The Swiss cabinet plans on addressing the issue of stolen data with regard to banking information requests from other countries. This comes as Switzerland is under close scrutiny for compliance with international standards. In its meeting on Wednesday, the cabinet discussed the thorny issue of stolen data. Switzerland currently does… – Continue reading
Short cuts, loopholes and other forms of skulduggery will not be tolerated when the automatic exchange of tax information comes into force, a top official from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has promised Swiss bankers, reports Swiss Info. Grace Perez-Navarro, second in command at the OECD’s tax… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank today made a case for more clarity on taxing the sunshine e-commerce sector, which has been seeing high valuations and frenetic activities, saying doing so will help bolster their finances. “Taxing the burgeoning e-commerce space could bolster states’ own revenues, provided there is greater clarity around… – Continue reading
The Foreign Investors’ Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) has objected to a news item headlined “Tax theft by MNCs: Call to enforce transfer price rules” published in Sunday’s issue of The Financial Express. In a statement, the chamber said the shoulder “Tax theft by MNCs” and the reporter’s remarks… – Continue reading
The Federal Reserve barred Markus Walder, the former head of North America offshore banking at Credit Suisse Group AG, and four other previously indicted ex-bankers at the company from employment in the banking industry. The five were indicted for conspiracy to defraud the U.S government by assisting U.S. citizens’ evasion… – Continue reading
There are no untouchables in Croatia when it comes to tax evasion, Finance Minister Boris Lalovac said on Tuesday, commenting on investigations of several Croatian citizens with huge amounts in foreign bank accounts. They have been called to the Tax Administration to explain “such large amounts and declare their assets,”… – Continue reading
The Conservatives are set to press on with efforts to counter tax avoidance and evasion, with measures on the way including the exchange of information with foreign tax authorities, reports the Financial Times. All the major parties pledged in the election campaign to raise billions more each year from individuals… – Continue reading
On May 7th, 2015, the US Treasury Department published its first quarter 2015 list of individuals who have chosen to expatriate and it was yet again an eye opening number. The 1,335 published names is the highest quarterly figure ever reported in the Federal Register. The number of individuals voluntarily… – Continue reading
The Italian Revenue Agency has confirmed that it collected a record EUR14.2bn in additional tax revenue from its actions against tax evasion during 2014. Revenue from the Revenue Agency’s tax enforcement activities last year increased by over EUR1bn, a growth of eight percent compared with 2013. This result was achieved… – Continue reading
The Australian government announced a world-leading crackdown on Monday on alleged tax avoidance by 30 multinational companies that will likely force them to restructure their businesses before next year, reports Reuters. “These companies are diverting profits earned in Australia away from Australia to no-tax or low-tax jurisdictions,” Treasurer Joe Hockey… – Continue reading
THE issue of tax evasion is a concern for various Governments around the world. Tax authorities continue to face challenges from both local businesses and multinational corporations. In Zambia has the challenge has been to ensure that traders, local manufacturers and multinationals pay taxes due to the treasury. The situation… – Continue reading
After finding them guilty of manipulation in the stock market for making illegal gains, Sebi has restrained the 178 entities, including Pine Animation, from accessing the securities market. In a fresh clampdown on misuse of stock market platform for suspected money laundering activity, Sebi today banned Pine Animation and 177… – Continue reading
Another Swiss bank has signed up for a voluntary Justice Department program aimed at cracking down on offshore tax evasion. Vadian Bank, based in St. Gallen, Switzerland, agreed to pay $4.25 million under the agreement, in exchange for avoiding prosecution. Under the Swiss bank program, financial institutions also have to… – Continue reading
ISLAMABAD: As authorities struggle to increase tax collection, the state is considering a proposal that could see a levy of 10% tax on profit made on foreign remittances placed in savings accounts. The proposal comes as the government suspects that the amount sent through remittances could be black money being… – Continue reading
Deloitte managing tax partner Thomas Pippos says the IRD are using electronic payments and websites to pursue tax cheats Budget-conscious tax collectors are increasingly turning to popular websites and other e-channels to chase undeclared taxable income, a top accountant says. Inland Revenue Department no longer had capacity or interest in… – Continue reading
Chile’s Senate on May 5, 2015, approved a bill that strengthens the Internal Revenue Service (SII). The bill was passed with 30 votes in favor and none against, with one abstention. It will now be sent to the Chamber of Deputies for consideration, following changes made by the Senate. The… – Continue reading
CFOs of multinational corporations have mixed reactions to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development’s crackdown on base erosion and profit shifting by global companies, according to a new survey. The survey, by the tax advisory business Taxand, found that multinational CFOs are split 52 percent (agree) versus 48 percent… – Continue reading
