A documentary on the working of tax havens in the context of the double taxation avoidance treaty between India and Mauritius reveals that while India may have received foreign investments due to the treaty, tax losses on its account run to the tune of tens of thousands of crores. Is it worth… – Continue reading
The Cyprus government has announced the signature of a new double taxation agreement with Norway. Double taxation avoidance between Cyprus and Norway is currently regulated by the 1951 double tax agreement between Norway and the United Kingdom, which was extended in 1955 to include several British colonies, including Cyprus. On… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON: The U.S. has expanded its action against tax cheaters to countries such as India, Israel and Liechtenstein, a top U.S. official told lawmakers. So far, the U.S. action was primarily focused against tax cheaters on Switzerland. Since 2009, the Department has publicly charged 73 account holders and 35 professionals… – Continue reading
The Cyprus government has announced the signature of a new double taxation agreement with Norway. Double taxation avoidance between Cyprus and Norway is currently regulated by the 1951 double tax agreement between Norway and the United Kingdom, which was extended in 1955 to include several British colonies, including Cyprus. On… – Continue reading
Montenegro held the first round of talks with the Kingdom of Spain for the conclusion of an avoidance of double taxation agreement and prevention of income tax. Montenegrin delegation was led by Mitar Bajčeta, chief of the Directorate of Customs System and Customs Policy in the Ministry of Finance, and… – Continue reading
Banking group hits out at Credit Suisse chief executive after he tells US that alleged tax schemes were due to a few dishonest employees A group representing Swiss bankers has demanded an apology from Credit Suisse boss Brady Dougan after he said the practice of helping Americans conceal their wealth… – Continue reading
Kevin Thorn of the Thorn Law Group comments on the recent guilty plea by a United States Taxpayer with undisclosed overseas bank accounts as one in a long line of ongoing IRS and DOJ investigations into U.S. citizens with hidden overseas bank accounts. Thorn observes the U.S. government’s expanded… – Continue reading
The overlap of Australia’s new transfer pricing laws with the thin capitalization rules is causing challenges and likely duplication of analysis for taxpayers – particularly for the arm’s length amount-of-debt test. Australia legislated comprehensive new transfer pricing laws in 2012[i] and 2013.[ii] These laws were passed in two installments: Subdivision 815-A, dealing with… – Continue reading
Switzerland must adopt a position on sharing bank client data with foreign tax authorities more quickly than originally thought and cannot hold back until all other countries have introduced the practice, its finance minister told a Swiss newspaper. So far, 42 countries have declared an interest in automatically sharing information… – Continue reading
UK Government and HMRC Crack Down on Secret Bank Account Tax Evasion. Here, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde (L) chats with Osborne before the G20 round table meeting in Sydney.Reuters Britain’s government and its taxman have announced the net is closing on people who are evading tax… – Continue reading
G20 finance ministers speak loudly, mention big stick The world’s top 20 finance ministers have signalled once again that they’re sick of their taxes disappearing offshore and have signalled a strong intention to get their cash back. The ministers in question are all members of the Group of Twenty (G20)… – Continue reading
Finance ministers and central bankers from the world’s most powerful economies have vowed to crack down on offshore tax evasion by big multinationals. Bill English was among the who’s who of the finance world meeting in Sydney yesterday. New Zealand is not one of the G20 but was conferred unofficial… – Continue reading
Feb 24 (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors are widening their probe of how Swiss banks helped wealthy Americans avoid taxes to look at insurers as well, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources. Insurers in Switzerland have been preparing for months for U.S. officials to investigate products known as insurance… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – Swiss bank UBS is prepared to pay a fine of up to 200 million euros ($274.5 million) in an investigation of alleged tax avoidance by the lender’s German clients, a German newspaper reported on Tuesday. The German authorities originally demanded 300 million euros from UBS, but a compromise… – Continue reading
Credit Suisse Group , Switzerland’s second biggest bank, went to great lengths to assist US customers trying to open Swiss bank accounts and evade taxes, entertaining them at a Swiss-themed ball in New York and golf tournaments in Florida and opening a branch in the Zurich airport to serve Americans… – Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — Billions of dollars in U.S. taxes are going unpaid because Americans are exploiting Swiss bank accounts, and the U.S. government has failed to aggressively pursue Switzerland’s second-largest bank, a Senate investigation has found. The bank, Credit Suisse, has provided accounts in Switzerland for more than 22,000 U.S. clients… – Continue reading
NWC calls for full and complete investigation into wrongdoing and full protection for whistleblowers Washington, D.C. February 25, 2014. The Permanent Subcommittee On Investigations will hold a hearing on “Offshore Tax Evasion” on Wednesday, February 26, 2014, at 9:30AM, in Room G-50 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. More information can be found… – Continue reading
