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
Even as more large companies announce plans to take advantage of the inversion loophole to avoid taxes, Congress has refused to move on commonsense legislation that would put an end to inversions. Fortunately, as outlined in a new letter signed by Citizens for Tax Justice and 54 other groups, there… – Continue reading
Ireland recently announced it will introduce a formal advance pricing agreement (APA) programme this year. Ireland has accepted and concluded bilateral APAs for many years although there have been no formal procedures to initiate an APA in Ireland. However, in light of comments made by an Irish Revenue official at… – Continue reading
The first Budget tabled by Canada’s new Liberal Government provides for a major crackdown on tax evasion and avoidance, and streamlines the domestic tax credits system. The Budget was delivered by Finance Minister Bill Morneau on March 22, 2016. He told Parliament: “Today, we begin to restore hope for the… – Continue reading
Ireland’s 12.5 percent corporate tax rate has encouraged several major U.S. companies like Medtronic, Pfizer, Johnson Controls, and Baxalta to move there in tax inversions in recent months, saving them billions of dollars of taxes and protecting themselves from international competition in the process. The U.S. corporate tax rate, on… – Continue reading
The Williams Mullen Southeast State and Local Tax (SESALT) team is pleased to provide you with a comprehensive recap of important tax developments around the Southeast. VIRGINIA CORPORATE INCOME TAX Conformity with Internal Revenue Code. Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe signed emergency legislation on February 5, 2016 that advances the state’s… – Continue reading
Belarus and Kazakhstan introduced amendments and additions to the intergovernmental double taxation agreement and thus updated the tax legislation, Belarus’ Taxes and Duties Minister Sergei Nalivaiko said after a ceremony to sign the protocol, BelTA has learned. The matter is about the protocol between the governments of Belarus and Kazakhstan… – Continue reading
As part of the Government’s crackdown on profit shifting by multinationals from the UK to low or no-tax jurisdictions, the Chancellor has announced in Budget 2016 a package of enhanced withholding tax measures which are designed to ensure that companies are not able to use intragroup royalty payments for avoidance…. – Continue reading
HMRC and the Treasury should spend more effort on supporting compliant taxpayers with more considered tax policy and functioning tax legislation, and less on punishing those who have exploited loopholes that they helped create. According to the most recently released figures from HMRC, the taxman has now retrieved more than… – Continue reading
Ban on tax haven land rejected in favour of ‘transparency register’ PROPOSALS TO OUTLAW the ownership of land in offshore tax havens were rejected by the Scottish Parliament today [Wednesday 16 March] on the basis of private legal advice. Estimates that 750,000 acres of Scotland are owned in tax havens… – Continue reading
Thomson Reuters Checkpoint has just released a special report, European Commission Presents Anti-Tax Avoidance (ATA) Package, summarizing the ATA Package to help businesses plan for the latest developments in advance of implementation. On January 28, 2016, the European Commission presented its Communication on the Anti-Tax Avoidance Package. The goal of… – Continue reading
State lawmakers are getting into the act of demonizing corporate inversions even though there is not much they can do to stop them. Corporate inversions, in which U.S. companies merge with or are acquired by an overseas business, are a hot topic on the campaign trail and in the halls… – Continue reading
A new bill proposed by City Council President Darrell Clarke last week would ban city government from doing business with companies who move abroad to avoid paying U.S. taxes. Corporate tax inversion might not have a sexy ring to it, but it has been a topic on the minds and… – Continue reading
Mauritius plans to sell itself as a world class financial-services hub to investment companies in Asia and the Far East to win new business, an official said. The island-nation’s Financial Services Promotional Agency plans to market the country as an international financial center, or IFC, and is already collaborating with… – Continue reading
It is now time for Australian financial institutions to move on CRS. Australian implementing legislation has been finalised. You need to be prepared by 1 July 2017. The scope of CRS and applicable penalties have been expanded The next FATCA reporting deadline is 31 July 2016. The uncertainty around listed… – Continue reading
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has expressed deep approval for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) plan to allow all countries to participate in its Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) plan. BEPS is an international policy proposal designed to counteract the negative effects of multinational companies’… – Continue reading
For several years now Google has been facing what appears to be a case of tax avoidance in the UK, at some point in time, the company went as far saying it did not make any money from business in the UK all in a desperate attempt to pay less… – Continue reading
