The Government of Russia has ratified the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. The OECD said, with this development, Russia has joined the most comprehensive multilateral platform available for tax co-operation and exchange of information. The Convention, as amended by the 2010… – Continue reading
(Reuters) – The European Commission will lay out plans on Wednesday designed to limit tax avoidance in the wake of recent revelations that major corporations were paying minimal state contributions across the European Union. EU members will be required to share information on cross-border tax rulings, according to a draft… – Continue reading
Controversial comments against gay parenthood by openly-gay Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana may not have broken the Internet, but what a whirlwind it’s been! Little did the billionaire fashion duo know that when they spoke about the “classical” family in an interview, it would explode. They said “no [to] chemical… – Continue reading
Tax Regulation Number PER-01/PJ/2015, which is supposed to be effective starting this year, has triggered controversy within the banking industry. This is mainly due to the new obligation for banks to disclose details on every customer’s tax payments on deposits or savings interest. The Finance Minister needed to postpone indefinitely… – Continue reading
Who Will Be Next? How To Respond To A Tax Investigation The international political community continues to make the most threatening noises about those who they believe do not pay enough tax. Long gone it seems are the days where it was accepted that a person could properly organise his… – Continue reading
HSBC is closing all accounts on Jersey belonging to customers living in the UK. It is part of a move by UK banks carrying out checks on the identity and addresses of thousands of their customers on the Channel Islands. HSBC is among those carrying out the move, according to… – Continue reading
THE LAW SOCIETY has “denounced” HM Revenue & Customs’ plans to curb tax avoidance activity as “premature”. HMRC and the government are proposing to introduce new penalties for serial users of tax avoidance schemes and those whose planning is counteracted by the general anti-abuse rule (GAAR). In particular, the society… – Continue reading
Switzerland has made further progress on meeting international tax compliance standards after being upgraded to phase 2 of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) tax transparency review process. However, Switzerland faces a potentially tougher examination in the coming months, particularly regarding the use of stolen bank data by… – Continue reading
UK tax authorities withdrew a fourth case from the Crown Prosecution Service as it sought justice over alleged HSBC-aided tax evasion, despite telling MPs that just three files were passed to prosecutors. HMRC has always maintained it was only able to submit three files to prosecutors following a lengthy investigation… – Continue reading
LONDON, GENEVA — The Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) is narrowing the field of bidders for its Coutts International private-banking arm to focus on Switzerland’s Union Bancaire Privée (UBP), people with knowledge of the matter said. UBP is the preferred bidder and an agreement might be reached as early… – Continue reading
The Internal Revenue Service wrapped up the 2015 “Dirty Dozen” list of tax scams last week with a warning to taxpayers about aggressive telephone scams continuing coast-to-coast during the early weeks of this year’s filing season. The aggressive, threatening phone calls from scam artists continue to be seen on a… – Continue reading
Tax advisers are calling on the chancellor to make clear in this week’s Budget that while tax evasion is a crime, tax avoidance is a citizen’s right – and a good idea. In response to the recent debate on where the line should be drawn, accountancy firm Saffery Champness calls… – Continue reading
Senators and members of the House of Representatives under the auspices of Anti-Money Laundering and Cyber Security Coalition (AMLCSC) are working with the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), to prosecute about 115 tax offenders. The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Pensions, Senator Aloysius Etok, said… – Continue reading
The findings revealed that 76 per cent of those surveyed believe people open bank accounts in Switzerland for “underhand reasons”, and just one in 10 consider it is done for “legitimate reasons.” The UK’s The Times newspaper recently asked individuals for their thoughts as to why Britons might hold Swiss… – Continue reading
The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore is to closely monitor company formation behaviour to ensure that high income earners do not set up companies to avoid the higher personal income tax (PIT) rates announced in the 2015/16 Budget, reports Tax News. The Senior Minister of State for Finance and Transport,… – Continue reading
There is a double standard when it comes to paying taxes in Canada. And the Canada Revenue Agency makes it worse with each passing year. Take the recent news story about Irwin Rodier, the Montreal doctor with accounts at the Swiss branch of HSBC. Leaked data showed that he had… – Continue reading
The owner of a Sewell-based landscaping company was sentenced Friday to one year and a day in prison for evading taxes on more than $2 million in business receipts, according to a release from the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Nicholas Lepore, 40, of Deptford, owner of Down to Earth… – Continue reading
