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
Facebook has caved to the tax pressure. The company is likely to pay millions more in U.K. taxes after making changes to its corporate structure that will stop revenue earned in the U.K. from being routed through Ireland. Facebook had been accused of “profit shifting,” a common practice for multinational… – Continue reading
MAURITIUS has emerged as the biggest source of investment into Zimbabwe, accounting for projects worth $4,56 billion in the past five years. According to statistics released at an investment strategic meeting in Harare this week, a ZBCtv report indicated Mauritius was leading in terms of investments into the country while… – Continue reading
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has notified a new convention inked between Pakistan and the Czech Republic for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to taxes on income of citizens of both countries. Sources said that the FBR has issued an S.R.O.1322(I)/2015… – Continue reading
The US government, in an effort to reduce offshore tax evasion, has taken extraordinary steps to implement FATCA, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. This includes the hiring and training of over 3,000 IRS examiners newly tasked with process verification and tax audit efforts. The implications for US businesses can… – Continue reading
In its departmental plan for 2015-2020 published last month, HMRC set out it’s role “to help the honest majority to get their tax right and make it hard for the dishonest minority to cheat the system”. One of the headline objectives for this period is: “maximise revenues due and bear… – Continue reading
Twenty Caribbean and Latin American nations have been named by the U.S. as “major money laundering” countries in the 2016 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) from the U.S. State Department released Wednesday, Mar. 2, 2016. A major money laundering is defined by statute as one “whose financial institutions engage… – Continue reading
MUMBAI: Centrum Wealth expects a flurry of dividends from corporates in the month of March. This is post the the government announcing an additional 10% tax for those earning an annual dividend income of more than Rs 10 lakh. Dividend income received by investors was already taxed through Dividend Distribution Tax…. – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: Terming the financial information exchange pact FATCA between India and USA as an ‘inequitable system’, the Finance Ministry today said it has received written commitment from the US that they will move towards full reciprocity. “We should look at FATCA as very a special case. It’s a law… – Continue reading
BJP MPs are upset over the Budget proposal to tax EPF corpus at the time of withdrawal, a move they fear will antagonise the party’s core support base of the middle class. A day after he made the announcement, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley explained to party parliamentarians and allies that… – Continue reading
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has issued final regulations that require certain financial institutions (FIs) to report on accounts held or controlled by foreign residents from March 1, 2016. The OECD’s automatic tax information exchange standard, the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), which the regulations are in response to, obliges… – Continue reading
For now… corporations, as responsible global citizens, should endeavour to pay their fair share of taxes to avoid threats to their own long term sustainability. Multinational companies like Google, Starbucks, Facebook, Amazon and other global corporations are constantly coming under public fire for avoiding taxes on their British sales. For… – Continue reading
Another form of taxation that has gotten greater attention during the last two presidential election campaigns is the flat tax. A flat tax is a plan that will apply the same rate to every taxpayer, regardless of the income they have earned. At present, federal taxes are calculated on a… – Continue reading
The industry was hoping GAAR might be postponed again, especially in the light of slowing down of the world economy In a signal to foreign institutional investors, the Union Budget has made a commitment to implement General Anti Avoidance Rules (GAAR) on taxes only from April 1, 2017. “The investment… – 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
The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has updated Publication 515, Withholding of Tax on Nonresident Aliens and Foreign Entities, which covers the obligations of the persons responsible for withholding tax (withholding agents). It is specified that the Publication is for withholding agents who pay income to foreign persons, including nonresident… – Continue reading
Outstanding issues relating to the existing Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) are under negotiation between India and Mauritius through the mechanism of Joint Working Group (JWG), Parliament was informed today. “India has proposed changes in the existing DTAA to address concerns relating to treaty abuse, around tripping of funds, double… – Continue reading
Maltese individuals resident and domiciled for tax purposes, that is people whose permanent residence is in Malta, are required to pay tax in Malta on their worldwide income, according to the Income Tax Act. This essentially means that Minister Konrad Mizzi is required to pay tax on foreign earnings. However… – Continue reading
Pakistan and Czech Republic have implemented a convention to avoid double taxation and prevent tax evasion, the Federal Board of Revenue notified on Monday. An official said the convention on avoidance of double taxation will come into force on July 1. “This is an epoch-making event in the consolidation of… – Continue reading
With the adoption of the BEPS package, OECD and G20 countries laid the foundations of a modern international tax framework under which profits would be taxed where economic activity and value creation occurs. It is now time to focus on implementation of the recommended changes in a consistent and coherent… – Continue reading
If you have made any investment in a fixed deposit or a mutual fund or even in shares, by now, you must have received a form in the mail requiring you to comply with FATCA regulations. What is this new compliance requirement exactly and what does it mean so far… – Continue reading
The pet project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi – the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) – housed in the Gujarat International Finance Tec City – has received a boost in the Union Budget 2016/17. The long pending tax issue has been decided with 9 per cent minimum alternate tax (MAT),… – Continue reading
In Shanghai, Wolfgang Schäuble is urging his fellow G20 countries to put new rules to tackle tax avoidance into law. Back home, business leaders worry that German companies could be left exposed by the new rules if they are introduced unilaterally or go too far. The finance ministers of the… – Continue reading
