaries of an IRS-targeted tax shelter be allowed to sue their enablers? That’s the question the federal appellate court in Atlanta posed to the Florida Supreme Court April 17 in an ongoing bankruptcy-related case. The answer, which turns on statutes of limitations, probably will boil down to… – Continue reading
A recent indictment by the United States Attorney’s office in California illustrates the inter-relationship between currency transfer restrictions, (such as those involving Iran), foreign financial account reporting (the FBAR requirement) and the failure to report taxable income (filing of a false tax return). In United States of America vs. Ali… – Continue reading
Earlier, SEBI also beefed up norms for defaulters trying to raise fresh money. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has clarified that only nominee and independent directors who are not whole-time board members of a firm deemed as a ‘wilful defaulter’ would be excluded from being labelled as a party… – Continue reading
Island Delegation to Tout Jurisdiction as Risk Capital and Potential e-Commerce Hub HAMILTON, Bermuda, April 27, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — A 15-strong delegation of Bermuda industry, government and regulator representatives will take part in a Canada roadshow next week, targeting top-level executives and touting the corporate benefits of setting up… – Continue reading
British Virgin Islands through its International Tax Authority (BVI ITA), went live last week with the Vizor for FATCA & AEOI solution, the “BVI Financial Account Reporting System”. Today, Vizor Ltd. announced that BVI went live with the Vizor for FATCA & AEOI solution. The British Virgin Islands Government (BVIG)… – Continue reading
On Saturday 25 April, at the second session of the informal meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN), one of most important issues on the agenda was the further development of the Capital Markets Union concept, which was broadly supported by the ministers and Governors of central banks…. – Continue reading
The Tax Information Exchange Agreement between Bermuda and South Korea entered into force and became effective on 13 Fevruary 2015. Once requested for information by one state, the other state is obligated to release the information in 90 days unless the information contains business secrets or classified business processes. If… – Continue reading
With the Transcontinental Trusts Bermuda Forum taking place next week, it is timely to reflect on some of the attractive features and structuring alternatives that Bermuda’s trusts and related law provides and to consider some recent exciting developments. Bermuda provides a flexible, cost effective regime for the formation and administration… – Continue reading
When Burger King’s owners first announced last summer’s mega-deal to gobble up Tim Hortons, the fast-food firm’s executives downplayed a key reason why they were acquiring the Canadian coffee chain and relocating corporate HQ to Canada: to cut its taxes. “Tax wasn’t really the driver of this,” Daniel Schwartz, the… – Continue reading
On 3 April 2015, Uzbekistan and the United States signed a Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) Agreement. FATCA seeks to obtain information on accounts held by U.S. taxpayers in other countries. It requires U.S. financial institutions to withhold a portion of certain payments made to Foreign Financial Institutions (FFIs)… – Continue reading
Americans have overcome oligarchy before — and there’s no reason we can’t do it again. Rising inequality seems to pose an insurmountable political problem. If the underlying causes are technological change and globalization, the forces appear to be unstoppable. Alternatively, if the causes are primarily political and involve the power… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: The 1607-point decline on the Sensex in the past two weeks has unnerved many investors, but there could be more pain in store. May has historically been a bad month for stocks -in the past 24 years, the average monthly return of the Sensex has been a niggardly 0.24%…. – Continue reading
Tim Thornton, Chief Data Officer, Mitsubishi UFJ Fund Services comments on the upcoming deadline for registration on the Cayman FATCA portal… The upcoming 30 April deadline for registration on the Cayman FATCA portal is another milestone in the implementation of FATCA. The relatively short window from the portal being available,… – Continue reading
The Luxembourg Intellectual Property (IP) tax regime will be aligned to the “modified nexus approach”, as per Pierre Gramegna, Luxembourg’s Finance Minister. The IP regime is expected to be modified in 2015 and to be in force no later than 30 June 2016. This is driven by the OECD’s Base… – Continue reading
Tax intelligence seeks to create a legal window for taxpayers to pay their evaded taxes, detected by the taxmen, in a simpler way without having to pass through a tortuous process. The Central Intelligence Cell (CIC) under the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has found out that in majority of… – Continue reading
THE REVENUE Commissioner’s large cases division is investigating almost 100 schemes it suspects were designed by companies and wealthy individuals to avoid paying capital gains tax. The taxman is enquiring into 89 cases which used sophisticated financial instruments known as contracts for difference to generate artificial losses. The schemes avoided… – Continue reading
Lahore – Pakistan Tanners Association has said that exporters are paying full tax to the government and there is no chance of evasion of income tax on exports. “Exporters, whether making profit or loss, will have to pay 1% income tax on the value of each export consignment while 1%… – Continue reading
The Income Tax Department on Sunday published names of 31 tax evaders who owe over Rs 1,500 crore in taxes to the government in its bid to stop tax evasion. The names, last known addresses and vital financial details of these entities were published in newspaper. The department said they… – Continue reading
What exactly is the point of a Coalition government if it offers the same sort of tax increases as voters expect from Labor and the Greens? It’s disturbing how quickly the Abbott government has turned its attention to boosting government revenue rather than reducing government spending. It’s only been in… – Continue reading
The world’s high and ultrahigh net worth families are run much like businesses these days, with family governance in place as well as fund structures in favourable tax jurisdictions that allow for consolidated reporting across diversified assets. That is the way the world is moving, with global tax authorities grouping… – Continue reading
Republicans and other people who are opposed to immigration reforms claim that they are a burden on the national economy and its resources. But latest reports suggest that undocumented immigrants paid as much as $12 billion dollars as taxes at state and national level. This is a huge amount and… – Continue reading