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is planning to broaden the use of subpoenas of documents in cases where the name of a taxpayer under investigation is not known. The so-called John Doe summonses were a breakthrough for the IRS in tackling offshore tax evasion when they were first addressed to… – Continue reading
New Delhi: Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has asked bourses to take immediate action against entities involved in misuse of stock exchange system for tax evasion, Parliament was told Friday. Preliminary enquiries conducted by the regulator in the recent past, inter alia, indicate that certain persons/companies… – Continue reading
A record 1,335 Americans living overseas renounced their citizenship in the first three months of 2015, according to the Internal Revenue Service. That number is 18 percent higher than the previous record, according to Bloomberg. In all of 2014, 3,415 individuals gave up their U.S. citizenship, the second straight year… – Continue reading
Majlis Al-Shura held a regular session today under the chairmanship of vice speaker of the council Dr. Mohammed bin Amin Jafri. The council approved a draft agreement between the Government of the Kingdom and the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic on avoidance of double taxation and prevention of tax evasion… – Continue reading
Major G20 tax event in Istanbul hears claims that fighting tax scams is ‘vital issue’ for developing nations ISTANBUL Fighting tax evasion is like fighting international terror, Turkey’s finance minister has claimed. Mehmet Simsek was speaking at an international G20 tax event in Istanbul on Thursday where he said that… – Continue reading
Bermuda and countries with similar economic structures are in the spotlight as the British electorate prepares to go to the polls. Headlines that have included “Politicians not tough enough on tax avoidance, say voters” from The Guardian has Bermudian-based commentators considering the Island’s economic position and defending the role of… – Continue reading
The total “development finance” loss – counting both revenues and reinvested earnings – is estimated in the range of $250 to $300 billion. This prevents developing countries from stopping the outflow of money, which thus bleeds them of essential resources The financial crisis of 2008 had an interesting collateral benefit… – Continue reading
According to the 2014 annual report of the Finance Ministry’s Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK), there has been an alarming increase in reported suspicious transactions. From 2013 reported suspicious transactions have increased by 42.6 percent, and 2.5 times in the past four years to 36,483 in 2014. 85 percent of… – Continue reading
Arun Jaitley said that the governments of Switzerland, the UK and Spain have not provided details of any black money accounts, reports the Financial Express. The governments of Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Spain have not provided details of any black money accounts, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today. “No… – Continue reading
Organizations representing millions of Americans who work abroad are storming Capitol Hill in a push for tweaks to tax and banking policy. American Chambers of Commerce (AmChams) operating in various countries all over the world collectively represent about 6.5 million U.S. citizens living outside the country. Some, such as the… – Continue reading
The Malawi Economic Justice Network (MEJN) says illicit financial flows are highly affecting economic growth of the country, saying the siphoning of the funds is undermining growth in Malawi. Speaking during the second meeting of the African parliamentarians on illicit financial flows and tax (APNIFFT) in the capital Lilongwe, MEJN’s… – Continue reading
All the world’s major banks have connections between each other and work together in a secret network to help people evade taxes, whistleblower and former HSBC IT engineer Hervé Falciani said yesterday, warning that illegal offshore transactions can’t be carried out through one single bank but only with the help… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – U.S. bank JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) has been placed under formal investigation in France as part of a probe into alleged tax evasion by senior managers at investment firm Wendel (MWDP.PA), a court official said on Wednesday. A Paris-based spokesman for JPMorgan declined to comment on the move, part… – Continue reading
Now that Costa Rica has been formally invited to go through the process of becoming a candidate nation worthy of joining the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), financial advisors and legal professionals are starting to ponder how their clients will be impacted by this new chapter in our… – Continue reading
Know-your-customer (KYC) obligations are placing increasing demands on banks as regulators continue the fight to stop money laundering, terrorist funding, and halt tax evasion. FX-MM’s Peter Garnham looks at how institutions are looking to utilities to make their systems more efficient without surrendering the control that would leave them facing… – Continue reading
“We will raise at least £5 billion from continuing to tackle tax evasion, and aggressive tax avoidance and tax planning, building on the £7 billion of annual savings we have delivered in this Parliament.” Conservative Manifesto “[We would raise] a further £6bn from tax dodgers.” Lib Dem press release, 19… – Continue reading