1. New double tax treaty between Germany and the Netherlands: tax authorities now bear burden of proof regarding tax- evading or tax-avoiding arrangements A new Double Tax Treaty (DTT) has been in place between Germany and the Netherlands since 01 January 2016. Art. 23 of the DTT introduces an important… – Continue reading
If a member of Congress told you that he was going to use some of your hard-earned tax dollars to support an international organization that demands that you pay higher taxes, what would you say? Unfortunately, the question is not hypothetical, because that is exactly what is now happening. Congress… – Continue reading
The federal government of Nigeria and Qatar have signed an agreement for the avoidance of double taxation on income and capital gains for investments between the two countries. In addition to the elimination of double taxation on business income, similar treaties between Nigeria and other countries provide for a lower… – Continue reading
Budget 2016 should rationalise entertainment tax, exempt newsprint from VAT and end double taxation on temporary transfer of movie rights to television channels, experts said. “Currently, entertainment industry players such as DTH and cable service operators are reeling under the heavy burden of multiple taxation and levies such as licence… – Continue reading
A “controlled foreign company” (CFC) is, as the name implies, a foreign company or subsidiary owned by a parent company which is situated in a country different from the parent company’s country of residence. The tax laws of many countries, including the Philippines, do not tax the CFC’s parent company… – Continue reading
While the various reforms initiated by the Centre has led to a significant increase in FDI inflows into India, the Economic Survey feels the need for a closer examination of such FDI flows to determine whether there has been any instances of tax evasion. The survey noted that out of… – Continue reading
France is seeking €1.6 billion in back taxes from Google, criticised for its use of aggressive tax optimisation techniques, a source at the finance ministry has said. “As far as our country is concerned, back taxes concerning this company amount to €1.6bn,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity,… – 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
“It is tantamount to an economic blockade”. That’s how Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, described the current withdrawal from Caribbean indigenous and offshore banks of correspondent relationships by US banks. His sentiments were echoed by Dean Barrow and Freundel Stuart, the prime ministers of Belize and Barbados respectively…. – Continue reading
A new report from ActionAid titled ‘Mistreated’ released this week has revealed that Zambia has 13 restrictive tax treaties that dramatically restrict the government’s power to tax global companies doing business on our soil and therefore unfairly limit our country’s potential to collect tax revenue. The report also found that… – Continue reading
For those taxpayers with undisclosed foreign assets, time is running out. With the introduction of FATCA and a global standard for the automatic exchange of information between countries’ tax authorities, it is unlikely that undisclosed foreign assets will remain as such for long, resulting in serious consequences for the taxpayer…. – Continue reading
During a political season in which populist fury and anger at big business is running high, two presidential candidates want to eliminate the ability of multinational firms to keep earnings overseas and avoid U.S. taxes. They also just happen to be the two most surprising and disruptive candidates in the… – 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
In its time, the Irving empire has had plenty of federal contracts — all of them lucrative, many of them controversial. So it wasn’t a surprise to hear that a federal cabinet committee is reviewing Irving’s $26 billion sole-source (but still unsigned) contract to build a fleet of warships for… – Continue reading
Treaties limit the tax poorer nations can place on British companies doing business within their borders, says ActionAid. The UK has signed a high number of tax deals with some of the world’s poorest countries, potentially depriving those states of millions in tax revenues every year, according to an analysis… – Continue reading
Transfer pricing (TP) issues have never been such a critical part of the global economic agenda as they are today. Following the release of the report addressing Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) in February 2013, OECD and G20 countries (including India) adopted a 15-point Action Plan to address BEPS… – Continue reading
If January is a month of New Year resolutions, February can be said to be a month of New Financial Year expectations with Indian Government announcing its fiscal policy strategy, including taxation regime for the next financial year. The Union Budget of 2015-16 was the first full budget presented by… – 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
Anthea Scholtz calls for a careful balance between ‘spending’ and ‘revenue-generating’ activities. All eyes will be on Parliament on 24 February 2016 when South Africa’s annual national Budget will be presented by the newly re-appointed Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan. The Budget speech has over the years given South Africans… – Continue reading
NEW DELHI: With Prime Minister Narendra Modi promising tax cuts and a $1.5-billion fund for India’s start-up eco-system, young entrepreneurs hope that the Budget 2016-17 will have some concrete steps to foster new businesses. “Implementation of nationwide GST (Goods and Services Tax) will help in simplifying the entire tax structure,… – Continue reading
The stock markets are facing the overhang of possible changes in the treatment of long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax for equity in the forthcoming Union Budget. Currently, under LTCG tax, there is zero tax if a share is held for more than a year. This provision had been brought in… – Continue reading
Any country that agrees to adopt the OECD/G20 base erosion profit shifting (BEPS) project minimum standards and pay an annual fee will be allowed to participate in future BEPS project work, according to a plan agreed to by the OECD today. The OECD’s framework for BEPS plan implementation, to be… – Continue reading
Is India back on the world map as a lucrative investment jurisdiction? Does the world see the Make in India dream becoming a reality? Well, the $222 billion investment pledges received during the Make in India week do resonate the revived positive sentiment! In fact, recent policy measures have clearly… – Continue reading
The government reportedly wants to extend to three years the holding period for investments in listed shares to qualify for capital gains tax exemption. This accepts the need to change the present capital gains tax regime but might not be the best way to go about it. It would discriminate… – 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
