For centuries the inner workings of the Vatican Bank have been cloaked in secrecy. That was before Pope Francis, who has pledged to restore public confidence in the administration of the Roman Catholic Church. This week we learned the United States and the Holy See have brokered a FATCA agreement… – Continue reading
While the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) has focused worldwide attention on U.S. efforts to create a mandatory cross-border exchange of tax information, the enactment of FATCA was not an isolated occurrence. For more than a decade, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has been trying to… – Continue reading
The Internal Revenue Service has sued former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and a slate of other former and current executives, seeking to compel them to testify in a long-running investigation into how the company’s sales through subsidiaries affected its taxable income. The Internal Revenue Service has sued former Microsoft Chief… – Continue reading
Nilesh Ashar, partner and head of Tax for KPMG in the UAE, analyses the impact of investment regulations and tax laws on foreign businesses foraying into the Middle East. In the last decade, the Middle East region has witnessed significant economic growth, primarily driven by the surge in oil revenues…. – Continue reading
As part of the Indonesian Government’s drive to improve tax administration and compliance, the Ministry of Finance recently announced that, following a proposal from the Director General of Taxation (DGT), it has placed a temporary ban on overseas travel by senior personnel of 147 companies and 21 individuals. The action… – Continue reading
The Budget pensions overhaul has hit the overseas pension market as new rules have been proposed which would remove the requirement for qualifying recognised overseas pension schemes (Qrops) to provide an income in retirement. Current rules around Qrops require that 70% of the amount transferred from a UK scheme has… – Continue reading
Japan has remained a cornerstone of Pakistan’s economy for the past many years. Japanese Companies have invested in all sectors across Pakistan. Be it auto, trading, manufacturing, infrastructure development, packaging, steel manufacturing, indenting, etc a large number of Japanese Companies have a strong presence in Pakistan. Pakistan’s Investment and Corporate… – Continue reading
Margrethe Vestager has made clear that the commission is treating the LuxLeaks papers as ‘market information’ and is reviewing these tax rulings to decide whether or not they should be made the subject of further illegal state-aid cases.’ Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/Getty We deplore the decision by Luxembourg to bring criminal… – Continue reading
BARBADOS AND THE Republic of Rwanda have taken a giant step in the strengthening of their bilateral relations. This has come with the signing of a Double Taxation Agreement on the Avoidance of Double Taxation and Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with Respect to Taxes on Income. It took place on… – Continue reading
The decision by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the possible future adoption by parliament of the bill dissolving a convention between the governments of Ukraine and Cyprus on the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of tax evasion regarding income tax and the related protocol does not… – Continue reading
Guernsey has welcomed the results of a United States (US) review of its procedures and systems confirming the adequacy of the island’s data safeguards and infrastructure under the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The US Inland Revenue Service (IRS) recently undertook the review to ensure that procedures and… – Continue reading
It’s self-assessment time again and although millions of taxpayers are honest and diligent in filing their returns, some are tempted to see what they can get away with not declaring or just cannot be bothered to submit a return on time. To help persuade anyone considering tax avoidance, HM Revenue… – Continue reading
Bank Leumi Le-Israel Ltd. (LUMI) agreed to pay $400 million and admit it helped American clients evade taxes for a decade, in a case showing that U.S. prosecutors and New York regulators are extending their probes of offshore tax evasion beyond Switzerland. The Justice Department filed a conspiracy charge today… – Continue reading
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has constituted a transfer pricing unit to enhance the capacity of the tax officials to effectively deal with the transfer pricing related issues. According to a notification issued by the FBR here on Monday, a transfer pricing unit is set up at the FBR… – Continue reading
In August, President Barack Obama pledged to use the powers of his office to discourage the corporate tax-avoidance technique known as inversion, in which U.S. companies claim foreign tax addresses. Four months earlier, according to a previously unreported legal document, his Department of Homeland Security did just the opposite. It… – Continue reading
Even Father Christmas should make sure he’s not inadvertently hiding anything from the US tax authorities, says Sophie Mazzier We all risk becoming a little preoccupied with counting at this time of year, don’t we? Actually, with both counting and deadlines. If it isn’t opening those 24 doors on the… – Continue reading
