We’ve heard a lot in this election campaign about how much parties say they will save by clamping down on tax avoidance and evasion. It is one of the key ways they say they are going to pay for their spending promises. Should we believe them? First of all, tax… – Continue reading
French President François Hollande said on Wednesday that a drawn-out tax evasion row with Switzerland “is behind us” as he launched a visit aimed at mending fences. The two-day trip is the first state visit to Switzerland by a French president since Jacques Chirac’s stopover 17 years ago. Paris is… – Continue reading
“Tax day” comes and goes each year, but unfortunately, the systemic issues that plague American taxpayers linger on without resolution well past the mid-April deadline. The U.S. tax code has long been manipulated by corporate lobbyists and their corporate tax attorneys. (President Jimmy Carter once called the loophole-ridden tax laws… – Continue reading
Within the current discussion of corporate tax there are a number of terms used to describe the corporate strategies and behaviours involved, such as “tax minimisation” or “tax avoidance”. There are also other terms used in the academic accounting literature on tax. This can result in confusion about what exactly… – Continue reading
Ahead of this week’s income tax filing deadline, the National Association of Manufacturers and the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and Innovation Foundation said the U.S. should exempt its companies’ foreign earnings from corporate taxes. In contrast to current tax policy, the groups’ analysis argued that exempting those earnings would allow… – Continue reading
Israel joined the OECD in 2010. Background The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is spearheading a concerted effort to help governments around the world collect more taxes. The OECD is doing so by issuing a series of recommendations for tightening up corporate and personal tax measures. Individual governments are… – Continue reading
One in three wealthy people who may be dodging tax will get a call or personal visit by the Australian Taxation Office as it moves to ensure the richest Australians and private companies pay their fair share of tax. The ATO wants to beat its 2013-14 rate of raising $1.1… – Continue reading
(Bloomberg) — Wall Street banks and other financial firms should pay new fees to bankroll their own government oversight, according to a member of the top U.S. derivatives regulator. Sharon Y. Bowen, a Democrat on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said Congress should let the agency set fees on banks… – Continue reading
Taxes have risen by around one per cent on the average worker’s wage in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries since 2014, although the majority of governments have not increased income tax rates, the OECD has said. In its Taxing Wages 2015 report, the OECD looks at the… – Continue reading
NEW YORK • When it comes to taxes, corporate America is getting a bit less corporate. And a bit less American. Fueled by a wave of inversions, a record 54 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of leading U.S. firms are now at least partially exempt from the… – Continue reading
Tax directors at many organizations anticipate their companies will grow by entering into new domestic and international markets in the years ahead, according to a new survey by BDO USA. In a sign of an improving economy, 50 percent of the 100 tax directors at $1billion-plus public companies surveyed by… – Continue reading
David Maclean, Baron Blencathra, wrote to Cayman Islands in 2014 that transparency push was to head off G8 pressure and EU’s financial transaction tax A Conservative peer has described David Cameron’s flagship G8 anti-tax avoidance initiative as a “purely political gesture” designed to head off European attempts to curb the… – Continue reading
The Italian Ministry of Finance has removed Guernsey from its revised tax blacklist. Amendments within the 2015 Finance Act mean that the anti-tax haven deduction blacklist has been revised to exclude all countries that have an adequate exchange of information with Italy. Sinéad Leddy, Head of Technical at Guernsey Finance,… – Continue reading
As the above title indicates (it is only a modest exaggeration), the Treasury Greenbook regarding the FY 2016 budget proposes a radical restructuring of the system for U.S. taxation of foreign income of U.S. multinational enterprises (MNEs). Some Congressional players have suggested that these proposals are an opening bid in… – Continue reading
Introduction Soft commodity prices, divergent monetary policies across major economies, high unemployment rates and weak world trade have all conspired to slow down global economic recovery over the past seven years. Consequently, governments have had to cut spending as future revenues remain uncertain. This has led governments to look for… – Continue reading
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), a GOP 2016 presidential candidate, joined Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) to discuss their new tax reform plan at The Heritage Foundation, which they recently released. Lee began by saying the proposed tax plan is “pro growth and pro families,” explaining that the current tax code is… – Continue reading
The Labour party call for stripping non-domiciled UK residents of tax privileges has gone down well with people at large April 15, 2015: In January 1799, British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger brought in a 10 per cent tax on income for Britons for the first time, as part… – Continue reading