Things just got worse for HSBC. Its private banking arm faces new criminal charges after a French magistrate officially requested that the Swiss bank be brought to trial over a suspected tax-dodging scheme for wealthy customers, the Guardian reports. The request for trial comes after a series of allegations against… – Continue reading
Senators and members of the House of Representatives under the auspices of Anti- Money Laundering and Cyber Security Coalition are working with the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission to prosecute about 115 tax offenders. The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Pensions, Senator Aloysius Etok, (PDP-Akwa Ibom),… – Continue reading
Hundreds of jobs at the Wrexham tax office have been thrown into doubt with uncertainty surrounding the future of the facility. As part of an ongoing process to centralise facilities HMRC are looking to potentially axe the Wrexham Technology Park office and move the service to Liverpool or Manchester. The… – Continue reading
The UK’s HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is increasingly unwilling to believe that any error in a tax return can be the result of an ‘innocent error’, said Fiona Fernie, a tax investigations expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-law.com. New powers introduced in recent years to allow… – Continue reading
HSBC Holdings plc’s (LON:HSBA) shares were down 0.23 percent to 559.00p as of 13:13 GMT yesterday, after earlier on Friday the French financial prosecutor’s office announced it had formally requested that the lender’s Swiss private banking unit be put on trial for helping French citizens to aggressively avoid taxes. HSBC… – Continue reading
The public accounts chair has been accused of being a bully, but she has rocked the tax world by asking difficult questions about how taxpayers’ money is spent Her verdict on HMRC’s efforts to prosecute tax evaders: pathetic. The gagging of civil service whistleblowers: outrageous. And as for tax-avoiding Google,… – Continue reading
A Sheffield MP has revealed how much was lost to tax evasion and avoidance in one year. Paul Blomfield spoke in Parliament about how £7.2 billion was lost to the practices in 2012-2013 – £2 billion more than was spent on Jobseekers’ Allowance, according to figures from the House of… – Continue reading
PokerStars, the online gaming brand owned by Amaya Gaming, has been accused of large-scale fraud and tax evasion totalling €300 million ($318.4 million) by financial authorities in Italy. According to various reports, the tax fraud was run through Malta and the Isle of Man, which in turn meant Italy missed… – Continue reading
KARACHI: The customs authorities have referred the case of importer Paramount Corporation to the Engineering Development Board (EDB) for seeking technical view point into the case. The sources informed Customs Today that the authorities concerned of Customs Adjudication-II have forwarded the case of Paramount Corporation to the EDB for seeking… – Continue reading
Accountancy firms predict that a new offence of aiding and abetting tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance will be announced in next week’s Budget It is expected that George Osborne will outline proposals to introduce special measures, aimed at professional service firms, to deter serial avoiders and scheme promoters. The… – Continue reading
The Chancellor will take credit for the improving state of the economy and public finances, but real policy changes will have to wait until after the election. Chris Sanger, Head of Tax Policy at EY, comments: “With this Budget announced in the dying embers of the coalition, next week’s event… – Continue reading
Revenue had initiated 33 investigations on suspicion of tax evasion relating to HSBC, 27 of which were complete, with six ongoing, the Committee of Public Accounts has been told. Some 19 accounts have made settlements so far yielding €4.6 million, with the average tax recovered for each of the 19… – Continue reading
Tax avoidance schemes are hitting the headlines on a daily basis, particularly in light of the recent allegations that HSBC supposedly assisted clients to “dodge tax” and the reported involvement of thousands of celebrities, sports stars and politicians in film finance schemes. Any such scheme which bears the hallmarks of… – Continue reading
According to a recent poll, voters in the United Kingdom don’t see a distinction between tax avoidance and tax evasion, at least not a moral one. According to a YouGov survey, 59 percent considered avoidance “unacceptable,” while only 32 percent thought it was legitimate. The pollsters took pains to emphasize… – Continue reading
The call for tax transparency is being echoed around the globe, with ‘midshore’ centres like Bahrain and the UAE emerging as reputable, regulated and tax efficient jurisdictions A 2012 book entitled Offshore Apocalypse – The Collapse of the Tax Haven Industry, written by a team of tax-law academics, auditors, compliance… – Continue reading
The BVI is a tax haven that has been used to stash away laundered money and capital siphoned out of countries through tax evasion. “It has never been clear why the board led by Moxon decided to set up parallel investment vehicles in the BVI. That was never fully explained… – Continue reading
