The increasingly international nature of business will lead to complications and disruptions that may plague the future of audit, according to PwC. A recently-released PwC report, Global Tax Transparency and Risk Management – part of the ‘Tax Function of the Future’ series – notes that the number and size of… – Continue reading
The print media was awash on Tuesday, September 1, 2015 with reports of Gov. Ayo Fayose’s threat that no private school in Ekiti State will be allowed to commence school activities this Session unless it pays a tax of N150,000 and that anybody who buys one cow to be slaughtered… – Continue reading
On 20 October 2014 Ireland along with 50 other countries signed a multilateral competent authority agreement to automatically exchange certain information between tax authorities of signatory jurisdictions. The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) involves the collection of information in relation to financial accounts from financial institutions and the annual transmission of… – Continue reading
Tax residency of Jersey companies Jersey companies may (contrary to the default position) be treated as exclusively tax resident in jurisdictions other than Jersey pursuant to Article 123(1)(a) of the Income Tax (Jersey) Law 1961. The criteria for a Jersey incorporated company to be resident (for taxation purposes) in a… – Continue reading
Tax avoidance is a key problem for European countries, with the EU taking several steps to try and limit the ability of businesses to shift their profits to low-tax jurisdictions. Peter Dietsch writes on the nature of the problem and what can be done to tackle it. He argues that… – Continue reading
Notice 2015-66 was issued on 18 September 2015 announcing that the US Treasury Department and IRS intend to amend section 1471-1474 of the regulations. Transitional Rules The transitional rules provided in Notice 2015-66 are intended to allow for and facilitate an orderly transition for withholding agents and FFIs regarding FATCA… – Continue reading
The Australian Government has released an exposure draft of the legislation implementing the OECD Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (known as the Common Reporting Standard, or CRS), and an accompanying explanatory memorandum (available here). The draft requires Reporting Financial Institutions to report to the Commissioner of Taxation… – Continue reading
BY DAVID JESSOP— The Caribbean has just 18 congressional working days from Sunday, September 20 to try to have the U.S. Congress address an act naming 17 Caribbean nations as “tax havens”. If passed without amendment, it could have the effect of reputationally damaging the countries concerned with unpredictable trade,… – Continue reading
The government of Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) approved an agreement to avoid double taxation with Guinea-Bissau, aimed at preventing tax evasion and fostering economic relations between the two countries, according to an official statement issued following a Cabinet meeting. The statement issued Friday said that the approved agreement, signed in… – Continue reading
New Delhi, Sept 22 (KNN) Government will not extend the window for declaration of black money assets held abroad beyond September 30, said Joint Secretary, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Ministry of Finance, V Anandarajan. While inaugurating the conference on ‘Black Money Act: Ignorance is not Bliss! – Key… – Continue reading
As discussed in the previous edition, due to current worldwide developments including the OECD’s move to curb tax Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS), tax policy is changing significantly. In Ghana for example, a Transfer Pricing Regulations was passed in 2012 which aimed to ensure that the tax base of… – Continue reading
With less than two weeks remaining until many countries are required to exchange tax information with the U.S. pursuant to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), the U.S. has agreed to provide partner jurisdictions with more time to implement information exchange systems. Today, the Treasury Department and the Internal… – Continue reading
MINSK, 21 September (BelTA) – Belarusian and Russian tax bodies have discussed and elaborated additional measures of joint control over export and import operations in the mutual trade, BelTA learned from the press service of the Belarusian Ministry of Taxes and Duties after the session of the working group of… – Continue reading
With the August recess now well in the rearview mirror, Congress is already deep into grappling with the imminent expiration of the U.S. Government’s funding authority on September 30. Amid the debates over the “Continuing Resolution” and related funding issues, the Iran deal, and other high-profile issues, the work on… – Continue reading
Contractors and freelancers who have been told by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) Accelerated Payments Team that they owe back-taxes, are being given 90 days to pay even if there is a dispute about whether or not there is an existing debt, reports The Telegraph. As part of new… – Continue reading
Revenue is telling ordinary workers to ‘pay now, argue later’ using new powers to demand tax allegedly owed from years ago – up front Thousands of contractors and freelancers have become ensnared in a £5.5bn tax grab – aimed initially at wealthy tax dodgers – that allows HM Revenue &… – Continue reading
High-net-worth, tax-evading South Africans will soon have nowhere to hide, because in future income tax returns will specifically ask them to declare if they have offshore trusts, or directly or indirectly control an offshore trust, Judge Dennis Davis, the convener of the Davis Tax Committee, says. If the South African… – Continue reading