New Delhi: With overseas investors pumping in over Rs 2,000 crore in the Indian capital markets so far this month, total foreign fund inflows have crossed the Rs 81,000 crore mark since the beginning of the year. Analysts expect the inflows to accelerate further going ahead, helped by clearance of… – Continue reading
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will not intervene in oversight of digital currencies such as bitcoin at the moment, The Australian Business Review reports. In reply to an Australian Senate inquiry, RBA’s representatives said in their opening statement that the limited use of the currency had no discernible impact… – Continue reading
The South Korean government is going to construct a natural gas plant in Turkmenistan, which has the world’s fourth largest natural gas reserves. The government is supporting a US$13 billion scale project in total, which includes natural gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant construction and the modernization of essential oil factories. South Korean… – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has sought foreign assistance for improvement in two key areas; capacity building of officers and staff and IT infrastructure development. “FBR is of the view that if developed, both of these areas can only play key role in bringing FBR at par with… – Continue reading
TWELVE members of a counterfeit drug ring – including six from the Grimsby area – raked in more than £10 million selling fake Viagra under the cover of a mail-order fishing tackle business. The UK-wide conspiracy offered cheap erectile dysfunction pills to online and face-to-face customers around the world. The… – Continue reading
Washington, D.C. – As tax day approaches, it’s important to remember that small businesses end up picking up the tab for offshore tax loopholes used by many large multinational corporations. U.S. PIRG joined Senator Bernie Sanders, Bryan McGannon of the American Sustainable Business Council, and Bob McIntyre of Citizens for… – Continue reading
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) drops a bomb on corporations who are dodging taxes by hiding money overseas by introducing new legislation that will force tax dodgers to pay their fair share. Here is part of what The Corporate Tax Dodging Prevention Act of 2015 would do: 1. Ending the rule… – Continue reading
Swiss banks, for decades the bastions of secrecy, are preaching the virtue of transparency to their U.S. clients as they try to head off billions of dollars in potential fines for helping Americans evade taxes. Faced with the threat of penalties that could bankrupt some of them, almost 100 of… – Continue reading
Taxes on wages have risen by about one percent for the average worker in OECD countries between 2010 and 2014, even though the majority of governments did not increase statutory income tax rates, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD’s) Taxing Wages 2015 report. According to the… – Continue reading
Analysts upbeat on the company’s standalone prospects The recent share price performance of Shire Plc (LON:SHP), the London-listed drugmaker left at the altar by US pharma giant AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) last year, suggests that the company will continue to thrive on its own, a view supported by recent analyst comments on… – Continue reading
When it comes to taxes, corporate America is getting a bit less corporate. And a bit less American. Fueled by a wave of inversions, a record 54 companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of leading U.S. firms are now at least partially exempt from the corporate income tax…. – Continue reading
– Rising Cost of Compliance Within The Tax And Financial Regulatory Environment Creates Opportunities For Increased Efficiency – CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–As the economy continues to accelerate, many organizations plan to grow by entering into new markets in the years ahead, reveals the first ever BDO USA, LLP Tax Outlook Survey. Fifty… – Continue reading
1. NON-TAX ISSUES 1.1 Domestic law 1.1.1 Briefly describe your legal system and its origins Canada is a federal state, with legislative powers divided between the federal and provincial governments. The federal government has legislative jurisdiction over issues concerning Canada as a whole, including foreign affairs, international trade, banking, telecommunications,… – Continue reading
The Revenue Office will take steps to tax social networking sites and implement other regulations related to e-commerce. After the implementation of this regulation, all such virtual sites will be deemed as “work places” and the advertisers of social networking sites will also be deemed as “electronic tax payers.” Moreover,… – Continue reading
The Panama Government on its continuous interest of complying with the requirements of international organizations and global standards of highly reputable financial centers has decided to take measures to accelerate the entry into force of Act 47 of 2013, which establishes a regime for the immobilization of Bearer Shares, and… – Continue reading
Government chief whip Paul Kehoe is to write to the Ceann Comhairle, Seán Barrett, recommending that a motion of censure be moved against Mary Lou McDonald. The Sinn Féin deputy leader was found to have abused Dáil privilege when she named former politicians in the chamber who were accused of… – Continue reading
