Panama and the U.S. have at least one thing in common: Neither has agreed to new international standards to make it harder for tax evaders and money launderers to hide their money. Over the past several years, amid increased scrutiny by journalists, regulators and law enforcers, the global tax-haven landscape… – Continue reading
Indonesia’s Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) is warning it will annul the investment permits of foreign companies that are proven to be avoiding payment of taxes. “We are ready to revoke the principal licenses, but to prove a transfer pricing, as a tax-avoidance practice, is not the BKPM’s job. It is… – Continue reading
HSBC, Credit Suisse and the Royal Bank of Scotland-owned bank Coutts Trustees have denied claims they are helping clients avoid tax by using complex offshore structures following the leak of the Panama papers. The banks were named in a list of 500 lenders who investigative journalists said had helped to… – Continue reading
Premier Li Keqiang’s message to the country’s tax and financial authorities is crystal clear: The ongoing landmark tax reform must reduce burdens on all industries. One month before the May 1 deadline of a sweeping reform that seeks to replace China’s decadeslong business tax with a value-added tax, Li visited… – Continue reading
The Dutch government loses out on billions of euros due to Dutch companies evading their taxes, according to union FNV, based on a study by SOMO, a foundation that investigates multinational companies, ANP reports SOMO investigated 151 large companies based in the Netherlands – 58 of the biggest Dutch family… – Continue reading
The Panama Papers–the biggest leak of financial data in history–has blown the lid off offshore tax havens, again. This time, those in the limelight include twelve current or former world leaders, many celebrities, and wealthy persons who are using offshore tax havens to hide their wealth. In scope, this is… – Continue reading
Stock market regulator investigates over 50 companies for violating long-term capital gain mechanism for tax evasion The stock market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is raging a war on tax evasion on the platform of stock exchanges. It is investigating more than 50 companies for violating long-term… – Continue reading
Their tax avoidance is costing EU countries an estimated $80 billion per year. Multinational companies must pay taxes where they earn profits and stop using aggressive tax optimization schemes, the European Union’s Economics Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said on Monday. Moscovi told French radio RTL that the EU had to put… – Continue reading
The effective rate of sales tax is within the range of 3 to 3.5 percent as compared to the standard rate of 17 percent sales tax due to massive tax evasion and illegal/inadmissible input tax adjustment claimed by the unscrupulous elements. Official sources told Business Recorder here on Saturday that… – Continue reading
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued its most recent report on Belize on Monday, following its September 2014 mission to the country, led by Jacques Bouhga-Hagbe. Much of the economic data included in the report has been the subject of recent discussions in Parliament in the context of the 2016-2017… – Continue reading
March 31 — Minnesota Sen. John Marty (DFL) introduced legislation that would require corporations headquartered in 46 tax havens to be subject to the same taxation as domestic companies. While it’s still early in the legislative session—the bill was introduced March 29—a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce told… – Continue reading
United Kingdom Budget The United Kingdom (UK) Budget: was handed down on 16 March 2016. Some of the key measures announced include: a reduction in the corporation tax rate to 17 per cent by 2020 (previously due to fall to 18 per cent) more details on the implementation of Base… – Continue reading
The leaders of Australia’s federal, state, and territory governments have failed to reach an agreement on a proposal to enable the states to levy income tax. The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) met on April 1. Ahead of the meeting, Federal Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had proposed that the federal… – Continue reading
It’s easy to stoke outrage at multinationals’ low taxes but harder to do something about it. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – the so-called rich-countries club – tax avoidance by multinational companies is worth US$100-240 billion a year. That’s 4-10% of total global corporate income… – Continue reading
The number of multinational companies warning investors about the risk of higher taxes doubled in the past year, according to analysis by the Financial Times. Nearly a fifth of the US companies who warned on taxes were technology companies, the Financial Times found in a study of company filings. A… – Continue reading
Luxembourg’s state prosecutor has launched a judicial inquiry into allegations of money laundering involving hundreds of millions of dollars against Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB). The prosecutor said on Thursday that the inquiry followed evidence that funds held by the Malaysian government in offshore accounts in Singapore,… – Continue reading
Is there a serious risk that Scotland’s tax revenues would be hit hard by people fleeing south to avoid the new top rates of tax advocated by Labour or the Scottish Greens? HM Revenue & Customs is not convinced that there is. With a new Scottish rate of income tax… – Continue reading
