The European Union expanded its crackdown on illegal tax breaks, ordering Spain to recover money from companies that benefited from rules encouraging merger activity outside of the country. The European Commission said the Spanish measures unfairly rewarded companies for buying stakes in foreign competitors. Telefonica SA (TEF) last year lost… – Continue reading
The European Commission has published a new report detailing key tax reforms implemented by European Union member states during 2014 and identifies the main policy challenges they are said to face. The report notes that the tax burden on labor in the EU is relatively high. It suggests that member… – Continue reading
Romania wants to become a full-fledged member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), according to Romanian officials, Prime Minister Victor Ponta and Foreign Affairs Minister Titus Corlățean. The message has been sent to – and received by –the OECD secretary general William Danvers, who was on a… – Continue reading
Budget measures including new foreign direct investment incentives discussed State agencies and Government Ministers and officials have launched a co-ordinated campaign of letters and phone calls to senior executives of foreign multinationals, to reassure them that Ireland remains a top destination for investment following the budget, Minister for Enterprise Richard… – Continue reading
n this second part of our overview of current transfer pricing regulations on the African continent, we focus on relevant provisions in, amongst others, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda. The Ghanaian Transfer Pricing Regulations, 2012 (L.I.2188) (the Ghanaian Regulations) were introduced by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) on 27 July 2012,… – Continue reading
Ireland has this week moved to change its tax law, closing the “double Irish” tax avoidance technique widely used by multinational enterprises including Google and Microsoft. Picture: Getty Images In very broad terms, the current Irish tax law allows a company incorporated in Ireland to be a tax resident of… – Continue reading
The private equity owners of video games retailer Game used tax havens in the two years they owned it, accounts have revealed. US buyout group Elliott Advisors snapped up Game Group after it collapsed into administration in 2012. It set up Game Digital in April 2012 in a deal masterminded… – Continue reading
Europe’s antitrust regulator is encroaching on what has been the preserve of national governments. There’s a new tax sheriff in town. Europe’s top antitrust regulator, the Brussels-based European Commission, has launched an unexpected assault on what it suspects are sweetheart tax deals for multinational companies, plowing into an area traditionally… – Continue reading
A report claiming Lonmin is engaging in two transfer pricing arrangements is misleading and false, the company said on Thursday. It was responding to a report titled “The Bermuda connection: Profit shifting and unaffordability at Lonmin 1999-2012″, released by the Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) on Thursday morning. “Lonmin… – Continue reading
AMONG several proposals for tax reform, the director-general of the Revenue Department has said the agency would propose an amendment to the Revenue Code concerning transfer pricing, aiming to provide greater clarity on the determination of fair transfer prices. The director-general has indicated that in past years many multinational companies,… – Continue reading
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has sent an advisory to banks cautioning them about the new trend of using forged or fake Bills of Entry to remit funds abroad, especially to tax havens such as Hong Kong. The apex bank has also started synchronising databases with the customs department… – Continue reading
The IRS has issued FAQs relating to the new streamlined procedures for offshore compliance, and for Delinquent International Information Return Submission Procedures. The FAQs for the streamlined program provide more detailed guidance on how the 5% penalty will be computed, how 100% owners of an incorporated business will be treated,… – Continue reading
As the Irish government considers closing an infamous tax loophole for corporations, Wall Street has been scrambling to gauge the effect on the pharmaceutical industry. So far, the prognosis seems that damage will largely be minimal. Known as the ‘Double Irish,’ the loophole allows companies to send royalty payments for… – Continue reading
What is FATCA? The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”) is a complex reporting and withholding regime enacted by the U.S. government in March, 2010 that is expected to become operational on July 1, 2014. FATCA was designed to combat tax evasion by U.S. taxpayers holding assets through non-U.S. financial… – Continue reading
The visit of an Indian delegation to Switzerland to discuss tax issues has garnered a lot of media attention in both countries. While offering some concessions, Switzerland refused to budge on the issue of providing assistance on the basis of stolen bank data. On Wednesday, the Swiss State Secretary for… – Continue reading
erne/New Delhi: In a major breakthrough in India’s fight against black money allegedly stashed abroad, Switzerland today said it will examine Indian requests for banking information on a priority basis and provide requested details in a time-bound manner. The Swiss authorities would also “assist in obtaining confirmation on genuineness of… – Continue reading
AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) may scrap its planned 32.4-billion-pound ($51.5 billion) deal for Dublin-based drugmaker Shire Plc (SHP), in what would be the biggest casualty of the U.S. crackdown on so-called tax inversions. Shire stock plunged the most in 12 years after North Chicago, Illinois-based AbbVie said its board will meet… – Continue reading
Taxi service Uber’s tax affairs have been referred to HMRC by London’s taxi and minicab regulator Transport for London (TfL). The move follows a complaint from senior Labour MP Margaret Hodge that Uber was “opting out of the UK tax regime”. London mayor and TfL chair Boris Johnson said TfL… – Continue reading
Ireland’s hard-pressed taxpayers are set for the first easing of austerity in seven years when tax cuts are announced in tomorrow’s payback budget. October 14 2014 will go down as a watershed in a painstaking economic recovery, four years since a banking collapse bankrupted the State and less than a… – Continue reading
A former banker at UBS has been found guilty of handing over protected Swiss bank account data to the US, according to a penalty order issued by the Swiss prosecutors’ office. According to the order, the banker was found to have breached Swiss data privacy laws but not its banking… – Continue reading
There are lots of headlines out of Dublin today about the end of the “double Irish,” a notorious tax break used by multinational companies to avoid paying government levies around the world. Don’t be fooled: The Emerald Isle isn’t giving up on its race to the bottom of the tax… – Continue reading
A University of the West Indies Professor believes that the global attention being focused on offshore financial centres has come about because the international community remains concerned about money laundering and among other things, the financing of terrorism. Dr. Don Marshall who heads up the Sir Arthur Lewis Insitute for… – Continue reading
Taxes on fuel and corporate benefit need to rise significantly, says agency The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has launched a war of words on diesel fuel and company cars, claiming that the taxation levels on both are costing governments billions and seriously harming the environment. “The cost… – Continue reading
On July 21, 2014, the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom signed the fourth protocol (Protocol) amending the Convention between the Government of Canada and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion… – Continue reading
LOW inflation is generally a good thing and for years the policymakers’ main concern has been ensuring it does not race away. The Bank of England governor must write a letter of explanation to the Chancellor if inflation is more than one percentage point either side of the Government-set target… – Continue reading
The Isle of Man is showing great enthusiasm for crypto-currencies – from the landlord at a popular Douglas drinking hole to the Lieutenant Governor, everyone is talking about digital currency and the potentially huge benefits to the Island. The Isle of Man Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) has announced plans to… – Continue reading
IN ONE of the most remembered scenes of the film Casablanca, police chief Louis Renault orders the close of Rick’s Cafe when he is “shocked, shocked” to learn that there was gambling going on in the establishment. Seconds later a waiter presents Renault with his winnings from roulette. Panama was… – Continue reading
INTRODUCTION In a recent publication1, the LMA have announced a change of approach to the allocation of FATCA withholding risk in certain of their precedent facility agreements. Previously, the LMA had not adopted a definitive stance in this area, recognising that borrowers and lenders may wish to allocate the risk… – Continue reading
Minister Findlay meets with Indian counterpart during trade mission to India DELHI, INDIA–(Marketwired – Oct. 15, 2014) – Canada Revenue Agency The Honourable Kerry-Lynne D. Findlay, P.C., Q.C., M.P., Minister of National Revenue, met today with Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s Minister of State for Commerce and Industry and Minister of State… – Continue reading
LUXEMBOURG, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) — EU finance minister meeting concluded on Tuesday with breakthrough in taxation exchange information to fight against tax avoidance. Italian finance minister Pietro Carlo Padoan, whose country holds the presidency of the EU, told press after the meeting that the EU has planned to build a… – Continue reading
On May 9, 2014, the Tokyo District Court reversed a large tax that had been imposed on a large U.S. multinational’s Japanese holding company (“Japan HoldCo”). Under the Japanese Corporate Tax Law, if a shareholder returns shares to an issuing company (i.e., the issuing company acquires treasury shares), a portion… – Continue reading
A new initiative to monitor MNCs moving headquarters to evade taxes promises success Largely unnoticed, India has come out strongly supporting an international initiative for plugging tax avoidance by multinational corporations (MNCs). The initiative has been endorsed at the last meeting of G20 finance ministers at Cairns in Australia. Known… – Continue reading
Forty of Australia’s biggest companies will be asked to explain their tax affairs to a Senate committee investigating corporate tax avoidance. Companies shown, in a recent report, to have the lowest “effective tax rate” over the past decade and to operate the most subsidiaries in tax havens have been given… – Continue reading
