Category: Tax Laws

Declaration must for Pakistanis having foreign assets, income

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will tighten noose around offshore illicit money and assets as Pakistanis having undeclared assets abroad are required to file statement by September 30, 2019. “The FBR will launch proceedings against persons having offshore assets on the basis of available data,” an official at… – Continue reading

Nigeria: The FIRS Has Published Regulations On Common Reporting Standard

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has issued the Income Tax (Common Reporting Standard) Regulations, 2019 (CRS Regulations). This follows Nigeria's signing of the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (MAC) and the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) on the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information, signed by Nigeria on 17 August 2017. ... - Continue reading

FATCA blamed for one in five US expats planning to give up passport

One in five US citizens living abroad are on the verge of giving up their passports according to a survey published by US tax consultants Greenback. The Greenback survey – which was conducted by more than 3,000 US expats – studies the expat community’s opinions on taxation, citizenship renunciation, and… – Continue reading

Villanueva urges DILG to crack down on tax-evading POGOs

Senator Joel Villanueva has urged the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to order local government units and police to crack down on Philippine offshore gaming operations (POGOs) that refuse to comply with the country’s tax laws. Villanueva also backed the Department of Finance’s (DOF) order to shut down… – Continue reading

EU Commission to investigate 39 Belgium “excess profit” tax rulings for potential State aid violations

The European Commission today announced that it has opened 39 in-depth investigations to assess whether Belgian “excess profit” tax rulings granted to multinationals between 2005 and 2014 provided benefits that are contrary to EU State aid rules. ... - Continue reading

IRS offers tax break to some American expats

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has outlined new procedures for some “accidental Americans,”, giving them the chance to comply with their US tax and filing obligations and in turn qualify for relief from back taxes, penalties and interest. The changes would allow people with less than $2m in net worth… – Continue reading

Tax avoidance drives nearly 40% of global FDI: IMF

Nearly 40% of worldwide foreign direct investment (FDI), amounting to $15trn, “passes through empty corporate shells” with “no real business activities”, a study by the IMF and the University of Copenhagen reveals. According to the report, ten economies including Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, BVI, Switzerland, Singapore, Ireland, the Cayman… – Continue reading

US-born British citizen launches crowdfunding campaign to stop FATCA

A US-born British citizen has started a crowdfunding campaign to stop HMRC sharing her personal information with the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) under the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). Law firm Mishcon de Reya has taken on the UK case for a client who alleges HMRC is… – Continue reading

Saint Amans provides update on digital tax reform effort

The preliminary results of an impact assessment reveal that proposals advanced in an OECD-led effort to update the global rules for taxing digital businesses would not create large changes to countries’ existing taxing rights, Pascal Saint-Amans, OECD Director of the Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, said September 11. ... - Continue reading

Colombia: Colombia Publishes Guidelines On Advance Pricing Agreements

Colombia's National Directorate of Taxes and Customs (DIAN) released detailed guidelines (the Guidelines) to clarify the procedure for Advanced Transfer Pricing Agreements (APAs) requests in order to ensure certainty between the parties regarding their transfer pricing arrangements. ... - Continue reading

Ukrainian government approves bill ratifying FATCA

The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a bill to ratify the Agreement between the governments of Ukraine and the United States to improve tax compliance and application of provisions of the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and related bills, the Ukrainian Finance Ministry’s press service reported. “On September… – Continue reading

Switzerland: Italian Tax Authorities Request Information From Switzerland On UBS Bank Customers

In the past ten years, Switzerland has undertaken significant efforts to combat international tax fraud and tax evasion and to fight for the strict observance of foreign tax laws. In order to do so, a number of tax laws were enacted, allowing Switzerland to comply with international standards issued by the OECD (acting on behalf of the G20). In this respect, Switzerland ratified the Multilateral Convention on Administrative Assistance originally issued by the CoE and the OECD in 1988 and amended in 2011 ("OECD MC"), and it renegotiated numerous Double Taxation Conventions ("DTC"), amongst them also the DTC with Italy, in order to comply with the international standard introduced by the OECD MC in the version of July 2010. ... - Continue reading

OECD sees progress in 116 nations’ implementation of country-by-country reporting

The OECD said its initiative to have minimum standards on the collection and exchange of country-by-country (CbC) reports on large multinational businesses has reached 116 jurisdictions and has shown major progress in the delivery of international tax transparency. The OECD’s second annual peer review report on the base erosion and… – Continue reading

Canada: Canada Ratifies The Multilateral Instrument

On June 7, 2017, Canada along with numerous other jurisdictions signed the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (“OECD”) Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (the “MLI” or “multilateral instrument”). The multilateral instrument is the culmination of work undertaken as part of the OECD/G20 BEPS Project to equip governments with domestic and international instruments to address tax avoidance.   ... - Continue reading

Cyprus: The Cyprus Investment Programme And The Benefits

The Cyprus Investment Programme is rapidly becoming one of the EU’s most popular residence schemes.

  • Non Cypriot citizens (and their families) can acquire Cyprus Citizenship by investing €2.5 million* in Cyprus.
*In one specific set of circumstances as detailed below in the financial criteria, the investment required is €2.0 million. A non-Cypriot citizen who meets one of the financial criteria detailed below can apply for Cypriot citizenship ‘through naturalization by exception’.
  • Following the application, Cyprus citizenship will be granted in six months, assuming the application has been completed accurately and the correct documentation filed.
  • The applicant needs to be in posession of a residence permit for a period of six months before obtaining the citizenship.
... - Continue reading

FBR issues 253,000 notices to non-filer industrialists

KARACHI: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has issued around 253,000 notices to industrialists and businessmen, asking them to file returns, as the revenue body is expanding its broadening of tax base drive, officials said on Tuesday. An official said the FBR has so far issued 253,700 notices to consumers… – Continue reading

Canada: Transfer Pricing: What’s New In Canada (Part II)

Transfer pricing disputes in Canada have, predominately, been resolved through either a request for competent authority assistance under the Mutual Agreement Procedure ("MAP") of a treaty, or, to a much lesser extent, through the notice of objection process with CRA Appeals.  Regardless of the recent increase in transfer pricing cases being brought before the Courts, the MAP will likely continue to be the dispute resolution process most often utilized by a Canadian corporation in transfer pricing cases because, in the absence of a 100% reversal of a transfer pricing adjustment by either CRA Appeals or a Canadian court, economic double taxation may still exist as a consequence of the CRA upward transfer pricing adjustment. The correlative relief provided by the treaty partner under a MAP settlement resolves that double taxation. ... - Continue reading

Australia provides arm’s length debt test guidance

The Australian Tax Office on 28 August, released its awaited draft guidance contained in Practical Compliance Guideline 2019/D3, on applying the arm’s length debt test contained in Division 820 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, Australia’s thin capitalization statutory provisions.   ... - Continue reading

FBR demands Rs992m from TV channel in alleged tax evasion case

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has served a notice on ARY Communications Limited (ARY) and raised a tax demand of Rs992 million – alleging that the entity had evaded tens of millions in taxes through misrepresentation, concealment and misuse of exemptions, thereby causing a substantial loss to the… – Continue reading

HMRC collects record £191bn in income tax

The taxman is raking in record amounts in income tax as the latest figures reveal Britons paid an extra £11bn in 2018/19. Income tax receipts have soared to a record £191bn, according to figures published, a 6% increase from the previous year. Britons are paying almost 30% more income tax… – Continue reading