Pakistan and Afghanistan on Wednesday completed first round of talks on the convention of avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion and mutually agreed on the initial draft of the convention. Sources told the Business Recorder on Wednesday that the negotiations between Afghan and Pakistani tax authorities were… – Continue reading
Barely two weeks after e-commerce major Flipkart dragged the Uttarakhand government to court for imposing a 10 per cent entry tax in the state on goods purchased from e-commerce firms, the Gujarat government passed a similar bill on Wednesday. The bill proposes to levy entry tax on goods purchased through… – Continue reading
Both the US and the global forum working on automatic exchange of information under OECD have endorsed the data safeguards put in place by India New Delhi: India’s tax systems have withstood international scrutiny over data confidentiality and other safeguards put in place by the government before the revenue authorities… – Continue reading
UNITED NATIONS, March 30 (Xinhua) — Stopping abuse of tax havens and promoting global tax cooperation will help create a fairer global society, Jeffrey Sachs, U.S. economist and UN special adviser on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) told reporters here Wednesday. Sachs made the statement at a press conference here… – Continue reading
The tax world is clearly becoming more interconnected and globalized with countries exchanging financial information about each other’s citizens through FATCA or the upcoming Common Reporting Standard (CRS). Every international decision a taxpayer makes – whether or not he or she is residing in the U.S. – can trigger something,… – Continue reading
The Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) released its Annual Report to Parliament (“Report”), outlining the CRA’s performance and key statistics for 2014-2015. This article highlights some of the measures that the CRA has undertaken to combat non-compliance. During 2014-2015, the CRA assessed over $1.7 billion in additional taxes owing and identified… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Industry chamber Assocham today suggested the government to introduce the equalisation levy as part of Indian Income Tax Act itself and not as a separate chapter in the Finance Act as it would only increase cost of doing business. “Introducing equalisation levy separately under Finance Act and not… – Continue reading
The government is cutting the tax on real estate investment trusts (REITs) to boost local use of the financial mechanism that employs commercial properties like malls, hospitals, warehouses, hotels and office buildings as underlying assets. Indonesia only had two REITs created in the country in the past nine years, namely… – Continue reading
Global international tax takes from multinational companies will almost certainly increase in the next 5-10 years as governments around the world look to level the taxation playing field. Commenting on the New Zealand Herald’s series examining ‘the tax gap’ – multinationals channelling earnings to lower tax regimes, disadvantaging some of… – Continue reading
Kenya has received global recognition from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), following the appointment of James Karanja, a career Kenyan tax administrator to lead the recently established Tax Inspectors Without Borders (TIWB) Secretariat. TIWB is a global scope initiative, that was launched mid last year at the… – Continue reading
The proposed Article 26 (exchange of information) of the convention on Avoidance of Double Taxation, being renegotiated between Pakistan and Switzerland, would bound the Swiss tax authorities to exchange all requested information, including confidential bank account information of Pakistanis maintaining Swiss accounts. Sources told Business Recorder here on Tuesday that… – Continue reading
Investors alerted to risks of higher payments as crackdown closes loopholes A global crackdown on tax avoidance has forced a surge of warnings by multinational companies that higher payments are set to hit their earnings. A Financial Times analysis of company filings revealed that more than twice the number of… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: Anxiety still prevails among foreign institutional investors (FIIs) with regard to General Anti Avoidance Rule (GAAR), which will come into effect from April 1, 2017. While the draft rules in GAAR may have cleared the air over retrospective taxation and treatment of Participatory Notes ( P-notes), experts say doubts… – Continue reading
The Commissioner of Taxation, Chris Jordan has assured the public it can have confidence in the compliance approach the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is taking to its wealthiest taxpayers. Following the release of tax details relating to about 300 private companies with incomes of $200 million or more, Mr Jordan… – Continue reading
The tax office plans to deploy a special unit and team up with the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) to probe thousands of foreign firms allegedly failing to pay their due taxes. Finance Ministry taxation director general Ken Dwijugiasteadi said around 2,000 foreign investment companies in various sectors, from industry and… – Continue reading
In a search for financial records of a U.S. taxpayer who allegedly parked undeclared income offshore, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) are seeking to enforce a summons against a U.S. branch of a foreign bank for records held by a foreign branch of… – Continue reading