The presentation on October 17, 2014 will discuss how FATCA has changed the world and provide perspectives for financial institutions and expatriates SHANGHAI, China, Oct. 14, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — via PRWEB – As of June 30, 2014 China has signed Model 1 IGA (Intergovernmental Agreement) in cooperation with FATCA… – Continue reading
A million Canadians are migrating to the southern United States for the winter. Before you cross the border, buy travel medical insurance. Learn how U.S. income tax rules affect you if you stay in the U.S. for more than four months. Buy travel medical insurance coverage before leaving Canada for… – Continue reading
Malta, like Cyprus, has been obliged to dismantle its old ‘offshore’ companies regime as a trade-off for joining the European Union. EU membership has, however, brought about certain benefits for Maltese companies trading across borders, and, coupled with investment-friendly government policies and some interesting tax planning opportunities, Malta remains one… – Continue reading
A vast majority of companies headquartered in the United States expect increased scrutiny of their transfer pricing practices in the short-term as a result of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD’s) base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project. A recent EY survey, Connecting The Dots, concluded that 30… – Continue reading
Monaco has become the 84th jurisdiction to commit to strengthen international tax cooperation through its participation in the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. Welcoming the signing by José Badia, Monaco’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD’s) Secretary-General, Angel… – Continue reading
In this issue: An Introduction to Double Taxation Avoidance Qualifying for DTA Benefits in China Applying for DTA Benefits in China Rising operational costs in China mean that business owners must be alert to all possible means of maximizing the performance of their China-based investments. As one such measure, the… – Continue reading
TORONTO , Oct. 2, 2014 /CNW/ – Aggressive international corporate tax avoidance by multinational corporations has become the subject of intense political scrutiny. U.S. politicians have called out some American multinationals, including Apple, Amazon, Starbucks and Google, for relocating profits abroad to avoid U.S. taxes. More recently, politicians accused Burger… – Continue reading
It appears as if Irish eyes won’t be smiling on U.S. corporations soon. The government of Ireland is set to change its tax code tomorrow to eliminate some of those loopholes that American companies have come to love. Among the targets– the so-called “double Irish” tax break. Both the U.S…. – Continue reading
The screw is being turned on American companies that use complex structures to whittle down their tax bills. But is the latest EU probe a paper tiger or a game changer? It was supposed to be good news. Amazon’s announcement yesterday that it would hire 1,000 staff was dressed up… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Top bankers in London and elsewhere in the European Union find out in coming days if their pay contracts may be torn up to stop their attempts at softening the bloc’s cap on bonuses. The European Banking Authority (EBA), an EU watchdog, is due to publish a report… – Continue reading
Reuters) – Ireland’s plan to close a “Double Irish” tax loophole could cost U.S. companies including Apple and Google billions of dollars, although a new break and pressure to tackle tax avoidance elsewhere means they are unlikely to decamp. Analysts and tax advisers predict that corporations which need access to… – Continue reading
* Ireland to end tax regime that saved multinationals billions * Swift upturn ushers in tax cuts rather than austerity * Government faces backlash over uneven nature of recovery (Adds finance minister interview, Google comment) By Padraic Halpin and Conor Humphries DUBLIN, Oct 14 (Reuters) – Ireland will phase out… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Former UBS bank executive Raoul Weil was the mastermind of the Swiss bank’s illegal offshore operations that helped thousands of Americans evade taxes, prosecutors said at the start of his federal trial on Tuesday. Weil, 54, was the third-highest ranked executive at the Zurich-based wealth management firm and… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Luxembourg agreed on Tuesday to end its bank secrecy rules from 2017, yielding to a decade of pressure from Germany and the United States and marking a breakthrough in global efforts to reduce tax evasion. Luxembourg, whose banks hold deposits worth 10 times the nation’s annual economic output,… – Continue reading
The Swiss finance minister, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, and her counterparts from European Union member states have signed a joint statement aimed at ending a controversy over corporate taxes. The declaration, signed in Luxembourg on Tuesday, includes the Swiss government’s plans to push ahead with abolishing certain preferential tax regimes for foreign… – Continue reading
Hitech firms are being warned that they should take advantage of tax relief on patent related profits now before a threatened clamp down by the European Union according to Richard Hopes, Partner at Alliotts accountants based in Surrey and London. Richard Hopes, Partner at Alliotts accountants and a specialist in… – Continue reading
It is said that Argentina faces an economic and political crisis every 10 years. Whenever a crisis arises, Argentinians’ right of ownership is at risk. Devaluation, asymmetric pesification and the current foreign exchange restrictions are a few examples of the challenges we face. What’s more, according to a recent OECD… – Continue reading