Benchmarks are poised just above their 200-day moving average — a long-term support April 25, 2015: Both the Sensex and the Nifty are very tantalizingly poised just above a long-term support level. This adds zing to next week’s trading that is expected to be full of action thanks to the… – Continue reading
About 11.4 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. paid nearly $12 billion in state and local taxes in 2012, and granting them lawful permanent residence would further increase total tax collected, a study revealed. The recent study made by the Washington-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy said the average… – Continue reading
Across the state and nation this past month, individuals filed and paid their personal federal and state income taxes. However, there was one notable exception — the Fortune 500 companies singled out in a recent Citizens for Tax Justice report called “Fifteen Reasons Why we need Corporate Tax Reform.” This… – Continue reading
European finance ministers have backed efforts to fight rampant tax avoidance by multinationals in the wake of the LuxLeaks scandal. But European Union members face tough negotiations to work out the details. Under a new plan the bloc’s 28 countries would share tax deals agreed with some of the world’s… – Continue reading
NUMBER OF THE WEEK: 6.5 percent The tax rate at which companies could voluntarily repatriate their foreign earnings under the Invest in Transportation Act of 2015 ( S. 981). Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced the bipartisan proposal, offering ways to save the Highway Trust Fund. Funding… – Continue reading
Trade in today’s global era visualizes significant number of international transactions in form of transfer of goods, services, capital and intangibles. International transfers arise within the Multinational Enterprise group entities and are called intra-group transfer. What is actually paid by one entity to another entity in the intra-group transfer is… – Continue reading
The federal government has published the results of the consultation on the Financial Services Act and the Financial Institutions Act (for further details please see “Federal Financial Services Act and Federal Financial Institutions Act”). The Financial Services Act governs the prerequisites for providing financial services and offering financial instruments and… – Continue reading
FPIs are battling it out with the income-tax department, which has issued notices demanding that they pay MAT to the tune of Rs40,000 crore New Delhi/Mumbai: Despite the government affirming that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) can use tax treaties to fight tax demands on past capital gains, a majority of… – Continue reading
However, OECD being persuasive may not help funds based out of nations whose treaties do not give specific exemption The Indian government’s clarification that it would honour tax treaties while making a demand of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) at the effective rate of 20 per cent came as a relief… – Continue reading
Company accounts provide insight into Parlesse Investments A Larry Goodman company based in Luxembourg made a profit of €52.6 million in 2013 and paid just 0.4 per cent tax, according to accounts in the tiny EU member state. The company, Parlesse Investments Sarl, began operations in 2010 and had accumulated… – Continue reading
The Irish Revenue collected EUR41.4bn (USD45bn) in tax in 2014, up 9.3 percent on 2013, according to the latest figures. Revenue’s Annual Report for 2014 shows that each of the main taxheads recorded growth. Income tax was up 8.8 percent year-on-year, with corporation tax and value-added tax (VAT) each up… – Continue reading
On 20 March 2015, the British Virgin Islands Government issued revised guidance notes regarding the Intergovernmental Agreements between the British Virgin Islands (“BVI”) and the United States of America (the “US”) and the United Kingdom (the “UK”) to improve international tax compliance (the “Guidance Notes”). The Guidance Notes confirm that… – Continue reading
On March 30, 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it had entered into a nonprosecution agreement with BSI SA, the first Swiss bank to reach resolution with the U.S. government as to its potential criminal exposure for assisting its U.S. clients in engaging in tax evasion.[1] As part… – Continue reading
“There have been times,” Hervé Falciani tells me, “when I’ve wondered if I was losing touch with reality. Could I really have seen what I saw, and revealed the things that I did, while the financial world continued as if nothing had happened?” Falciani, sometimes called “the Ed Snowden of… – Continue reading
Greece’s desperate bid to fund debt repayments by clamping down on tax evaders is doomed to fail, according to analysts. Leonidas Bobolas, the head of Greece’s largest construction firm was arrested on Wednesday and not released until after he had paid €1.8m in back taxes, despite the fact he had… – Continue reading
The tax status of (usually well-heeled) long-term foreign residents in the United Kingdom hit the headlines again recently as the opposition Labour Party pledged to abolish the non-domicile tax rules if its wins the general election on May 7. At least, that seemed to be the message when Labour leader… – Continue reading
Multinationals play such a large role in many nations’ budgets that effective control is crucial. Business Tax-base erosion cripples Africa 24 Apr 2015 00:00 Lisa Steyn Multinationals play such a large role in many nations’ budgets that effective control is crucial. Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene says practices such as incorrect… – Continue reading
Britons overseas are now subject to CGT when selling UK properties, but this straightforward advice could help minimise the impact Expats who have kept a house or flat in Britain need to act now to avoid being stung by a hefty capital gains tax (CGT) bill in the future. Since… – Continue reading
In what is becoming an increasingly used attack vehicle, the Department of Justice (DoJ) is using the “required records doctrine” to compel taxpayer’s to produce what may be incriminating evidence of ownership or control of foreign financial accounts. The DoJ process involves the issuance of a Grand Jury subpoena for… – Continue reading
Hong Kong (HKSAR) – The Government today (April 24) launched a consultation exercise to gauge views on proposals to apply, with adaptations for Hong Kong, the prevailing international standards on the automatic exchange of financial account information in tax matters (AEOI). On the basis of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation… – Continue reading
New Delhi: The Income Tax department on Friday told the Delhi High Court that the amount offered by an “arm’s length buyer” for Nokia India’s Chennai mobile making plant, frozen over an alleged Rs 10,000 crore tax dispute, is “very little”. The submission was made by the IT department before… – Continue reading