While equalisation levy appears to be a step to counter double non taxation and protect India’s share of taxation, in its current form it may impact an Indian taxpayer more than foreign MNCs The growth of digital economy entails many benefits, but also poses various tax challenges. These include the… – Continue reading
The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) welcomes the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) plan to allow all countries to participate on an equal footing with OECD and G20 countries in the implementation of the OECD/G20 Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS) plan. The framework announced by the OECD early… – Continue reading
Before conducting business outside of the U.S. for the first time, a company must establish the business case for doing so. That means looking beyond just the profit potential on the product or service to the other costs that can be involved, of which there are many. “The culture of… – Continue reading
That the collection of the taxes levied on citizens becomes an exceedingly difficult task in the absence of a moral sense of tax responsibility on the part of the taxpayers is well known. The readiness to tolerate taxes is reinforced or undermined by two primary factors: The sense taxpayers have… – Continue reading
THE withdrawal of a withholding tax on service payments to foreigners, decried by many as unworkable, has been widely welcomed. The Treasury acknowledged that the tax had introduced “unforeseen issues, uncertainty on the application of domestic law and taxing rights under tax treaties”. The withholding tax was introduced into legislation… – Continue reading
Tax function of an organisation was traditionally run from the tax director’s room. Transfer Pricing (TP) was governed by contracts between related parties and this at times resulted in profits moving to legal entities that had contractual rights but had no significant people functions. There were instances of IP Holding… – Continue reading
Its official name is the global standard for automatic exchange of financial account information – these nine words are a simple distillation of an ambitious project to tackle global tax evasion. Known more regularly as the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), it will see government-to-government sharing of account holder information and… – Continue reading
“We are clear. We will not stand for a minority of taxpayers continuing to seek out unacceptable ways to reduce the amount of tax they pay, and we will ensure HMRC has the tools to robustly tackle such activity.” So said David Gauke, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury. A clampdown… – Continue reading
It’s unlikely anybody was particularly surprised when Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan announced a number of initiatives to increase the amount of tax revenue; from sugar tax to a “tyre levy” to an increase in a number of existing sin taxes. But it’s perhaps the relaxing of voluntary disclosure rules that… – Continue reading
In this final instalment considering the draft clauses from the Finance Bill 2016 most relevant to financial planners, I am going to turn my attention to the ever-popular subject of tax avoidance and evasion. Every Budget and Finance Bill has plenty to say on this subject. As in the previous… – Continue reading
On February 23, US House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D – Michigan) and Budget Committee Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen (D – Maryland) introduced legislation aimed at reducing the number of corporate tax inversions by limiting the use of “earnings stripping.” Tax inversion techniques… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Competition Commission has been exempted from paying taxes on fee and government grants received by it till financial year 2020-21. The government has decided to extend certain income tax exemptions for the fair trade regulator as the earlier one ends this financial year. According to a notification issued… – Continue reading
The Treasurer announced this morning that the Government will use the foreign investment system to ensure tax compliance by multinational companies when investing in Australia. Using the FIRB process will add an additional mechanism for the Government to monitor and enforce tax compliance by multinational companies. It has long been… – Continue reading
The “power of three” is a principle of writing and joke telling that suggests that events or items presented in threes are somehow funnier or more satisfying than tales organized around other numbers. It will be interesting to see if the theory holds true for the current state legislative sessions… – Continue reading
Bermuda’s international business chiefs said they would swallow increased taxes if the Government continued to cut its costs and pushed ahead with reforms in the public service. Insiders added that the sector wanted to see the Government live up to its pledges to make the Civil Service more accountable, close… – Continue reading
Russian firms that have a controlling stake outside the country can no longer apply for state support, according to a new law signed by President Putin on Monday. This includes Russian legal entities with more than 50 percent in authorized capital abroad. The law applies not only to the principals,… – Continue reading
Documents released during the internet giant’s court battle with the US Internal Revenue Service over a possible $1.5bn in unpaid taxes detail a complex restructuring and a deal with Luxembourg that delivered Amazon multimillion-dollar savings Amazon is facing a landmark court ruling in the US that could prise open its… – Continue reading