The Caribbean has just 18 congressional working days from Sunday September 20 to try to have the US Congress or the District of Colombia address an act naming 17 Caribbean nations as “tax havens”. If passed without amendment it could have the effect of reputationally damaging the countries concerned with… – Continue reading
Poland’s lower house (Sejm) on 11 September 2015 passed a bill containing amendments to the tax laws, including changes to the rules governing transactions between related parties—the transfer pricing rules. If enacted, the transfer pricing rules would be effective 1 January 2017. Among the legislative changes, new rules would: Increase… – Continue reading
Speed read On 15 September 2015 the Dutch government published its Tax Plan 2016. In this e-alert we discuss the legislative proposals in the Tax Plan which are of interest for companies. 1 INTRODUCTION Today, the Dutch Ministry of Finance published its Tax Plan 2016. In fact, the government sent… – Continue reading
CORNING — Corning Inc.’s handling of profits it earns overseas has quickly become an issue in the 2016 presidential campaign. The Fortune 500 company’s refusal to bring back to the U.S. more than $12.4 billion in overseas profits first drew criticism from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont…. – Continue reading
“I want to commend the government for bringing this bill to parliament,” said Opposition Leader Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas said today of the government tabled Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (USA) (Implementation and Enforcement) Bill 2015. During his presentation on the bill’s debate in the National Assembly today (Sept 15),… – Continue reading
Specialist tax advice looks set to be the biggest area for adviser business growth as pension freedoms takes effect and retirement planning becomes more complex, according to recent research by Prudential. Offshore, inheritance tax, business and retirement planning advice are named as potential growth areas as more advisers expect to… – Continue reading
In a decision released August 14, the Tax Court of New Jersey ruled that an intangible holding company with no physical presence was required to file a New Jersey corporation business tax (CBT) return and pay the related tax due based on its income.1 No relief was available to the… – Continue reading
Transparency International called today on European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to publicly support legislation that would allow citizens to scrutinise the corporate taxes paid by multinational companies to governments. Juncker will appear tomorrow in front of a special tax committee at the European Parliament to defend the Commission’s track record… – Continue reading
‘I’m not going to buy into that’ Joe Hockey refuses to feed speculation that he could be replaced as Treasurer by Scott Morrison under the new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Malcolm Turnbull’s first full day as PM: Live coverage Joe Hockey signals he’s ready to serve on Malcolm Turnbull’s frontbench… – Continue reading
Changing Attitudes to Tax Reputation Risk In recent years, it seems that any discussion of tax includes mention of the moral obligation taxpayers have to “pay their fair share.” Many believe this theme began to get traction in 2011 when Warren Buffett realized that he was paying proportionately less taxes… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Finance minister Arun Jaitley has promised “fairest and predictable taxation regime” while inviting US businesses to invest in the country. Speaking at the 11th Indo-US Economic Summit organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce ahead of the India-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue (SACD) in Washington later this month,… – Continue reading
“Luxembourg is famous for two things: its steel industry and its rose cultivation industry”. This quote from an Italian guidebook of the 1930s was uttered by Luxembourg’s Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna at the annual conference of the Luxembourg Directors’ Association on 17 June 2015[1]. The economic outlook of the tiny… – Continue reading
Kenneth Leung (PC,F-Accountancy) explains what he – and the government – are doing to get Hong Kong off the EU’s undeserved blacklisting as a “non-cooperative tax jurisdiction”. Why has Hong Kong been placed on this list? There are ten European countries that have named Hong Kong as a tax haven…. – Continue reading
Note: This article was published by Bloomberg BNA in Tax Planning International European Tax Service Vol. 17 No. 7 July 2015 Introduction The recent LuxLeaks scandal has once again focused political attention on tax planning practices of multinationals (“MNEs”). It comes in the wake of the European Commission investigation of… – Continue reading
There are often a few major issues on everyone’s lips in the international community of tax lawyers. This was the case also at The International Fiscal Association’s (IFA) 69th Congress in Basel, Switzerland. One of the main subjects in the congress was how tax payers’ rights can be most efficiently… – Continue reading
Seven leading Democrat lawmakers wrote a letter on September 12 to US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew urging him to publish an annual list of companies that have undertaken corporate tax inversions, and to use the Administration’s executive authority further to discourage the use of inversion techniques. Tax inversion techniques are… – Continue reading