Dec 22 (Reuters) – Mexico’s tax collection agency (SAT) has reached a deal with a multinational company at the center of a tax-avoidance investigation, and the latter will make a ‘substantial’ payment soon, a senior official was quoted as saying on Monday. “We have just closed a case with an… – Continue reading
Jakarta. A leading business lobby with strong ties to the administration of President Joko Widodo has called for a tax amnesty, in which the authorities will waive off past taxes and penalties to conglomerates and individuals parking billions of dollars worth of funds overseas, in a bid to reinvest that… – Continue reading
“The religion of socialism is the language of priorities,” said Nye Bevan, Labour saint and creator of the National Health Service. Now we have discovered the principal priority of one of his heirs, Ed Balls; taxing the homes of the rich. The shadow Chancellor, once so relaxed about the wealth… – Continue reading
*Ernst & Young LLP, New York, NY The BEPS beat plays on. Congratulations to the OECD for meeting (mostly) the ambitious goals for release of their reports on seven action items in September 2014 – right on schedule on September 16. The documents released on September 16 relate to Action… – Continue reading
The Luxembourg Government is to provide the European Commission with a list of the tax rulings issued by its tax authorities, along with a list of the beneficiaries of its concessionary tax regime for intellectual property (IP) income. Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel announced that the decision had been made… – Continue reading
The disclosure of thousands of pages of confidential documents on Luxembourg tax deals was a “game changer” that led European Union regulators to expand their probe of such accords to all 28 nations in the bloc, Luxembourg Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna said. The EU’s expanded investigation “is not a surprise… – Continue reading
Bradley Birkenfeld, the former UBS AG banker who won a $104 million whistle-blower award after serving time in U.S. prison for tax conspiracy, now wants to move back to Europe before his term of probation is set to end. Birkenfeld asked a judge to end his probation with less than… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: The finance ministry is planning to rush through a Cabinet note seeking permission to sign an accord with the US on exchanging investment information before a December 31 deadline, ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit to Delhi at the end of January. The government has got the goahead… – Continue reading
More leaked documents relating to tax avoidance schemes involving Luxembourg’s government under the leadership of Jean-Claude Juncker, now President of the European Union (EU) Commission, have intensified the political crisis surrounding the EU. It comes at a time of growing opposition to the pro-business EU and the vicious austerity cuts… – Continue reading
More countries are requiring an exchange of client information In 2014, we saw a marked increase in transparency regarding foreign assets. The United States took the lead, and other countries followed suit. It looks like we’ve reached the tipping point, that is, “the magic moment when an idea, trend, or… – Continue reading
KOTA KINABALU: For Malaysian property investors, especially in the London property market where some Malaysian developers, welcomed by Mayor Boris Johnson are active in projects, the United Kingdom Government will introduce new Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on the sale of UK residential property with effect from April 6, 2015. Following… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON, D.C. (WDAM) – This is a news release from the U.S. Senate Finance Committee In a new policy paper, Republican staff of the Senate Finance Committee have proposed major changes to the way the United States taxes its citizens overseas. According to the report, “The United States needs to… – Continue reading
The Embassy of the State of Qatar in Banjul Friday joined the people of Qatar to commemorate the National Day of Qatar, which is on 18 December every year. Qatar National Day is an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the tremendous efforts made by Qataris’ ancestors, who endured severe hardships… – Continue reading
Gov. Maggie Hassan has done an excellent job working with legislative leaders to craft and oversee the state’s current two-year budget. An array of problems is being effectively managed. This budget will end in balance. But looking ahead to the next two-year budget, we in state government face difficult challenges…. – Continue reading
Dec 21 (Reuters) – Authorities in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia have bought a CD containing data about several thousand German clients of a Swiss bank, German newspaper Bild am Sonntag said on Sunday without citing its sources. The clients each have accounts containing up to 5 million euros… – Continue reading
Gov. Maggie Hassan has done an excellent job working with legislative leaders to craft and oversee the state’s current two-year budget. An array of problems is being effectively managed. This budget will end in balance. But looking ahead to the next two-year budget, we in state government face difficult challenges…. – Continue reading
Mumbai: In its biggest ever crackdown for suspected tax evasion and laundering of black money through stock trading platforms, Sebi Friday barred 260 entities, including individuals and companies, from the securities markets. While Sebi would further probe these cases, it has also decided to refer the matter to the Income… – Continue reading