Feb 26 (Reuters) – Swiss EFG International said on Wednesday full-year net profit was virtually unchanged after the bank made a 6.5 million Swiss franc ($7.32 million) provision related to a probe into wealthy Americans evading taxes through hidden offshore accounts. The Zurich-based private bank is one of 106 Swiss… – Continue reading
The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will hold a hearing on a crackdown on offshore tax evasion that has stalled as prosecutors conduct criminal probes of 14 banks, including Credit Suisse Group AG. (C:US) The hearing will focus on “the status of efforts to hold Swiss banks and their U.S. clients… – Continue reading
The G20 finance ministers have once again agreed to cooperate to counter aggressive cross-border tax avoidance by multinationals. Many US firms are using tax avoidance schemes for their non-US earnings while they shamelessly claim they are paying appropriate taxes in the source countries in which they operate. The OECD responded to earlier… – Continue reading
CYPRUS and Norway on Monday signed an agreement for the avoidance of double taxation. A statement said the text agreed between the finance ministries of the two countries would contribute to the further development of trade and economic relations between Cyprus and Norway, as well as other countries. “The updating,… – Continue reading
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”) requires foreign financial institutions (“FFIs”) to disclose the foreign accounts of U.S. taxpayers to the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”). FFIs that fail to comply with FATCA will be subject to a 30% withholding tax on certain U.S. source income starting July 1, 2014…. – Continue reading
Chief Minister Allan Bell MHK has welcomed further recognition of the Isle of Man’s commitment to the evolving international tax agenda. Angel Gurria, Secretary General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), has praised the Island for its action to combat tax evasion. During a debate at the… – Continue reading
Back in April 2013, the G5 Governments agreed to work together on a pilot scheme on multilateral and standardized exchange of tax information, with a new initiative on information exchange, based on the so-called FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) exchange model. Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Malta, Greece, Iceland and Colombia have… – Continue reading
Parliament unanimously approved new legislation on Friday that will dramatically expand Gibraltar’s network of agreements for the exchange of tax information. The legislation implements the OECD’s Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters in Gibraltar ahead of the March 1 deadline. The move is part of the Government of… – Continue reading
THE G20 and the OECD are taking steps to put an end to global tax havens and make sure multinationals and digital companies pay their fair share of tax to governments. International tax evasion is a serious problem worldwide and is reflected in the $US2 trillion ($A2.2 trillion) of accumulated… – Continue reading
Group-of-20 nations agreed to implement a global standard for automatically exchanging information between tax authorities by the end of 2015, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said. The endorsement is a step toward putting an end to “banking secrecy as we know it,” Pascal Saint-Amans, director of the OECD’s… – Continue reading
Barbados’ financial-services sector is rated as the second-largest source of foreign exchange earnings, behind tourism, for which new markets are being sought outside of Canada. On Thursday, central bank governor, Dr DeLisle Worrell, said the country has been losing business in its International Business and Financial Services Sector (IBFS), which… – Continue reading
Winston Churchill said there is “no such thing as a good tax.” Surely, then, it follows that no good can come from double taxation. While it’s difficult to feel sympathy for Conrad Black, who earned approximately $3.39 million with another $1.7 million of taxable benefits in 2002, the underlying principles… – Continue reading
The days of multinational companies being able to use the Double Irish Dutch Sandwich to avoid taxation may soon be coming to an end, with the G20 group of nations looking to create a reporting standard to allow for automatic exchange of tax information. In the official communique coming at the end… – Continue reading
The Manx government has asked S&P to stop its ratings after the agency warned of risks to the island’s financial services industry from international regulation The Isle of Man government has told Standard & Poor’s to stop rating its debt after the agency downgraded the island’s credit rating. S&P cut… – Continue reading
The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service released a final package of regulations Thursday to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and amend the regulations to align them with existing tax rules. FATCA was included as part of the HIRE Act of 2010, with the goal of combating… – Continue reading
NASSAU, The Bahamas – Minister of Financial Services Ryan Pinder said, on February 20, 2014, that the international landscape for financial services continues to change extremely rapidly and his Ministry continues to actively follow and engage on issues emanating from the Global Forum, OECD, G-8, G20, the European Union and… – Continue reading