A quiet revolution is taking place across Europe. It isn’t playing out on the streets of capital cities or in the debating chambers of national parliaments. It has been slowly happening with every newspaper headline about how little corporation tax some companies pay relative to their size. It is also… – Continue reading
What is FATCA? FATCA refers to US legislation more fully known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and includes the US Treasury regulations implementing it. It was enacted as part of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act of 2010 (otherwise known as the, “HIRE Act”) on 18 March… – Continue reading
Having launched and led the battle against offshore tax evasion, America is now part of the problem DEVIN NUNES raised eyebrows in 2013 when, as chairman of a congressional working group on tax, he urged reforms that would make America “the largest tax haven in human history”. Though he was… – Continue reading
The Royal Bank of Scotland has worked accounting magic by investing in the distribution of movies such as Harry Potter, Batman Begins and Troy. It put money into 25 companies to enjoy a billion pounds worth of tax breaks between 1998 and 2007, according to Bloomberg. The deals involved a… – Continue reading
The Irish Revenue has launched a new webpage that contains guidance on what it considers to be tax avoidance and information on the legislative tools available to detect and tackle avoidance arrangements. Revenue said its policy is “to challenge tax avoidance schemes and [the] unintended use of the legislation which… – Continue reading
Where the United States leads on legislation, foreign jurisdictions slavishly follow Hongkongers will need to declare all their assets abroad by 2025. No, the government has not announced the policy yet. But academics have noticed a trend which strongly suggests Hong Kong will follow the US example in foreign tax… – Continue reading
In line with international developments, the Italian Government has been focusing on fighting tax evasion and avoidance in recent years. Studies and in-depth analyses on evasion and aggressive avoidance, conducted under the OECD BEPS project, which was delivered in October 2015, have led to the issuing of a series of… – Continue reading
Russia has come close to blacklisting the UK as a tax haven as concerns grow over Scotland’s booming offshore business. The Kremlin’s Finance Ministry had announced that it would officially equate Britain with traditional “fiscal paradises” like Panama, the British Virgin Islands and the Caymans. Such a humiliating move would… – Continue reading
SACRAMENTO — After months of uncertainty, the Legislature appears poised to approve a tax on health care plans that would generate $1.27 billion annually and could substantially boost funding for developmentally disabled Californians for the first time in more than a decade. If lawmakers approve the tax in a series… – Continue reading
Rules should require foreign owners of prime London homes to come clean about beneficiary owners, say anti-corruption groups Large parts of London’s Baker Street, including the Beatles store, are owned by offshore trusts. New laws that aim to stop the UK being a magnet for money launderers – by forcing… – Continue reading
Indonesian lawmakers are expected to pass a new tax amnesty aimed at encouraging wealthy citizens with billions of dollars in assets abroad to come clean with the taxman. The Bill is likely to be pushed through with little resistance in Parliament in the weeks ahead, given that the Golkar party… – Continue reading
The Australian Treasury on February 11 opened a consultation on whether Australia should adopt into law final OECD/G20 base erosion profit shifting (BEPS) transfer pricing recommendations. The goverment seeks feedback on the adoption of the BEPS report, Alleging Transfer Pricing Outcomes with Value Creation, which has been approved by G20… – Continue reading
In tax law, the concept of residency is used to determine tax liability based on whether there is a sufficient connection between an individual or legally recognized entity and a jurisdiction such that the jurisdiction is justified in taxing such individual or legally recognized entity on their worldwide income. Generally,… – Continue reading
Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison says overseas companies selling digital products to Australians will not be able to avoid paying the GST. The so-called Netflix Tax that would see overseas-based businesses selling digital products to Australians collect 10 percent GST has entered the House of Representatives. Introduced by Treasurer Scott Morrison,… – Continue reading
Cash rewards for dobbing in multinational tax cheats and greater protection for whistleblowers are being considered by the Turnbull government to reduce tax avoidance. In the US, whistleblowers who have provided information that lead authorities to tax cheats have received a cut of the billions of dollars recouped. Assistant Treasurer… – Continue reading
Multinational companies operating in Europe will have to publicly disclose their earnings and the tax paid in each European country if new measures being proposed by the European Commission come into force, The Guardian has reported. The Commission will propose new legislation in April that makes profit and tax information… – Continue reading