The CBDT has signed its first bilateral advance pricing agreement or APA with Japan. The APA regime was introduced in 2012 and it allows taxpayers and tax authorities to determine in advance, an appropriate transfer pricing methodology for a given set of transactions. Payaswini Upadhyay has the exclusive details. The… – Continue reading
Two case studies on how one can use the exemption method or the credit route Homi Mistry December 20, 2014 Last Updated at 22:06 IST Imagine this. You are an Indian working for one of the IT majors and have been recently transferred to the UK. Six months into the… – Continue reading
NEW YORK – There was a time when Indians would relocate to America for the so-called American Dream. Well all that is about to stop now, since, NRI’s are being cautioned to be aware of their decisions as the nightmare of tax is about to plague their lives. We all… – Continue reading
A father and son who ran a tax-preparation business were convicted in Los Angeles of conspiring to help clients cheat the Internal Revenue Service by setting up undeclared offshore bank accounts. David Kalai, the founder and former chief executive officer of United Revenue Service, and his son Nadav, who was… – Continue reading
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan and South Korea are now more prepared to sign economic agreements, such as investment insurance and double taxation prevention pacts, South Korea’s representative to Taiwan Cho Baek-sang said yesterday. Cho made the comment at the first Taiwan-South Korea humanities exchange conference, held by the de facto… – Continue reading
The Qatari ruling family has been ordered to pay £38million in stamp duty They used an aggressive tax avoidance scheme to avoid the huge bill Country bought 13-acre site from the MoD for almost £1billion in 2007 By LOUISE ECCLES, BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT FOR THE DAILY MAIL PUBLISHED: 01:57 GMT, 20… – Continue reading
Tax deductions for interest payments could be restricted on a group wide basis, by reference to a fixed ratio, or by a combination of these two solutions, in order to counteract international tax avoidance the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has suggested. 19 Dec 2014 Tax Corporate tax… – Continue reading
TAIPEI, Taiwan — An agreement signed by Taiwan and Austria on avoiding double taxation and preventing tax evasion is expected to take effect next month, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced yesterday. The latest announcement came after the Austrian parliament approved the pact on Dec. 17, MOFA’s Department of… – Continue reading
Rules relating to the payment of CGT by non-resident UK property owners will change in April and expats will be affected. Significantly sneaky draft legislation was published last week that will affect the way capital gains tax (CGT) is charged on the sale of UK property assets owed by expats. … – Continue reading
BRUSSELS – It was supposed to be all about investments and Russia, but the issue of tax avoidance is likely to creep onto the EU summit agenda on Thursday (18 December). In the draft summit conclusions circulated among EU ambassadors on Wednesday, there is one paragraph mentioning the “urgent need… – Continue reading
A discussion document on making dispute resolution mechanisms in international tax disputes more effective is does not provide enough answers to the questions it raises, an expert has said.19 Dec 2014 Tax Disputes and Investigations Tax Corporate tax International tax Europe Asia Pacific Middle East Africa It is “a disappointing… – Continue reading
UBS Fund Services has had one of its strongest years in terms of winning new clients according to Monette Windsor (pictured), who heads up the Cayman Islands business. “We’ve invested heavily in our business development team this year and we’ve had to beef up our client onboarding team. We have 165… – Continue reading
Bravura Solutions reflects on a year of reform and looks forward to 2015. The Chancellor’s Autumn Statement last week didn’t deliver anything as revolutionary as the reforms announced in his March budget, but there were a few early Christmas crackers around ISA rules. After a monumental year, let’s look at… – Continue reading
Transferring money abroad can be an expensive business if you choose the wrong company. Hidden fees, excessive charges and poor exchange rates can take a sizeable chunk out of your transfer, but there are campaigns on the go that aim to stop this practice. The problem Research from World Bank… – Continue reading
Ambassadors are supposed to be diplomatic and suave. Yet even those of the diplomatic corp may occasionally get tongue-tied or utter ill-timed statements. Take U.S. Ambassador to Britain Matthew Barzun. He recently sounded not all that diplomatic about duty, compliance with law, and yes, even taxes. Lee Rigby was a… – Continue reading
After signing Model 1 inter-governmental agreements (IGA) with both the US and the UK in November 2013, in July 2014 the Cayman Islands government passed the necessary regulations to provide legal obligations with respect to US and UK FATCA as a matter of Cayman Islands law. Also in July 2014,… – Continue reading
NEW YORK – The multiyear federal crackdown on wealthy Americans who duck taxes by hiding income and assets offshore is targeting a Panamanian legal services firm suspected of arranging anonymous banking services. A Manhattan federal judge on Friday approved special summonses for Sovereign Management & Legal. The approval also covered… – Continue reading