The UK government’s use of ‘accelerated payment notices’ (APNs) to demand up-front payment of disputed tax has enabled it to collect £1 billion in payments from users of tax avoidance schemes, it has announced.14 Sep 2015 HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has issued over 25,000 APNs since August 2014 to… – Continue reading
Many countries have enacted a patent box regime in order to spur innovation and create domestic manufacturing jobs. Simply stated, a patent box regime provides a lower tax rate on income from the exploitation of patented goods than for other income. Among the countries that have patent box regimes are… – Continue reading
With the agreement with the US, Vietnam has now signed the double taxation avoidance agreements with 70 out of 170 countries and territories with which Vietnam has trade and investment relations. Double taxation is considered a barrier to trade and investment. It discourages transnational investments while prompts individuals and businesses… – Continue reading
Individuals and business wishing to establish a business in Canada need to familiarize themselves with the laws concerning forms of organization, FDI, competition, taxation, labor, privacy, the environment, and more. Canada has weathered the recent period of international uncertainty and volatility better than most other advanced industrialized nations. It is… – Continue reading
A new tax test on the sale of residential properties is coming – the bright line test. If you buy and then sell a residential property within two years new taxation rules may apply to the gain (or loss) that you make. Existing tax law provides for tax on sales… – Continue reading
The original online payment platform, PayPal, has decided to leave the populous island of Puerto Rico next month. The commonwealth has imposed a 2 percent take on any money transmission, forcing Paypal’s hand. So what does this mean for those who need to send money from Puerto Rico? Puerto Rico… – Continue reading
HMRC’s recovery of tax quicker than projected Recent figures released by HMRC record the progress that they have made in seeking early repayment of tax under the Accelerated Payment Notice (APN) regime. This was introduced by the Finance Act 2014, which gave HMRC the power to serve tax demands where… – Continue reading
The General Manager of the Italian Revenue Agency, Rossella Orlandi, has confirmed that there have so far been 10,000 requests to enter into Italy’s current voluntary disclosure program, compared with only around 1,000 applications received by May. The program allows taxpayers who apply by September 30 to regularize undeclared capital… – Continue reading
No declaration of foreign assets can be made which have been acquired during the year for which a notice under specified sections of the I-T Act has been issued The government has recently come up with a new legislation namely Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of… – Continue reading
(CN) – A loophole in Italy’s criminal code that routinely allows tax evaders to dodge prosecution may run afoul of EU law when the scofflaws’ conduct hurts the EU budget, Europe’s highest court ruled Tuesday. The case in question involves a group of individuals who Italian prosecutors believe ran a… – Continue reading
New tax laws around the purchase of residential properties by offshore people has made progress in Parliament. The second reading of the Taxation (Land Information and Offshore Persons Information) Bill was completed by 109 to 12 with National, Labour, Greens, Maori Party, ACT and United Future in favour. Revenue Minister… – Continue reading
Switzerland will allow stolen data acquired through official means to form the basis for a request for assistance but will help India only for post-2011 bank accounts, that too as long as Swiss courts don’t interfere Geneva: Switzerland’s proposed changes on treating stolen information have generated much optimism in India… – Continue reading
Panama’s Presidential High Level Commission for the Defense of International and Financial Services (CANDSIF) recently held a meeting to review the country’s progress on improving tax transparency and combating money laundering, reports Tax News. In particular, CANDSIF reviewed legislation passed earlier this year as part of Panama’s commitment to address… – Continue reading
A funding line has been launched to help business taxpayers facing payment deadlines arising from Accelerated Payment Notices (APNs) APNs, introduced in 2014, enable HMRC to request full upfront payment of disputed tax within 90 days. They are issued to individuals and companies suspected of partaking in aggressive avoidance schemes…. – Continue reading
A number of further publications have been released this quarter as part of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development’s (OECD’s) Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. These include: The 8 June 2015 publication by the OECD of a package of measures relating to “country- by-country reporting” (relevant to… – Continue reading
German business groups have hit out at Berlin’s plan to reform how it taxes investment funds, warning on Thursday that the proposed changes would hurt pension provisions and reduce the attractiveness of Europe’s largest economy as a place to invest. The finance ministry announced plans in July to reform the… – Continue reading
The European Commission is refusing to hand over documents to MEPs investigating whether EU member states are using special tax regimes that favour large multinational corporations such as Facebook and Amazon. EU economics commissioner Pierre Moscovici wrote to the European Parliament’s special committee on tax rulings (TAXE) this week claiming… – Continue reading