HSBC says it will make its decision whether to move its headquarters out of the UK within months rather than years. It has been based in the country since 1993, when it moved here in order to take over High Street giant Midland Bank. “It’s going to take us a… – Continue reading
VietNamNet Bridge – Metro Cash & Carry Vietnam, the German invested retailer, which repeatedly reported losses over the last 12 years in Vietnam, has engaged in transfer pricing to evade tax, according to the General Department of Taxation (GDT). It has asked the big retailer to reduce the reported loss… – Continue reading
The Government will provide $127.6 million over four years to aid financial investigations and prosecutions addressing superannuation and investment fraud, identity crime, and tax evasion, it announced today. It will establish a taskforce building on work done by Project Wickenby — a cross agency task force fighting against tax evasion,… – Continue reading
Guernsey’s Chief Minister, Jonathan Le Tocq, met today with Pierre Moscovici, the European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs. Deputy Le Tocq’s meeting, which was alongside Jersey’s Chief Minister, Ian Gorst, came at the beginning of a series of engagements over the next 48 hours in Brussels…. – Continue reading
Group of wealthy expats facing prison for failing to declare property purchases in Marbella A NETWORK of foreign businessmen and lawyers are facing 48 years in prison for tax evasion on the Costa del Sol. The group are to go on trial for using offshore companies to avoid paying taxes… – Continue reading
Authorities in Milan said on Monday that they have detained a former Swiss banker for allegedly helping wealthy Italian clients evade taxes and launder large sums of money, including the proceeds of embezzlement. Italian financial police (Guardia di Finanza) from Varese northwest of Milan said that Filippo Dollfus, a former… – Continue reading
The Tax Foundation released its inaugural “International Tax Competitiveness Index” (ITCI) on September 15th, 2014. The United States was ranked an abysmal 32nd out of the 34 OECD member countries for the year 2014. (See accompanying Table 1.) The European welfare states such as Norway, Sweden and Denmark, with their… – Continue reading
Monrovia – Chinese Businessman, Shun Feng, held on charges of tax evasion, economic sabotage and smuggling by the West Point Magisterial Court was Friday cleared of the charges, but warned by the court not to repeat the act. The five-year penalty that follows the crimes was also dropped by the… – Continue reading
State government is contemplating One Time Settlement scheme to recover over Rs.2,000 crore pending commercial tax revenue dues locked up in various litigations. Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, who recently held a review meeting in Vijayawada to review the division-wise revenue collections and shore up tax collection by plugging loopholes in… – Continue reading
Bradley Birkenfeld, the former UBS employee who helped bring down Swiss banking secrecy, has explained to Swiss public television SRF why he blew the whistle on the bank’s tax evasion violations in the United States. Birkenfeld claims he was pushed into the action by the discovery of an internal document… – Continue reading
Warning corporates not to take unfair advantage of the liberalised tax environment, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said the world is moving towards a more transparent regime that would remove the veil of secrecy from unlawful transactions. “I think, for every assessee, every person in the commercial business also,… – Continue reading
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has forwarded a novel set of recommendations to the prime minister proposing establishment of the Pakistan Revenue Regulatory Authority (PRRA) for imposing taxes while limiting the role of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to tax collection. The prevention committee on tax evasion recommendations were… – Continue reading
HM Revenue & Customs is facing a possible legal challenge in the form of judicial review, over the use of a tax amnesty to exonerate hundreds of suspected tax evaders whose names appeared on documents leaked from HSBC in Geneva, reports the International Business Times. Campaign group Avaaz made clear… – Continue reading
Bradley Birkenfeld was released from federal prison in August 2012 after serving 2½ years for his role as a Swiss banker hiding millions of dollars for wealthy American clients. Five weeks later, he found himself in the kitchen of a small rental house in Raymond, New Hampshire. At that moment,… – Continue reading
The game of cat and mouse between tax authorities and citizens has been played for a very long time. People have been dodging taxes for centuries. But the more nuanced and sophisticated game of avoiding tax is a more recent phenomenon. Indeed, when it comes to tax avoidance the game… – Continue reading
Bucharest Court ruled the preventive arrest for 30 days of Alistar Security’s owner, Dan Alistar, and of other seven defendants detained in the case of tax evasion and money laundering with a prejudice estimated at EUR 3 million. The court thus upheld the request of the Bucharest Court’s prosecutors, who… – Continue reading
Hong Kong’s Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, K C Chan confirmed that the Government and regulators remain fully committed to combating money laundering and tax evasion, following the latest reports of foreign banks being used to open offshore accounts. In response to a question in the Legislative Council,… – Continue reading