Congress is on a roll, trying to track down hidden offshore accounts, and the latest news is a report that shows which states have the most taxpayers disclosing such accounts (California is No. 1), and where they are located (Switzerland is tops). All told, taxpayers in at least 45 states… – Continue reading
The United States permanent subcommittee will be holding a hearing as they try to solve issues surrounding offshore tax evasion as prosecutors conduct criminal probes of 14 banks including credit Suisse Group AG. According to a statement by the committee, the focus will be on the status efforts to hold… – Continue reading
The United States is pushing measures to close tax evasion loopholes with global co-operation at the G-20 summit in Sydney, Australia, where the group of 20 advanced and emerging economies are meeting. The U.S. is bent on reducing the loopholes used by MNCs to avoid tax. Just ahead of the… – Continue reading
Deal comes as federal authorities escalate criminal probe into allegations Credit Suisse and other Swiss banks helped U.S. clients duck taxes on assets in offshore accounts. Credit Suisse is paying $196 million and admitting wrongdoing to settle civil charges it violated federal securities laws by providing financial advisory services to… – Continue reading
The battle against offshore tax evasion is gaining momentum after Australia and the US struck a deal to combat tax-dodgers and G20 members prepared to sign off on a scheme for the automatic exchange of tax information. American Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, and federal Treasurer, Joe Hockey, announced in Sydney… – Continue reading
Vodafone, stung by the decision of a cash-hungry Indian government to apply new rules on retrospective taxation and press its demand for as much as Rs20,000 crore ($3.2 billion) in back taxes and penalties, has countered by saying gains from the overseas transaction in which it bought out Hutchinson’s Indian… – Continue reading
It’s a u-turn, but unavoidable: bankers and politicians are preparing for the automatic exchange of tax information. Switzerland has helped develop the new standard, which the OECD wants to fast-track worldwide. The days when Swiss finance ministers said banking secrecy was non-negotiable and carved in stone are over. Switzerland has… – Continue reading
British telecom major Vodafone said on Wednesday that the government is looking to tax it twice over. The company was referring to its total tax liability of Rs 20,000 crore in terms ofcapital gains tax of a 2007 deal to buy into Hutch Essar as well as a transfer pricing case. Vodafone had… – Continue reading
A government bill has been submitted to the Knesset to amend the Income Tax Ordinance, adding a chapter on the exchange of information under international conventions. This will allow the Israel Tax Authority to share information with tax authorities of other countries, including countries with which has no tax treaty,… – Continue reading
In Israel, several large companies were persuaded to pay several billions of shekels of tax late in 2013, at reduced rates, on “trapped profits” after claiming tax breaks on undistributed profits. As a result, personal income-tax rates did not go up 1 percent to 2% at the beginning of 2014…. – Continue reading
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development will issue three discussion drafts and hold four public consultations before the end of May as the organization ramps up its joint project with the Group of 20 on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS), an official announced Feb. 20. Raffaele Russo, head… – Continue reading
Pakistan and Afghanistan would finalise modalities for signing Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion Convention in the next meeting of the 9th session of the Pak-Afghan Joint Economic Commission (JEC) to be held on February 23-24 in Kabul. A senior FBR official told Business Recorder here on Tuesday… – Continue reading
Tensions are rising in canton Valais, Switzerland, pitting the local authorities against citizens over the benefits of urban development versus cultural preservation. The reason? A plan to end lump-sum taxation for wealthy foreigners that will come to a nationwide vote next year. The historic village of Lens, located on the… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Continuing its crackdown on black moneymenace, India has entered into an agreement with Switzerland for liberal interpretation of identity requirements for gathering information about illicit funds stashed away by its citizens in Swiss banks. “Government has also signed a mutual agreement with government of Swiss Confederation for liberal interpretation of the… – Continue reading
February 14 — The Latvian finance ministry on February 6 presented a draft agreement for the avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income with Cyprus. The agreement aims to promote trade, foreign investment and facilitate investment from both Latvia and Cyprus. The draft DTA… – Continue reading
In a world of widening inequality, it is perhaps the most pernicious injustice of them all. Multinational corporations and wealthy individuals avoiding tax on an unprecedented scale, shuffling assets, income and debt to the most favourable tax jurisdictions and confounding hapless authorities. It is impossible to identify exactly how much… – Continue reading
Bangladesh and Kuwait have signed a double taxation avoidance agreement recently in a bid to promote bilateral trade and investment between the two countries. The agreement titled ‘The avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income’ was signed Wednesday in Kuwait. Bangladesh’s National… – Continue reading