Voters in November could determine whether corporations doing business in Colorado must report and pay state taxes on profits funneled into offshore tax havens. Doing that would create a tax windfall of up to $150 million a year, according to a legislative analysis. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Lakewood, and Rep. Mike… – Continue reading
His softball sentence of two years probation ended five years ago. But billionaire real estate developer Igor Olenicoff still can’t put behind him his December 2007 guilty plea to lying on his federal tax return about some $200 million he kept offshore. For that, he can blame his own litigiousness… – Continue reading
Bank appoints headhunters MWM Consulting after revelations about its Swiss banking arm have brought board composition under intense scrutiny HSBC is preparing to bring in new non-executive directors to overhaul a board that has faced intense scrutiny following revelations of its Swiss arm’s involvement in tax evasion. The appointment of… – Continue reading
Enterprise minister Nick Boles says big corporations are ‘taking the mickey’ and Labour’s Chuka Umunna said the issue makes his constituents ‘very angry indeed’ A senior Conservative MP has advised businesses and accountants to check whether their tax policies are ethical by asking an NHS nurse. The enterprise minister Nick… – Continue reading
For entrepreneurs who want to set up a company and avoid double taxation (i.e., taxation of amounts earned by the company and then taxation of the owners when they receive payments from the company), the choice often comes down to using an S-corporation or LLC (limited liability company). What if… – Continue reading
Swiss banks, for decades the bastions of secrecy, are preaching the virtue of transparency to their U.S. clients as they try to head off billions of dollars in potential fines for helping Americans evade taxes. Faced with the threat of penalties that could bankrupt some of them, almost 100 of… – Continue reading
New Delhi: With overseas investors pumping in over Rs 2,000 crore in the Indian capital markets so far this month, total foreign fund inflows have crossed the Rs 81,000 crore mark since the beginning of the year. Analysts expect the inflows to accelerate further going ahead, helped by clearance of… – Continue reading
New Jersey is known for many things. As a burial ground for New York mobsters. Home to an impressive array of environmentally toxic factories. Atlantic City is the established gambling capital of the Eastern United States. Newark, New Jersey: one of the United States’s most criminal-minded cities. And a catchy… – Continue reading
The Minister of Finance for Luxembourg says his country – labelled by critics as a tax haven for multinational corporations – is committed to sweeping international tax reforms being pushed by the G20 and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, as long as they create a “level playing field.”… – Continue reading
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Umm Al Quwain Free Trade Zone Authority (UAQ FTZ). This agreement has been signed to ensure international standards of transparency in the exchange of information for tax purposes, as per Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)… – Continue reading
The European Commission has announced a package of measures aimed at increasing tax transparency between Member States. The central focus of the measures is the automatic exchange of cross-border tax rulings given by tax authorities. Under current rules, Member States are obliged to provide details on their tax rulings to… – Continue reading
In recent years, the State Administration of Taxes (“SAT”) has paid closer attention to fees resident enterprises pay their overseas related parties, concerned that multinational groups have shifted profits away from China through aggressive tax planning and by paying unreasonable service fees and royalties overseas. Following PRC’s active participation in… – Continue reading
Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Corporation Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, HDFC Bank and many others have signed up for space in Gujarat’s International Finance Tec-City (also known as Gift City). In fact, banks are expected to be the first to kick off operations in 2016/17, when the International… – Continue reading
Labour has claimed it will reduce tax avoidance and evasion by £7.5bn a year by the middle of the next parliament. The party has also pledged to reduce pensions tax relief for higher earners, alongside similar plans by the Conservatives. Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls laid out the target this weekend… – Continue reading
The SNP’s much-vaunted plan for full fiscal autonomy would land Scotland with more austerity, not less, writes Peter Jones More and more, the SNP’s plans for Scotland to achieve full fiscal autonomy are looking ridiculous (contradictions abound everywhere), dangerous(savage cuts in public spending would be inevitable) and unworkable (gaps cannot… – Continue reading
The reporting obligations imposed on lawyers are inconsistent and confused. Tax avoidance has become a central issue in the election campaign. So what is usually a topic for a small, specialist group of lawyers has become an item of general interest. And, yes, there is a strong link to lawyers’… – Continue reading
On 26 March 2015, the United Kingdom Parliament passed into law the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 (the “Act”). The Act will bring about a number of fundamental changes to UK company law including, amongst others, the abolition of bearer shares and corporations acting as directors and, perhaps… – Continue reading