In the last few weeks, a proposed communications service tax which sought to tax voice calls, SMS, MMS, Data and Pay TV used by subscribers has dominated the telecommunications space since it was presented as a bill before the national assembly with Nigerians describing it as another way of exploiting… – Continue reading
The Tax Department has signed 11 more Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs) with taxpayers covering overseas transactions within group entities so as to reduce litigations. “Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has signed 11 unilateral APAs on March 28, 2016. With this signing, India has entered into 59 bilateral and/or unilateral… – Continue reading
In a major clampdown on tax evasion through stock markets, regulator Sebi today barred 246 entities from capital markets after they were found to have indulged in a web of “make-believe” trades to artificially inflate share prices and entrap gullible investors. The regulator said that these entities booked a profit… – Continue reading
A bill that would have allowed voters to close a tax loophole allowing some of Colorado’s largest companies to hold revenue offshore and avoid paying state income tax died in the Colorado Senate, after being approved by the Colorado House earlier this month. It is the second year in a… – Continue reading
The Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition is urging the Treasury Department to take further action to prevent companies from reincorporating overseas to lower their taxes. “It is time we eliminate this egregious offshore loophole to make sure that the corporations that benefit from all of the resources, protections,… – Continue reading
ABU DHABI: The United Arab Emirates and the Republic of Finland have signed an agreement on the exchange of information for tax purposes between the two countries. The agreement was signed by Younis Haji Al Khoori, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance, MoF, and Riitta Swan, Ambassador of Finland to… – Continue reading
The idea is simple. Firms make profits in one jurisdiction, and shift them across borders by exploiting gaps and mismatches in tax rules, to take advantage of lower tax rates and, thus, not paying taxes to in the country where the profit is made. There have been concerns across the… – Continue reading
Georgia and South Korea are stepping up bilateral cooperation to avoid double taxation, boost investments and increase economic cooperation. Georgia’s Finance Minister Nodar Khaduri plans to visit South Korea and sign a cooperation agreement on avoidance of double taxation, prevention of evasion of income and capital taxes. Double taxation is… – Continue reading
The Swiss Federal Administrative Court has ruled that no administrative assistance can be provided by Switzerland in response to a group request submitted by the tax authority in the Netherlands (in decision A-8400/2015). In upholding the appeal by a Dutch client of Swiss bank UBS, the court blocked the request… – Continue reading
European Union member states are taking the lead on implementing the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s recommendations under the base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) project, a new EY report says. EY’s Outlook for global tax policy in 2016 report highlights that, of the 14 jurisdictions (37 percent) either… – Continue reading
Finomial Corporation today announced the launch of a comprehensive and automated online investor services and tax reporting platform. This software enables financial institutions to meet the compliance requirements for the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) mandated by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). These new tax regulations require that… – Continue reading
US President Barack Obama’s Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is really starting to bite on American taxpayers and expats with offshore bank accounts and investments. FATCA came reached the statute books in 2010, but did not come into force until July 2014. The law calls for hundreds of thousands… – Continue reading
The Association of Tax Technicians (ATT) has expressed its disappointment that the UK Government intends to press ahead with plans to introduce a stamp duty land tax (SDLT) surcharge on purchases of second homes from April 1. Higher rates of SDLT will apply to purchases in England, Wales, and Northern… – Continue reading
Pune: The property tax department of Pune Municipal Corporation has sealed 14 properties after their owners defaulted on tax payment in the last three days. The administration took action against the owners of these properties because they had refused to pay the pending tax amount worth around Rs 70 lakh…. – Continue reading
Indonesia hopes its plans for a tax amnesty will dissuade companies from channelling profits through overseas tax havens and shopping around for the most advantageous tax treaties, its finance minister said on Wednesday. Bambang Brodjonegoro said he suspected Indonesian firms of setting up “special purpose vehicles” (SPVs) to benefit both… – Continue reading
The Swiss Federal Council has adopted a dispatch on the implementation of a new tax information agreement (TIEA) with Brazil and submitted it to Parliament for approval. The agreement was signed in November 2015. It is the tenth TIEA signed by Switzerland. The Council said that the agreement governs the… – Continue reading
Bulgaria has definitively removed Gibraltar from its ‘tax haven’ list following intensive lobbying by Albert Isola, Minister for Financial Services, and the Gibraltar Finance Bulgaria team. This change has been reflected in the updated lists published on the European Commission website under ‘Tax good governance in the world as seen… – Continue reading