Robert Jenkins says Douglas Flint should resign over Swiss scandal for the good of his own reputation A former member of the Bank of England’s financial policy committee has called on HSBC’s chairman to resign following the scandal at its Swiss operation and other debacles. Robert Jenkins said Douglas Flint,… – Continue reading
Rome police accuse PokerStars.it managing director over €300 million of undeclared monies that were traced to Malta and the Isle of Man The managing director of PokerStars in Italy, a leading online poker brand, has been accused of fraud and tax evasion of some €300 million by Rome’s finance police… – Continue reading
Representatives of the governments of Hungary and Luxembourg signed an agreement to eliminate double taxation on the sidelines of a meeting of EU finance ministers, the economy ministry said. The new agreement, signed by Economy Minister Mihály Varga and counterpart Pierre Gramegna, replaces an earlier one signed in 1990. It… – Continue reading
The main legal weapon used by the tax office to hunt down multinationals trying to avoid paying tax often doesn’t work, a problem that could cost the federal government billions a year. A Tax Office internal document, Offshore hubs mitigation strategy overview, said that Australia’s general anti-avoidance rule, Part IVA,… – Continue reading
Argentina has sent requests for information to tax authorities in the Virgin Islands, Uruguay and Bermuda, according to a Reuters report. This comes as Argentina wants HSBC Holdings Plc to repatriate some $3.5 billion that it says the bank’s Argentine branch moved offshore to help clients evade taxes and move… – Continue reading
According to Italy’s financial police, the Halfords Media Italy S.r.l., one of the companies used by PokerStars for marketing activities in the country, is currently under investigation for a €300 million tax fraud. Contacted by PokerNews, Head of Corporate Communication at PokerStars Eric Hollreiser said to be confident that the… – Continue reading
HSBC Holdings Plc (LON:HSBA) shares were steady at 560.42p this morning, as the scandal revolving around HSBC’s Swiss unit tax avoidance scheme took a political turn. Tory and Labour have traded accusations, while on the international level Argentina has demanded cash payments from the lender as compensation. Sir Alan Duncan,… – Continue reading
Frank R. Suess writes: Every time you think the US establishment can do no more to threaten the freedom and livelihood of the very Americans who contribute the most to the prosperity of the country, they increase the heat in the furnace by a notch with more cheap money and… – Continue reading
IRAS will “closely monitor” corporatisation behaviour to prevent instances of tax evasion, especially among high income earners, said the Senior Minister of State for Finance. SINGAPORE: The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) will be monitoring corporatisation behaviour more closely and stepping up its audit programmes, in light of impending… – Continue reading
The authorities in Sweden suspect Spyker CEO Victor Muller of tax evasion in the period that he was the boss of the Swedish car company Saab, RTL Nieuws reports. The Swedish authority that deals with economic crime suspects that Muller was involved in tax evasion in 2010 and 2011. During… – Continue reading
Are you an American abroad living in perpetual fear of the IRS? Do you wake up every morning wondering if today you’ll receive a formidable notice that the taxman cometh? You are not alone. Expats around the world are facing (and fearing) the painful reality that the IRS’s global tax… – Continue reading
Q4 net profit 478 mln shekels vs 633 mln * Bank provisioned 196 mln shekels in 2014 for U.S. tax evasion * Provisioned 360 mln shekels in Q4 for cost cuts * Shares down 1.3 pct (Adds quotes, details from news conference, analyst’s comments) By Tova Cohen TEL AVIV, March… – Continue reading
FATCA is a law requiring every foreign bank to excessively monitor and report to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) the bank accounts of every American residing overseas – or risk severe punishment. WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. Rand Paul reintroduced S.663, a bill to repeal the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act… – Continue reading
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) – The Barbados Government says it will not tolerate businesses operating within the international business and financial services sector engaging in tax evasion practices here and is seeking support from the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Commerce Minister Donville Inniss, speaking in Parliament Tuesday,… – Continue reading
Public accounts committee to ask Stuart Gulliver, Chris Meares and the BBC’s Rona Fairhead key questions on tax arrangements at multinational bank Two senior HSBC executives and the chair of the BBC Trust will be questioned by MPs on Monday about their role at the bank, whose Swiss banking arm… – Continue reading
Public accounts committee to ask Stuart Gulliver, Chris Meares and the BBC’s Rona Fairhead key questions on tax arrangements at multinational bank Two senior HSBC executives and the chair of the BBC Trust will be questioned by MPs on Monday about their role at the bank, whose Swiss banking arm… – Continue reading
The head of Argentina’s tax authority has demanded that HSBC repatriate $3.5bn (£2.3bn) in funds that it says HSBC helped its clients move offshore. Ricardo Echegaray said that HSBC’s actions threatened the stability of the Argentine government. “HSBC built a platform to help clients evade tax,” said Mr Echegary in… – Continue reading
